# words without vowels



## nuno

I was wondering... is there any language, with or without western alphabet, that has word(s) without any vowels? Only consonants? Just for curiosity


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## Jhorer Brishti

In most Arabic texts the vowels are omitted so the word itself must be recognized by the consonants. I have heard that certain Arabic words do not have any vowels(which is not so hard to imagine seeing as their are so many guttural and other complex phonemes) at all..


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## Whodunit

You should define what you mean by "vowels" and "consonants". Would you count in semivowels and semiconsonants?

For instance, there is a German verb (conjugated) that consists of consonants only (but there's a semivowel in it):

er *lyncht*
(he lynches)

There are several Slavic words that has no vowel; I just want to mention the Czech words _krk_, _smrt_, _krb_, or _plst_ (_plsť_).


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## Tresley

Just for clarification, are you including the letter 'Y' in this exercise?  It's sometimes considered as a half-vowel.

If 'Y' is excluded, the only word used in English that I can think of is CWM.  I remember it from my geography lessons.  We had to learn all three terms for this glacial feature - cwm, cirque or corrie.  The word 'cwm' is actually from Welsh though.

If you include the letter 'Y' then I can think of quite a few words in English:

hymn, sphynx, nymph, lymph, why, sky...... etc

There must be lots of others though.


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## Outsider

I think Russian has small words like _v_ and _k_. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.


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## Whodunit

Outsider said:
			
		

> I think Russian has small words like _v_ and _k_. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.


 
This is true for all the Slavic languages.



> In most Arabic texts the vowels are omitted so the word itself must be recognized by the consonants. I have heard that certain Arabic words do not have any vowels(which is not so hard to imagine seeing as their are so many guttural and other complex phonemes) at all..


 
I think it is hard to find Arabic words in which not a single vowel is pronounced. Of course, there are thousands of words you don't spell with a vowel, but nevertheless Arabs pronounce vowels between the consonants. If there were a single Arabic word that does not contain any vowel, there'd have to be sukoons only.


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## MrMagoo

A rule that is generally true for German: No syllable without at least one consonant.

It is interesting though, that _this_ rule includes "y" to be a vowel unless it is classified in the German alphabet to be a consonant.

I always wondered about this and actually, I never really understood this classification - I would rather see "y" to be a vowel.
It seems even more crazy to me when I think of French or Swedish: here, "y" *is* a vowel...

Weird, isn't it?!


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## Pivra

I think this is a hard topic for Chinese . In Thai sometimes vowels can be omitted ( the same goes to Sanskrit)

In Sanskrit  AHM (ahama) (the A in this case is a consonant A not the vowel AA)
= I am
GM = to go (gama)
TVM (tavama) = You are
TT= (tata)  It is
VYM= We all are

In Thai:

KRRM (กรรม) = Karma
MNTR(มนตร์) = Mantra
VN (วน) = to revolve 
DhRRM (ธรรม) = Dharma
RTh (รถ) = car


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## Henryk

What about onomatopoeic words?

"Psssssst", "Pfffffff" or "Krrrrrrzzz", you mainly encounter them in comics.


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## jester.

MrMagoo said:
			
		

> A rule that is generally true for German: No syllable without at least one consonant.
> 
> It is interesting though, that _this_ rule includes "y" to be a vowel unless it is classified in the German alphabet to be a consonant.
> 
> I always wondered about this and actually, I never really understood this classification - I would rather see "y" to be a vowel.
> It seems even more crazy to me when I think of French or Swedish: here, "y" *is* a vowel...
> 
> Weird, isn't it?!



In French "y" is even a complete word. But this has nothing to do with words without vowels, as this is a word only consisting of a vowel.


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## Whodunit

Henryk said:
			
		

> What about onomatopoeic words?
> 
> "Psssssst", "Pfffffff" or "Krrrrrrzzz", you mainly encounter them in comics.


 
Do you call such interjection (they are not even interjections!) *words*? I would not count them in.

I think it is relatively rare to come across a word without a vowel in Romance languages. Don't ask me why, but even words like "sphynx" in English become "sphinx" or "esfinge" in Romance languages.


