consonant /'kns()nnt/:

→ noun
a basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed and which can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable. Contrasted with vowel.

• a letter representing a consonant.

→ adjective
1. [attrib.] denoting or relating to a consonant: a consonant phoneme.
2. (consonant with) in agreement or harmony with: the findings are consonant with other research.

vowel:

→ noun
a speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction, and which is a unit of the sound system of a language that forms the nucleus of a syllable. Contrasted with consonant.

• a letter representing a vowel sound, such as a, e, i, o, u.
- DERIVATIVES vowelled ( (US) voweled ) adjective [usu. in combination] vowelless adjective vowelly adjective .
- ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French vouel, from Latin vocalis (littera) ‘vocal (letter)’.

diphthong /'df, 'dp-/ :

→ noun
a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin, loud, and side). Often contrasted with monophthong, triphthong.

• a digraph representing the sound of a diphthong or single vowel (as in feat). • a compound vowel character; a ligature (such as æ).
- DERIVATIVES diphthongal /-'

)l/ adjective .
- ORIGIN late Middle English: from French diphtongue, via late Latin from Greek diphthongos, from di- ‘twice’ + phthongos ‘voice, sound’.

kestrel (kstrl)

philology, n.:

1. Love of learning and literature; the branch of knowledge that deals with the historical, linguistic, interpretative, and critical aspects of literature; literary or classical scholarship. Now chiefly U.S.
By the late 19th cent. this general sense had become rare, but it was revived, principally in the United States, in the early 20th cent. For a fuller discussion of this, see A. Morpurgo Davies Hist. Linguistics (1998) 4 I. 22.

1522 J. SKELTON Why come ye nat to Court in Compl. Eng. Poems (1983) 292 Nor of philosophy, Nor of philology, Nor of good pollycy, Nor of astronomy. 1612 J. SELDEN in M. Drayton Poly-olbion I. Pref. sig. A4, This later age..hath, in our greatest Latine Critiques..so receiued that Saturnian Language, that, to Students in Philology, it is now grown familiar. a1661 T. FULLER Worthies (1662) I. 26 Philology properly is Terse and Polite Learning, melior literatura... But we take it in the larger notion, as inclusive of all human liberal Studies. 1669 T. GALE Court of Gentiles: Pt. I I. I. x. 50 Philologie, according to its original, and primitive import..implies an universal love, or respect to human Literature. 1702 C. MATHER Magnalia Christi II. v. 18/1 Such Philology as that of Suidas and Hesychius. 1776 G. CAMPBELL Philos. of Rhetoric I. I. v. 150 All the branches of philology, such as history, civil, ecclesiastic, and literary; grammar, languages, jurisprudence, and criticism. 1818 H. HALLAM View Europe Middle Ages IX. ii, Philology, or the principles of good taste, degenerated through the prevalence of school-logic. 1892 Athenæum 25 June 816/1 The fact that philology is not a mere matter of grammar, but is in the largest sense a master-science, whose duty is to present to us the whole of ancient life, and to give archæology its just place by the side of literature. 1922 O. JESPERSEN Lang. iii. 64 In this book I shall use the word ‘philology’ in its continental sense, which is often rendered in English by the vague word ‘scholarship’, meaning thereby the study of the specific culture of one nation. 1947 E. H. STURTEVANT Introd. Ling. Sci. i. 7 Philology is a word with a wide range of meaning. I use it here to designate the study of written documents. 1980 Yale Rev. Winter 312 Philology meant, and still ought to mean, the general study of literature. 2004 Hispanic Rev. 72 442 The bewildering intertextuality that has become the very essence of modern philology.

kestrel (kstrl)

philology, n.:

crow, n.(cuervo):

(kr) [OE. cráwe f., corresp. to OS. krâia, MLG. krâge, krâe, krâ, LG. kraie, kreie, MDu. kraeye, Du. kraai, OHG. chrâwa, chrâja, chrâ, crâwa, crâ, MHG. kræe, krâwe, krâ, Ger. krähe; a WG. deriv. of the vb. crâwan, crâian to CROW, q.v.]

b. fig.