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How do semivowels such as the sounds at the start of “yawn” and “walk” behave like consonants?

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Diagram of a human head in profile showing the location of vocal organs and possible places of articulation for speech sounds, with labels for lips, teeth, tongue, palate, uvula, pharynx, and vocal cords, and numbered regions corresponding to types of articulation such as bilabial, alveolar, and velar.
phonetics Diagram depicting the location of human vocal organs and possible places of articulation used for speech.

In the study of phonetics, semivowels—such as the initial sounds in "yawn" and "walk"—are unique because they bridge the gap between vowel and consonant categories.

While they are produced with the same articulatory configuration as vowels—meaning the air flows through the mouth with minimal obstruction and without audible friction—they function as consonants in the structure of language. Specifically, they behave like consonants in two primary ways:12

  • Duration: They are shorter in duration compared to typical vowels.1
  • Syllabication: They are treated as consonants when determining the syllable structure of a word.1

Because they possess the physical characteristics of a vowel but are perceived and utilized as consonants, they are classified as approximants in phonetic analysis.12