vowel
Linguistic term for a speech sound produced without significant constriction of the vocal tract. Often contrasted with 子音 (consonant).
See also: 子音
Japanese has five vowels: a, i, u, e, o.
Please explain the difference between vowels and consonants.
I practiced pronouncing Japanese vowels clearly.
This word has consecutive vowels, so it's hard to pronounce.
母音 refers to vowel sounds, while 子音 refers to consonant sounds; the two together make up all speech sounds in phonetics.
semivowel
monophthong; simple vowel
vocalic; vowel-like
short vowel
diphthong
Standard kanji spelling; high-frequency in news and technical contexts.
From 母 (mother, base) + 音 (sound), a calque of the Western linguistic concept 'vowel'. The reading ぼいん is standard; ぼおん is a rare alternative.
nasal vowel
triphthong