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## Outsider

Whodunit said:
			
		

> I think it is relatively rare to come across a word without a vowel in Romance languages. Don't ask me why, but even words like "sphynx" in English become "sphinx" or "esfinge" in Romance languages.


It's impossible, unless you count "y" as a vowel, or contracted forms such as French _d'_ as words. Every syllable must have a vowel phoneme, in Romance languages.


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## Tresley

In the game of Scrabble these are the valid English words without any vowels:

*Two-letter words:*
HM intj. expressing thought
MM intj. expressing satisfaction
SH intj. used to urge silence 

*Three-letter words:*
BRR intj. used to indicate coldness
CWM Glacial feature - a circular basin with steep walls
HMM intj. expressing thought
NTH pert. to item number n
PHT intj. used as an expression of mild anger or annoyance
SHH intj. used to urge silence
TSK to utter a scolding exclamation 

*Four-letter words:*
PSST intj. used to attract someone's attention 

*Five-letter words:*
CRWTH Gaelic musical instrument


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## Josh_

Tresley said:
			
		

> CWM Glacial feature - a circular basin with steep walls
> 
> ...
> 
> CRWTH Gaelic musical instrument


What are the pronunciations of these words. I can't claim to know much about Welsh and Gaelic, but it it possible that the 'w' represents a 'u' sound. 

Going along with Welsh terms used in geography I found "bwlch" which means "a pass"

Even if words are not spelled with vowels I would venture to say that very few words, if any, are pronounced without vowels because there needs to be a liaison between sounds of consonants for ease of pronunciation. Granted some consonants are easily pronounced next to each other -- such as 's' and 't' -- but most are not.


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## Tresley

CWM / CRWTH


			
				Josh Adkins said:
			
		

> What are the pronunciations of these words. I can't claim to know much about Welsh and Gaelic, but it it possible that the 'w' represents a 'u' sound.


 
CWM is pronounced KOOM ('oo' as in the word 'soon', NOT as in 'foot')
CRWTH is pronounced KROOTH


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## vince

I believe Japanese has a syllabic "n". I don't know if there is a word read as nnnn though.

Some dialects of the Cantonese language say "ng" as a word. Here the ng is the same as the last sound in the English word "playing". The word for not/don't (唔) is read as "m", no vowel.


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## ronanpoirier

There is this classical sentence of the Czech language:

_Strč prst skrz krk._ 

This sentece means "stick a finger through your throat"... lol I took some time to be able to pronounce that correctly


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## Brioche

Obviously, in Czech the r functions as a vowel.


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## Jana337

Brioche said:
			
		

> Obviously, in Czech the r functions as a vowel.


Could you elaborate on this claim? 

Jana


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## optimistique

Jana337 said:
			
		

> Could you elaborate on this claim?
> 
> Jana



My Language Acquisition teacher told me the same thing, that the -r- may function as a vowel. In any case you just have to pronounce some sort of vowel in a word as 'krk', even if it's the shortest possible form of a 'sjwa', it seems to me. If it's written or not, is not really relevant. It's possible in a word like 'psst' to not pronounce a vowel, but not with a 'r' I think. I don't know how you pronounce a word like this, it could be possible if you pronounce the 'r' double so it can belong to the first k as well as the second (kr-rk). But I don't know, so I guess the final word is up to a Native speaker of Slavic languages concerning this.

Also saying that a word as 'lynx' consists of only consonants is cheating of course There clearly is a vowel in that word.


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## Whodunit

optimistique said:
			
		

> My Language Acquisition teacher told me the same thing, that the -r- may function as a vowel. In any case you just have to pronounce some sort of vowel in a word as 'krk', even if it's the shortest possible form of a 'sjwa', it seems to me. If it's written or not, is not really relevant. It's possible in a word like 'psst' to not pronounce a vowel, but not with a 'r' I think. I don't know how you pronounce a word like this, it could be possible if you pronounce the 'r' double so it can belong to the first k as well as the second (kr-rk). But I don't know, so I guess the final word is up to a Native speaker of Slavic languages concerning this.


