Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!fortune!grw From: grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Words without vowels? Message-ID: <3871@fortune.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Jul-84 13:06:35 EDT Article-I.D.: fortune.3871 Posted: Thu Jul 26 13:06:35 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 20:47:34 EDT References: <3009@rabbit.UUCP> Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA Lines: 20 bip. Before we go any further with this discussion, could someone please define "vowelless"? If we just mean no vowels in the word as it is spelled, it's kind of a meaningless conversation -- at least in English, spelling is related only tangentally to phoentics. If we mean phonetically no vowels, there are certainly a lot of words don't have them (you don't NEED a vowel to make a word), but I can't think of any English ones (or German, or Japanese). Unless you don't count "r" phonetically as a vowel. I mean like the vowel sound in words like "fern", "bird", "worm", and "urn". Phonetically, that's a vowel though. On another subject, I have a housemate who claims that 'w' is never a vowel in non-welsh words, whereas I claim that the 'w' in "down" is a vowel. Any linguistics experts willing to settle this one? -Glenn