What is Semivowel?
A '''semivowel''', also known as a '''glide''' or '''semiconsonant''', is a [[consonant]] that almost sounds like a [[vowel]]. In [[English language|English]], there are two semivowels referred to as W and Y (written as /w/ and /j/ in [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]). In [[Latin]], even though semivowels are [[Phoneme|phonemes]], or unique sounds, they have no special letters used for them. The letters V and I were used to write the sounds /w/ and /j/, and these same letters were also used to write the vowels /u/ and /i/ in the same order. For example, Gaius Julius Caesar was written as ''Gaivs Ivlivs Caesar'' and wine was written as ''vinvm''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/CAIVS+IVLIVS+CAESAR|title=CAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR|website=TheFreeDictionary.com|access-date=2020-04-18}}</ref> The letter J was added after the [[Decline of the Roman Empire|fall of the Roman Empire]] to write the semivowel /j/ to show the difference between /j/ and /i/. == References == {{reflist}} [[Category:Consonants]]