 
Hm, I just thought I'd throw in something interesting regarding the Czech languages: In Czech it's not unusual to say "v krku" (in the throat) and the Czech are able to pronounce the four consonants without any vowel in between. However, sentences like

Vlk zmrzl, zhltl hrst zrn.

can't be pronounced without a single "schwa". It's hard for me to say "vlk", let alone the rest of the sentence. 

What about the Spanish "ll" at the beginning? I found it extremely difficult when I stated learning Spanish: "un llanero" is almost as hard as some Czech words.


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## CatStar

Hey everyone, don't think this has been mentioned already...*rhythms*...although it does have _y_ in it but still it counts!

Check out this site for info on vowels in general:
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words6.html

Cat


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## wmjwatkins

Tresley said:
			
		

> CWM / CRWTH
> 
> 
> CWM is pronounced KOOM ('oo' as in the word 'soon', NOT as in 'foot')
> CRWTH is pronounced KROOTH


 
In Welsh 'w' functions as a vowel in words such as _cwm_ (pronounced KOOM with 'oo' as in the word 'foot', NOT as in 'soon', i.e. a short vowel sound) and as a consonant in words such as _gwaith_. Thus the common misconception that a lot of Welsh words are devoid of vowels is completely untrue.


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## Juri

In Serbo-Croate and Slovene,there are a lot of such words: smrt-death, 
prt-tablecloth, krst-cross, mrk-eclipse, srd-anger, trs-cane,vrh-summit,
krš-rocky region, srž-quintessence, krt-mole, brz-fast, prst-finger,
sprt-to be quarrel, strd-coagulum, Krf-Corfù, Trst-Trieste;
They are more, but all with semivowel "r".


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## zixi

Kabyle has one-letter words which aren’t vowels. 

d = it is
s = with
eg: 
D acu yellan? = What do you suggest/propose?
S laglas = with ice


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## chuff

What is Kabyle?


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## zixi

chuff said:
			
		

> What is Kabyle?


 
It’s a language spoken by people from Kabylia (Kabylie) in North Africa – Algeria. You may know the Kabyle as Berbers. Wiki has a brief description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamazight


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## chuff

Berbers I've heard of.
Sorry not to research it more.. I understand now. Thanks.



*Cyr* I believe is a Gaelic word


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## Josh_

wmjwatkins said:
			
		

> In Welsh 'w' functions as a vowel in words such as _cwm_ (pronounced KOOM with 'oo' as in the word 'foot', NOT as in 'soon', i.e. a short vowel sound) and as a consonant in words such as _gwaith_. Thus the common misconception that a lot of Welsh words are devoid of vowels is completely untrue.


Yes that's what I was thinking. It would be like trying to say that some Latin words have no vowels.

* BIBO, ERGO SVM*.


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## optimistique

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Hm, I just thought I'd throw in something interesting regarding the Czech languages: In Czech it's not unusual to say "v krku" (in the throat) and the Czech are able to pronounce the four consonants without any vowel in between.



If you say so.  It's probably being a Native Dutch speaker that it's hard to imagine: if this word were in Dutch hands it would be pronounced like "vu kiriku"  I'm really curious to hear someone pronounce it the right way.



			
				Whodunit said:
			
		

> What about the Spanish "ll" at the beginning? I found it extremely difficult when I stated learning Spanish: "un llanero" is almost as hard as some Czech words.



And what about the Dutch word 'he*rfstschr*ift' . There! Eight consonants in a row! 
If only Dutch people were not such lazy speakers. We cheat all the time: we even say [mellik] or [melluk] instead of 'melk' (milk).


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## chuff

Well, at present, I can only think of one Romanian word I've seen and that is the abbreviation for the word *dumneavoastrã*, which is *dvs.*


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## Mutichou

In French, there are words like d', j', m', n', l', etc... But the last vowel is replaced by an apostrophe only if the following word begins with a vowel.


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## werrr

*Čtvrthrst* (= a quarter of handful) and *Scvrnkls* are supposed to be the most longiest Czech words without vowels. "Scvrnkls" is a colloquial form of verb "scvrnknout" (=shrivel). I think the prefix "s-" in this verb could be also replaced by prefix "vz-". The verb "vzcvrnknout" is a little strange but it is created in right way. It means something like "flip/flick upwards".


