When I was a kid I heard on a “{Free To Be, You And Me” album (those were before CD’s and after 8-tracks) that the vowels are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y and W. It is said again in the Afroman song “Because I’m high.” I think I know when Y is a vowel (when it sounds like one) but when is W a vowel?
Quick and easy. Thank u sir or ma’am
Jesus, for years I thought I was insane. I remember learning that way back when, but never heard of it since.
I thank you as well… I can sleep tonight.
Cwm and crwth are legal words in Scrabble.
And they’ve saved my ass several times.
W is a vowel all of the time. At least that is what I think. It is a softer version of the full YOO sound that the U, when sounded long in English represents. Picture yourself in the far North trying to start a fire with some tinder that is only glowing with a spark or two. That is the sound of a w vowel sound. It’s almost a soft “hoo” sound.
Where: [sub]hoo[/sub] hair.
Why: [sub]hoo[/sub] eye.
The point that I am thinking of here is that vowel sounds, by definition, can be sounded continously compared to consonants which generally have some sort of fricative or palative note to them.
I think that the “hoo” sound you are describing only happens when the W is followed by an H.
Whenever: [sub]hoo[/sub]enever
Winter: Winter
I have never heard a person say [sub]hoo[/sub]inter.
In this time of national crisis, we should dispense with the incessant name-calling and rally around our Presid–
Oh, the letter ‘W’. Very well. Carry on.
“Mawwige. Mawwige is what bwings us twogwether today…”
It should also be said that English (and most other languages I believe) does not have a one-to-one ratio of sounds to letters. One of the problems is that pronunciation of words or sounds often changes due to processes that tend to involve the effeciency of vocal movement. Keeping up with this change is difficult and can be pointless because humans are capable of deciphering these complexities.
Also I think it is useful to mention that there are more categories than simply vowels and consonants when we talk about speech sounds. 'W’s are what are called “approximants” they are sounds in which the vocal tract is restricted (i.e. the tongue blocks the air coming out of the mouth) but not entirely. In a lot of ways 'w’s and 'y’s (both approximants) resemble both consonants and vowels. They are sort of halfway between the two in regards to how they are pronounced.
One other thing that you should know is that individual sounds, or ‘letters’, are not discrete objects. That is to say there is no real cut off point between one letter and another pronounced similarly. Also, pronunciation of a sound can range over a spectrum of sound until it hits an arbitrary cut-off point between it and another letter. People range over this spectrum all the time with their speech, mostly due to which sounds are near the letter.
OK, so I read the bit about “cwm”=“koom”. But how do I pronounce “Arawn” (Death-lord in the Chronicles of Prydain)? I’ve been wondering about this since 7th grade.
The typical words where w functions as a vowel in English are borrowed from the Welsh. I believe cwr is also an exceptable word in scrabble. There aren’t many words that are borrowed over from Welsh to English like that though.
Also, in the case that Fireunderpants boobs wrote up with “winter” it is pronounced phonetically as oo-inter. When it is a “wh” it becomes hoo as in the where example. Also, if it is at the end of a word it is typically an “oo” sound as well. As in jaw. Ja-oo.
Arawn is a different case as the “aw” is a dipthong. (Not a diagraph as I was thinking originally.) Anyway, it is a combination of the short “ah” and short “oo” sound, in other words a very similar sound to the vowel sounds in the word “ouch.” Air-oun. However, this word looks very Welsh but, I am unaware of its existence. Arawd on the other hand is the Welsh word for speech/oration and is pronounced Air-oud.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Maybe this should go in “Comments on Cecil” but I read his column and don’t follow two of the examples he gives. To my ear, “how” doesn’t sound anything like the “hou” in “house,” and I don’t hear any change between “cow” and “coward.”
Can anyone explain what he’s talking about?
Look at my above post. The w sound is basically an oo unless it is followed by an h. cah-oo (do not pronounce the h in that one) and cah-oo-urd.
HUGS!
Sqrl
yep - he features in the Mabiniogion.
DOH! /me hangs his head in shame. I have read that book several times. Oh well, I double checked my dictionary (fairly comprehensive one) and it wasn’t in there (I feel vindicated) since no names are included in that one.
HUGS!
Sqrl
SqrlCub, are you saying that you pronunce “coward” as three syllables, or is that simply to illustrate the dipthong?
I keep saying the two words to myself, and I don’t hear a difference: “coward” is just like “cow” with “-ard” added on (although phonetically, more like “-erd”).
[and I hope that the Beloved doesn’t walk in and hear me repeating the same words to myself - she’s skeptical enough about my SDMB obsession already :D]
NP, no. I am saying that the w functions as vowel helping dipthong. I can’t remember the term from my diction class, but basically w rarely stands alone as a vowel even though its sound is basically the oo sound. When you pronounce the sound that w represents it is basically a very quick oo sound and functions as a dipthong. It is basically the shortest sound of the oo part and rarely works alone.
To give more clarity, the word “write” has a dipthong on the long i. It basically sounds like ah-ee but very quickly. In the example word of coward the ow has a similar dipthong as the one in “write” although with ah-oo. It is a dipthong to itself not an additional syllable.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Cwr is not in OSPD3. Has it been added?