vowel: a speech sound produced by the relatively free passage of breath through the larynx and oral cavity, usually forming the most promitnent and central sound of a syllable.

consonant: a speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by any of various constrictions of the speech organs.

There are people who specialize in this stuff but I'm not one of them, so I could easily be proven wrong here. (where is Enry Iggins when we need im???) But I would say that the w in vowel is a diphthong (a compound vowel sound) -- ooh eh with the first part rhyming with the vowel sound in cool. Bear in mind that letters are merely an attempt to show us graphically what a word should sound like when spoken.

I think I'll take the rest of the day of for a ghoti-ing trip!


TEd