think of a word which is free of vowels?

Answer 1

FIRST, those who think the answer is a word with a y or w are mistaken.

The y in "sky" and "try" IS a vowel (not just a 'sorta-vowel', a real one!), so that won't work.

The problem is the same with "cwm" (a Welsh word pronounced "coom") in which the w is functioning as a vowel.

Actually, "y" functions as a vowel much more often than as a consonant, and w can be the equivalent of u (mostly in the combinations aw, ew, ow, which are equivalent to au, eu, ou)..
(compare http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxword00.html)

The basic rule is this -- y or w at the BEGINNING of a syllable are used as conanants, in the middle of end of of syllables they mark VOWELS.

------------------------

There ARE words without vowel SOUNDS (and in which none of the letters indicates a vowel). They are various "interjections", such as the following:

brr
grr
bzz [though more often written "buzz"]
tsk
shh
hmm
psst
mm-hmm

Check also the definition of "vowel" --

"In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel

Answer 2

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.
The longest word is TWYNDYLLYNGS

Twyndyllyngs is the longest word in English that doesn't contain one of the five vowels (AEIOU). It comes from Welsh and is obviously rare, but it does appear in the Oxford English Dictionary.

It turns out that "twyndyllyng" (singular) is a 15th century spelling of the word "twinling," which means, in modern English, "twin."

Other languages may have different rules about what letters represent vowels. One notable case is Welsh: Here, the letter w regularly represents a vowel, [u]. English has a few loan words from Welsh where this occurs, and hence there are a few words in English that really have no a, e, i, o, u, y. Examples are crwth (pronounced [krʊθ] or [kruːθ], a Welsh musical instrument), and cwm (pronounced [kuːm], a basin within a mountain).

Answer 3

I don't think one can make a word without vowel sound. The examples like sky, cry etc do not have vowel letters. But, they do have 'i' sound. It is a vowel sound. We have to go by the sound that is spoken. A language is more in speech rather than in writing. Writing poorly reflect the pronunciation.

Answer 4

No word is free of vowels and considered a word in English. However, the letter Y can be substitued as a vowel as it produces a vowel-like sound. A E I O U and sometimes Y.

Answer 5

Longest word in English without any vowel is Rhythm

Answer 6

Many English words have the letter Y as their only vowel; three-letter words of this nature include cry, dry, fly, fry, gym, gyp, ply, pry, shy, sky, sly, spy, sty, thy, try, why, and wry. The letter Y is regarded grammatically as a vowel-consonant, but many people who speak English regard it as a consonant only. Longer such words also exist, such as crypt, cyst, dryly, flyby, glycyl, glyph, Gypsy, hymn, jynx, lymph, lynx, myrrh, myth, nymph, psych, pygmy, rhythm, shyly, slyly, spry, spryly, Styx, sync, synth, syzygy, tryst, wryly, and xylyl. The longest English word that does not contain any of the five traditional vowels is the 12-letter Twyndyllyngs. The longest commonly used English word not containing one of the 5 vowels is the seven-letter rhythms.

Answer 7

- spy
- Pry / fry / shy / fly /
- hymn, sphynx, nymph, lymph, why, sky

-“Twyndyllyngs, twelve letters long, is the longest word in the English language without any of the five main vowels. An eleven letter word with this property is the singular form, twyndyllyng.”

Answer 8

In english there aren't any. There can't be any. All english words MUST have at least one vowel per syllable. If "y" is in the word (or syllable) and none of "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" are, then "y" is a vowel (as in "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes "y").

Answer 9

Nymphly, Twyndyllyngs, Crwth, Cwm

Answer 10

sky, cry, although English words always have a vowel. A,E,I,O,U, and sometimes Y.