noun a speech sound produced by narrowing but not blocking the vocal tract
adjective relating to or denoting a consonant that is produced by narrowing but not blocking the vocal tract
In phonetics, an approximant is a type of consonant sound that is produced with a narrowing of the vocal tract that is not narrow enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
The concept of approximants is important in understanding how children acquire language and develop their speech sounds.
Approximants play a role in computational linguistics when developing speech recognition and synthesis algorithms.
Approximants are often studied in speech pathology to assess and treat speech disorders such as articulation and phonological disorders.
Approximants are analyzed in acoustic phonetics to study the acoustic properties of speech sounds.
In linguistics, writers may use the term 'approximant' when discussing speech sounds and phonetics, particularly in relation to consonants.
Psychologists may refer to approximants when studying speech and language development in children, or when working with clients who have speech disorders.
Speech therapists often work with approximants when helping clients improve their pronunciation and articulation of specific sounds in speech therapy sessions.
Linguists may analyze approximants as part of their research on phonology and phonetics, studying how sounds are produced and perceived in different languages.