It is a recognized fact, and has been for millennia, that there are two complementary classes of speech sounds, consonants and vowels. Segmentalism, we noted in the previous chapter, is a view of language that treats both classes exactly alike, inspired to do so, perhaps, by interpreting the Graeco-Latin alphabet as an iconic map of speech sounds where letter order represents the sequence of articulated sounds. As a matter of principle, letters for vowels and consonants are assigned equal space in writing systems derived from the Greek alphabet, and as a class V letters are indistinguishable in form from C letters. Indeed, the equalization of both is usually quoted as the crucial accomplishment of Greek writing. Yet, there are some conspicuous differences between vowels and consonants. Let us briefly consider some of them.

Differences between consonants and vowels

Early definitions of vocalic phonemes as units that have the faculty of forming a word by themselves have proven too restrictive, but independence as a syllable, though only a rough-and-ready criterion, is more tenable. As discussed in chapter 4, vowels have syllabic status, consonants usually do not.