contoid (n.)

A term invented by the American phonetician Kenneth Pike (1912– 2001) to help distinguish between the PHONETIC and the PHONOLOGICAL notions of CONSONANT. Phonetically, a consonant is defined with reference to a complete CLOSURE in the VOCAL TRACT, or a narrowing sufficiently great to cause audible FRICTION. Phonologically, it is a unit which FUNCTIONS at the MARGINS of SYLLABLES. But there are cases where these criteria do not coincide, such as [l], [r], [w] and [j], which function as consonants in syllables, but which are phonetically VOWEL-like. To handle such cases, Pike proposed that separate terms be used for the phonetic and the phonological definitions of all sounds: ‘contoid’ refers to the phonetic characterization of a consonant, as defined above; ‘consonant’ refers to the phonological sense. Its opposite is VOCOID. RESONANTS with a central airflow (e.g. [j] and vocoids) are also called non-contoids.