Interconsonant

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a vowel or sound that appears in the position between two consonants within a word or syllable
2. Relating to a speech sound positioned in the middle of a cluster of consonants, such as a vowel placed between them
3. Characterizing a phonetic element that sits among consonants, typically studied in the analysis of sound patterns

Etymology: "Interconsonantal" is a plain formation: the prefix "inter-", meaning "between" or "among", attached to "consonant". The result describes a sound or position that falls between consonants, such as a vowel-like glide or a schwa wedged between two consonant letters or sounds in a word. The base is the familiar "consonant", which comes through Old French from Latin "consonans", literally "sounding together", from "consonare", meaning to sound together with. The Latin idea is that consonants could be sounded only alongside a vowel, which is why they were named for sounding together. Adding "inter-" simply shifts the focus to the space between two such sounds.