Ambiguous Segment

Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Definition:

An ambiguous segment is a phone that may or may not function as the nucleus of a syllable.

Discussion:

An ambiguous segment may also be described as functioning as either a vowel or a consonant, depending on its position in a syllable.

Examples:

Here is a table that gives a description of some kinds of ambiguous segments with examples of each:

Ambiguous segment	Examples
Intervocalic glides and close vowels	[i], [u], [j], [w]
Mid vowels (if there are no corresponding close vowels found in the same context)	[e], [o]
Voiceless segments	[h], [Q8], [E8]
Nasals/nasalized segments	[n], [n`], [®â]
Liquids	[l], [l`]
Velar and bilabial voiced fricatives	[Ä] (which may correspond to [&u0268;]); [B] (which may correspond to [u])
Retroflexed vowels and approximates	[eÕ], [&u0279;]

NonExamples:

(Close vowels in certain environments)

Close vowels (for example, [i] and [w]) are not usually considered ambiguous in the following environments: