Mud-club
Chat & Social => The Bar - General Chat => Topic started by: discograham on August 12, 2006, 13:58:10
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Seeing questions seem to be in vogue lately..
here's another one..
How many words in the English language can anyone come up with that do not contain a vowel... Rhythm being the obvious one....
And no, I don't know how many there are....
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Hymn
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crypt
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Bah I was gonna say crypt :(
So I'll say Lynx instead
Howver for the full range of words without vowels just add alcohol to me and hey presto :lol: :lol:
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Sly
Ply
Cry
Pry
I think the 'Y' is a tad important here :lol:
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Apparently in the English language where there is a lack of a Vowels Y becomes the vowel.
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Seems that the real challenge would be to find a word without using 'Y' either :)
I've seen the word 'crwth' mentioned, but I think that's probably a bit of a cheat as it's really Welsh.
How about 'psst'.....is that a word, or just a sound (or maybe just having had too many beers)??
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Well, at least we are getting somewhere... I suppose I'de better come up with some words seeing as I started this... :lol:
:shock:
ok...... :?
God ! I must be dim....
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SKY
correct when there is no vowel y becomes the vowel.
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WHY
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Anything that isn't Welsh and doesn't have a Y in either?
I can't think of one...
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syzygy try that one then :D i,m still working on one with no y in :?
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found one :D tsktsks i have no idea what it means but it is a word
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found one :D tsktsks i have no idea what it means but it is a word
:shock: Not in my concise oxford ! Remind me not to play scrabble with you... :lol:
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tsktsk - definition - an exclamation of disapproval or annoyance
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isnt thats "tisk tisk" ??
tsktsk would be the internet (read lazy!) way of typing it
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WHY
Vowels are, strictly speaking, sounds, not letters of the alphabet.
The letters of the alphabet used to represent vowel sounds are a, e, i, o, u, w, and y.
The sound of "w" in "water" and of "y" in "yes" are called semi-vowels or glides; however, these glide sounds are not the only sounds which "w" and "y" represent. They can represent full vowels as well, as in "crwth" and "cyst" and "sky".
Furthermore, "w" is associated with "u" and "y" is associated with "i", so that "u" and "i" also represent the glide sounds in "water" and "yes", as in "quite" and "onion". Had history gone a little differently, we might now be spelling these last two as "qwite" and "onyon"!
So the little clause "and sometimes 'y'" is really a misleading little clause. It presupposes that the glide sound in "yes" is to be considered a consonant. Otherwise, the "y" would be considered a vowel the same as "a, e, i, o, u", i.e., always a vowel. And if "y" is not a vowel when a glide, then neither is "i", and there should be another clause saying that "i" is "only sometimes a vowel", it not being so when it represents a glide (as in "onion").
In summary, "i", "u", "y", and "w" are all used to represent both glides (semi-vowels) and full vowels.
By the way, there are a few "words", if we can truly call them that, which have no vowels:
Shhhh!!! Pssst!!! Sssss! Pff! Hmm. Mmm.
(Pasted from another forum!!)
Still- if the current laziness of some folk takes hold we'll all be using 'text speak' and won't need vowels anyway!
C U L8R
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isnt thats "tisk tisk" ??
tsktsk would be the internet (read lazy!) way of typing it
no it isnt the lazy way of typing it its the way its spelt in the dictionary
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out of intrest, when i was at college a couple of the people on the course said they were taught to write how it sounded not how they were spelt correctly, this caused them to suffer when the schools decided to go back to spelling correctly! one of them mentioned it as they had heard the goverment were going to bring it in again, so how are we supposed to teach our children to read and write, there has got to be one way and one way only either learn to spell (or try to ) correctly or use text messeaging, if they do bring it in then i will be well out of sorts. when my kids text me i have to tell them to write it proper or i have to ring them up for translation
debbie
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whats a vowel? is it a rat thing that lives by rivers :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Had history gone a little differently, we might now be spelling these last two as "qwite" and "onyon"!
Most of the kids that leave school these days probably spell them as 'kwite' and 'unyen' anyway. :lol: :lol: :lol:
As you can probably tell, I have such faith in our education system!!! :( :( :(
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int nowt rong wi how we hav bin tort 2 spel!i got free gcse's for inglish langwij and litricher! :wink:
i agree with BeJay we as a nation are "dumbing" down. we can't be better than the person sitting at the side of us incase we make them feel bad for being less intellectual than us! it's all wrong!