2006-09-12 04:09:36 · 4 answers · asked by ALEE V 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Language would not exist without vowels or syllabic segments. Every syllable requires a nucleus. That nucleus is usually a vowel, but in many languages a syllabic continuant can replace it. Examples of "vowelless" words in American English are "bird", "fur", "church", etc. (I'm talking about REAL phonetic vowels, not things that are written as vowels in the spelling system.) Each of these words has a syllabic 'r' as the nucleus of the syllable. The final syllables of "button", "bottle" and "bottom" also have no vowels, but syllabic sonorants as the nuclei. The Croatian words cited in a previous answer also have syllabic sonorants as the nuclei of the syllable. In short the only truly vowelless words are those that replace vowels with syllabic continuants.
Note: ALL Arabic words have vowels. You cannot pronounce an Arabic word without vowels. The Arabic writing system does not represent the vowels, but you aren't talking about writing. ALL Arabic words have vowels in them. It is one of the languages that have NO syllabic continuants.
2006-09-12 06:32:14 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some Croatian words have no vowels. Like trg (square) or vrt (green). Many of their words have not many vowels because each individual letter makes a complete sound on their own.
2006-09-12 11:14:45 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
thousands or Arabic words have no vowels
2006-09-12 15:13:27 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
In short, they wouldn't be.
2006-09-12 12:04:07 · answer #4 · answered by Jonathan D 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