# is there an english word without a vowel **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279 "2002-12-12T18:07:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/41 "2002-12-13T04:22:00Z")
Technically, a number of consonants in English can take on vocalic qualities. _L_ is often pronounced as a vowel when not stressed and even sometimes when stressed (for example–_litt **le** _, pronounced by me as ['lI.tl]; the ‘l’ is unstressed and the vowel is either a very weak schwa or nonexistent). _R_ is often a vowel if you don’t speak a dialect that doesn’t roll it. So, by my dialect (American English, fairly generic, but with a little less reduction to schwa and a bit more reduction to other central vowels) words like _pull_ are phonetically without a proper vowel in rapid speech. And ‘Mrs.’ is presumably an abbreviation of ‘mistress’, once the accepted feminine to ‘mister’. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/42 "2004-07-08T21:28:20Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > (my favorite) “Mrs.” Some would say Mrs. is an abbreviation. If so, someone please tell me what it is an abreviation for. Mrs may be an abbreviation, but Ms is not. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/43 "2004-07-08T21:36:16Z")
Why would the letter “y” not be classed as a vowel? If he looks like a vowel and acts like a vowel and sounds like a vowel — it’s a vowel. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/44 "2004-07-08T21:56:52Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Why would the letter “y” not be classed as a vowel? If he looks like a vowel and acts like a vowel and sounds like a vowel — it’s a vowel. In words like yellow and yowl, the letter y acts and sounds like a consonant. That’s why it’s only a vowel _sometimes_. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/45 "2004-07-08T22:43:05Z")
Well, obviously it also functions as a consonant in some words. I knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/46 "2004-07-08T23:09:18Z")
Hm. As in “Hm, someone bumped a thread that’s 18 months old instead of starting a new one like they’re supposed to.” ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/47 "2004-07-09T12:45:28Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Hm. > > As in “Hm, someone bumped a thread that’s 18 months old instead of starting a new one like they’re supposed to.” My apologies – I replied to a thread that I found on a search, without looking at the date of the last post. I’ll be more careful in the future. ---
**Author:** ![lemon\_martini2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@lemon\_martini2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lemon_martini2)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/48 "2004-07-09T12:59:57Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Mrs may be an abbreviation, but Ms is not. Ms is the noise a mosquito makes when you crush its testicles and should be given a similar amount of respect 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/49 "2004-07-09T13:38:15Z")
mmmmmmmm. . .vowelless words! I thought Mrs. was an abbreviation of Missus. . .that ain’t right? It’s a weird abbreviation, including a letter that isnt’ in the original word, but does that mean it’s not an abbreviation? Ms., AFAIK, is a separate word, pronounce “mizz” and used for when Mrs. does not apply and “Miss” is too condescending. I snipped this rom [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com). it sounds like Ms is a word unto itself. \*\* Usage Note: Many of us think of Ms. or Ms as a fairly recent invention of the women’s movement, but in fact the term was first suggested as a convenience to writers of business letters by such publications as the Bulletin of the American Business Writing Association (1951) and The Simplified Letter, issued by the National Office Management Association (1952). Ms. is now widely used in both professional and social contexts. As a courtesy title Ms. serves exactly the same function that Mr. does for men, and like Mr. it may be used with a last name alone or with a full name. Furthermore, Ms. is correct regardless of a woman’s marital status, thus relegating that information to the realm of private life, where many feel it belongs anyway. Some women prefer Miss or Mrs., however, and courtesy requires that their wishes be respected.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/50 "2004-07-09T13:49:38Z")
Mrs originated as an abbreviation of **M** ist **r** es **s**. Cite: my dictionary, on my desk. (i.e. big papery thing tied up with… er, not online, sorry) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279/51 "2004-07-09T14:26:24Z")
Can we give this a “wrap”? After a couple of years? ::: Polycarp assumes Hat of Pontification ::: 1. Words which are spelled with “semi-vowels” are not vowelless. Just because Y and W are not always vowels does not mean that they cannot function as vowels when that is their assigned task in a given word. (It might be noted that several of the “real” vowels occasionally function as consonants, as in U in the “Qu-” combination or the Mayan ruined city Uaxactun (pronounced very similarly to “Washington,” amusingly enough) or “iatrogenic” (meaning “caused by the ministrations of a physician”), where the I carries a semiconsonantal Y sound. 2. Onomatopoetic words should really be ruled out of contention. If “Psssk!” is the sound your soda bottle makes when it opens, to your hearing, fine, but don’t press it on us as a “real word” in the sense of “commonly agreed-on set of sounds and/or alphabetic symbols carrying an arbitrary referential value.” 3. Nth qualifies; the N carries an “enn” sound in much the same way as Czech semivowel R carries an /-ur-/ sound (the U actually being a schwa). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-an-english-word-without-a-vowel/142279.md?page=2)