vocant

English

Etymology

Coined by British physician John Antony Michael Martin in 1981 (see quotation). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

vocant (plural vocants)

(linguistics, phonology) A vowel-like sound such as uttered by a preverbal infant.
Coordinate term: closant
- [1981, J[ohn] A[ntony] M[ichael] Martin, “Vocal Behaviour and the Origins of Speech” (chapter 4), in Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child: Development and Disorder (Disorders of Human Communication; 4), Wien [Vienna]: Springer-Verlag, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 56–57:
  At an earlier stage still, during the first few months of life, the vowel-like and consonant-like sounds are usually so far removed from normal speech that even this convention is misleading. We will label these sounds vocants and closants and their transcription will be enclosed within double square brackets e.g. [[bə]].]
- 2012, J. A. M. Martin, Voice, Speech, and Language in the Child, Springer, page 70:
  It is extremely difficult to identify the different vocants, partly because they are probably being produced in ways which differ from an adult speaker.
- 2020, Eugenia Costa-Giomi, Lucia Benetti, “14: Home Musical Environment and Singing Development in Infancy”, in Frank A. Russo, Beatriz Ilari, Annabel J. Cohen, editors, The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), unnumbered page:
  Gradually, infants' repertoire of vocalizations incorporates speech-related features such as vowel-like sounds (vocants) and consonant-like sounds (closants); vocants and closants are then combined into syllable-like units called marginal syllables.
- 2022, Margaret Fish, Amy Skinder-Meredith, Here's How to Treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 3rd edition, page 207:
  In the first year of life, the most frequent vocalizations are low front, low back, and central vowel-like vocants. Though not true vowels, these vocants resemble /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ə/, and /ʌ/.

Translations

preverbal vowel-like sound

French: please add this translation if you can
German: Vokant m
Italian: please add this translation if you can

Latin

Verb

vocant

third-person plural present active indicative of vocō