Vokalsegments

Vokalsegments are a theoretical category used in phonology and phonetics to refer to the segments that encode vowel quality in a language’s sound system. They function as the nucleus of syllables and are typically contrasted with consonantal segments, which form onsets and codas. In many analyses, a vokalsegment is the phonological representation of a vowel phoneme, realizing the vowel's phonemic height, backness, and rounding as features on the vocal tract during articulation.

Vokalsegments may be realized phonetically as monophthongs, which maintain a relatively stable vowel quality, or as diphthongs, which involve a glide from one vowel quality to another within the same syllabic segment. There is debate whether diphthongs should be treated as a single V-segment with dynamic features or as sequences of two adjacent vowel segments. Vowels may also have length contrasts in some languages, leading to long versus short vokalsegments, or to quantity-sensitive phenomena in prosody.

Phonetic realizations vary across languages and dialects due to coarticulation with surrounding consonants, vowel harmony, and phonotactics. In representation, vokalsegments are commonly linked to vowel phonemes with associated features and may be depicted in phonological rules, automata, or autosegmental representations that align vowels with corresponding formant-trajectory cues.

Cross-linguistically, the inventory of vokalsegments—vowel phonemes and their allophones—constitutes a central dimension in phonology, influencing syllable structure, stress, intonation, and vowel reduction patterns. See also: vowel, consonant, syllable, diphthong, phoneme.