# Do Words Have to Have Vowels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884 "2000-08-02T18:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/1 "2000-08-02T18:39:24Z")
I learned in school that every english word has a vowel in it (though some of them use y as a vowel). My question: Are there any words that do not have any vowels? (“nth” comes to mind. Are there others? Is “nth” really a word?) Also, is that “y is sometimes a vowel” rule just there to justify the rule that all words have vowels? ---
**Author:** ![darkcool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@darkcool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darkcool)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/2 "2000-08-02T18:43:51Z")
Cwm - I think it means ‘valley’. (@ work - no reference) ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/3 "2000-08-02T18:51:08Z")
What!? ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/4 "2000-08-02T18:52:27Z")
The “y is sometimes a vowel” thing comes most likely just from the different sounds y can make (the origins of those sounds and their binding to the letter y I do not know). Y can stand for a consonant-type sound such as in “yet,” or an undoubtedly vowel-like sound as in “dye.” I don’t know whether _every_ English word must have a vowel, but I can’t think of any that don’t. I do not believe that “nth” is a word, but that it is a deriviative of a symbol or other type of expression. . . ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/5 "2000-08-02T18:56:05Z")
“Nth” has been accepted in some dictionaries as being a word. Although lacking a vowel in spelling, nevertheless it does have one in pronunciation. “W” is a stand-alone vowel in some words of Welsh origin, and appears as a vowel frequently in combinations with other vowels (three times in this sentence alone). I don’t know of any “real” words lacking vowels, though. The closest is “sh,” which has entered a number of dictionaries. ---
**Author:** ![labradorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@labradorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labradorian)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/6 "2000-08-02T19:39:48Z")
SM WRTTN LNGGS DN’T HV VWLS N THR WRTTN FRM, BT VR LNGG N TH PLNT HS VWLS N TH SPKN FRM. FR XMPL, CLSSCL HBRW DSN’T RCRD VWLS N TS WRTTN FRM, BT TH VWLS R SNDD JST TH SM WHN SPKNG CLSSCL HBRW. ---
**Author:** ![Dumb\_Ox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dumb\_Ox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumb_Ox)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/7 "2000-08-02T19:42:43Z")
> [@](#): > > What!? Yup, “cwm” is a word. It’s pronounced “koom,” and is from Welsh. As Mjollnir explained, > [@](#): > > “W” is a stand-alone vowel in some words of Welsh origin… So “cwm” does indeed have a vowel. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/8 "2000-08-02T19:59:18Z")
2nd grade answer: All words must have vowels. In fact, all syllables must have vowels. grown-up answer: In human speech, it is pretty much essential to arrange sounds that interrupt the flow of air around sounds that are made by ongoing air flow; the latter are mainly vowels. Many sounds are considered semi-vowels and, although English does not tend to represent words made with these by writing them with no vowels (assuming we include “y” in the vowel-list), you could use any of the following sounds in place of what we usually consider vowels– r n l m v w z –but with one major exception you can’t make as much with these semi-vowel sounds as you can with the conventional vowels; your mouth is much more closed off. [terms like the above-mentioned “nth” are really pronounced “enth”, but you CAN actually say “nth” using n as the vowel (go ahead, try it)…but from 3 feet away it is hard to hear you do so]. Some languages use them as vowels anyway, but English doesn’t tend to, so you don’t have words like twn, klg, gvnm, or zg. The exception is the r sound, which carries well. In English we spell the vowel “r” sound with “er” “ur”, “ir”, etc., but the sound we make is the same “r” sound we consider to be a consonant in world like “heart” or “really”. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/9 "2000-08-02T21:06:45Z")
Thnks lt lbrdrn! Y stl my snwr. Y bt m t t. n, wrds d nt nd vwls. nly th ns y cn prnnc. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/10 "2000-08-02T21:22:07Z")
When I saw this, I was going to post “This must be the nth time this question has come up. Yes, words have to have vowels. Except in a cwm in the mountains of Krk.” Unfortunately, everybody beat me to the fun stuff. So here goes: Every word must have at least one vowel sound. But A, E, I, O, U, and Y are not the only possible vowels. Czech, Slovenian, and Serbo-Croatian use R for a vowel (with the “urr” sound of -er endings in English). In fact, the name of the country we call Croatia in Serbo-Croatian is Hrvatska, with the first syllable being “Hr-”. W is common in many languages as a standalone vowel and relatively common as part of diphthongs in English (compare “now” and “noun” – both begin with an N and follow it with a vowel sound, the latter having a final N – they’re just written differently). I believe some Eastern European languages use L and N as vowels, too. Other alphabets also have varying numbers of vowels, too. Russian has ten, though they “cheat” by incorporating a palatalization of the preceding consonant into the vowel. Greek has seven: alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, omega, and upsilon. And, as noted, written Hebrew has **no** vowels, only diacritical marks to indicate that a written consonant is accompanied by a vowel sound. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/11 "2000-08-02T21:33:36Z")
