Nuts and Bolts: prevocalic sounds

 The word prevocalic is used to describe a few things, but none of them are to do with what happens before someone starts speaking.

Something prevocalic is something that happens before a vowel-sound, and it's especially something that only happens before a vowel-sound.

Occasionally this can be quite interesting. 

Try saying:

 koala in a tree.

Now say it again, slowly. What you probably actually said was:

 koala rin a tree. 

That r is an example of a prevocalic sound.

Another kind of example is when a sound which isn't normally voiced - like the r in the word car where I live - is sounded before a vowel. As in car-alarm. 

Sometimes a prevocalic sound can be even weirder, as in raw offal.

We often accuse others of not listening to us. 

The odd thing is that we so seldom listen to ourselves.

Word To Consider Today: prevocalic. The Latin word-beginning prae means before; the Latin word vōcālis means possessed of a voice. The whole word was coined around 1900.