Tsk, tsk, tsk. I’m ashamed you had to ask. Of COURSE words have to have vowels… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/12 "2000-08-02T22:25:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Connor \* > Tsk, tsk, tsk. Can you play that on your **crwth**? (another borrowing from Welsh) If you are inclined to dig through the OED, you can find a number of archaic spellings where W is a vowel. My favorite is **xwld** , a 15th century spelling of “should”. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/13 "2000-08-02T23:15:35Z")
I think AHunter3’s explained it best. This whole issue was a source of confusion for me before I learned what vowels and consonants are. But seeing as how there’s been mention of cwm and crwth, I just thought I’d mention something from ol’ Cecil hisself : [Junky cwm, fjord-bank qoph-flags vext quiz, crwd zimb.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_246.html) pnma jck ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/14 "2000-08-03T00:52:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > But seeing as how there’s been mention of cwm and crwth, I just thought I’d mention something from ol’ Cecil hisself : > > [Junky cwm, fjord-bank qoph-flags vext quiz, crwd zimb.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_246.html) Thanks for the link, that gives me the chance for a “Cecil wuz rong” post (the holy grail of true dopers). Cecil said: > [@](#): > > W and Y are often called semivowels because they go both ways, as it were, depending on the company they keep within the word. (Low morals are obviously a problem at every level of our society.) In cow, for instance, W is a vowel, but make the word coward and you can hear W working as a consonant. Similarly with Y become I in copy and copier. OK, he was making a joke, but is that any reason to give bogus info? W and Y, or I should say /w/ and /y/ are semivowels because the sounds are made with continuous flow of air, but with the mouth constricting the flow somewhat more than for a pure vowel. These sounds have little to do with the sounds around them, or at least no more than the typical consonant. We say that Y is sometimes a vowel for a different reason. Many times it is used to represent a pure vowel sound without any other vowels next to it, such as in his example “copy”. Some people say that W is also sometimes a vowel, but we don’t use it the same as Y. Except for the two Welsh borrowings (cwm and crwth) and the archaic spellings, W doesn’t stand alone to represent a pure vowel sound. We use it in diphthongs, but that’s all. The examples Cecil used were not truly parallel. If you listen carefully, you will probably hear a w-glide at the end of “cow”, whereas “copy” has a pure vowel. A y-glide is introduced in “copier”, but “coward” just has a /@rd/ added (@=schwa). ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/15 "2000-08-03T03:16:08Z")
> [@](#): > > or I should say /w/ and /y/ are semivowels Doncha mean /j/ instead of /y/? It’s my understanding that /y/ in the IPA alphabet represents a “close front vowel” (dont worry if you dont know what that is, i’m not sure either). /j/ represents the y sound in words like “yes”. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/16 "2000-08-03T06:49:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doobieous \* > Doncha mean /j/ instead of /y/? It’s my understanding that /y/ in the IPA alphabet represents a “close front vowel” Oops, you’re right. /j/ is what I meant. /y/ is a vowel sound in French and German that I never could pronounce right. In German it was the u-umlaut, I think. I forget the usual spelling in French. If I remember from French class, we were supposed to round our lips as if to say O, but then pronounce a long E. Or maybe the other way around. I have no idea how anyone could pronounce such a vowel. ---
**Author:** ![TheThill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/17 "2000-08-03T11:14:03Z")
Most Scots also pronounce a /y/ when they say English “oo” sounds, as in “do”, “you”. It is also used in many other languages including Hungarian, Turkish and Mandarin Chinese, so that you might say a majority of people in the world not only can pronounce it but do. And you can too with practice. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/18 "2000-08-03T15:21:00Z")
Try the scramble players dictionary, there are a few no vowel entries. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/19 "2000-08-03T15:28:04Z")
I know that the OP was about English, but I think there are certain languages that are vowel challenged. The language spoken by the !Kung come to mind. It seems to be mainly clicks and buzzes. (For an example and a good time rent “The God’s Must Be Crazy I & II.”) ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-words-have-to-have-vowels/27884/20 "2000-08-03T23:10:13Z")
sh \sh often prolonged\ interjection (1847) — used often in prolonged or rapidly repeated form to urge or command silence or less noise ©1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. All rights reserved.