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## Maja

In Serbian:

The only one that crosses my mind at the moment is "HRT" (greyhound). If I think of more, I'ill post them!

Pozdrav!


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## Maja

Juri said:
			
		

> In Serbo-Croate and Slovene,there are a lot of such words: smrt-death,
> prt-tablecloth, krst-cross, mrk-eclipse, srd-anger, trs-cane,vrh-summit,
> krš-rocky region, srž-quintessence, krt-mole, brz-fast, prst-finger,
> sprt-to be quarrel, strd-coagulum, Krf-Corfù, Trst-Trieste;
> They are more, but all with semivowel "r".



 More in Serbian: "krv" - blood.
Although "mrk" - means  brown, dark; "vrh" - also peak, top; "krt" - brittle, breakable,  tender (mole is "krtica").

Are "prt, srd, trs, sprt,  strd from" Slovenian? They are so interesting!!! I know  of "srdit" (or "besan" - angry), but I don't think I heard of those other  words.

Pozdrav!


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## macta123

In Hindi :
Words like  Kar (To do)
                Mar (To die)
                Dar (To fear)
and many more


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## Dminor

'm' can mean 'him' in Dutch, short for 'hem'
'k' can mean 'I', short for 'ik'

But there are not many examples.. we are really keen on our vowels


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## optimistique

Dminor said:
			
		

> 'm' can mean 'him' in Dutch, short for 'hem'
> 'k' can mean 'I', short for 'ik'
> 
> But there are not many examples.. we are really keen on our vowels



Oh! and *'t* for "het" (_it_): _'t_ is goed = it's good. 
No vowel there! (so same goes for English '_'s_' of 'is').

But I admit that it's cheating, because they are stuck to another word. If pronounced separately, you would have a vowel.


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## Etcetera

Outsider said:
			
		

> I think Russian has small words like _v_ and _k_. They are usually read together with other words, as I understand.


They're are actually prepositions. But we aren't talking about prepositions here, are we? It seems a bit strange to me.


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## panjabigator

In Hindi, words like greh, krm, svar (all words from sanskrit).


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## Juri

Would you be so kind to translate in English the Hindi words?
(They exist in slavic languages)


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## panjabigator

Certainly!  
greh (गृह)- means home (but used more formally...like a domestic minister would be a "greh mantri" or गृह मंत्री.
krm  (क्रम)- I had to look this one up to be certain.  According to the Oxford Hindi-English dictionary, 1.  a step, pace.  2.  degree, stage; posisition in a series. 3.  uninterrupted or regular process; order, succession, sequence.  

I honestly have no idea how to use krm, or which of these meanings is the most known.  I'll ask my dad tonight.
svar (स्वर)-a sound or noise


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## Juri

Thanks. But krm,greh and svar,have quite different meanings.
Greh is sin; krma is forage and stern;Svarun,is a pagan god; svariti is to worn.


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## maybe4ever

i dont think it is possible to pronouce any word without using vowel sound.

say for instance n, was a word in a lanuguage.  if you going to pronouce n, you must use vowels.
in english, the pronouciataion would be, in.

when sounding out things phonetically, you have to use a vowel.


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## Etcetera

maybe4ever said:
			
		

> i dont think it is possible to pronouce any word without using vowel sound.
> 
> say for instance n, was a word in a lanuguage. if you going to pronouce n, you must use vowels.
> in english, the pronouciataion would be, in.
> 
> when sounding out things phonetically, you have to use a vowel.


 
As far as I can remember from my Serbian studies, R in this language is quite specific, it's a syllabic consonant. Look at posts by Juri and Maja, they adduced examples of words with this R.


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## Aldin

In Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian the letter ''*S'*' means with.There are no vowels at all not even the the sylabic _r_ or_ l_ just _*s*_.
Eg.
_*s*_ njim=with him
_*s*_ is both a word and a phoneme


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## maybe4ever

i was only talking about, i dont think it is possible to pronounce anything without using a vowel. You may just not realize you are using them.

r is prounoced *a*r
s would be pronounced *e*s
those of course would be english pronounciations though.


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## Pivra

Juri said:
			
		

> Thanks. But krm,greh and svar,have quite different meanings.
> Greh is sin; krma is forage and stern;Svarun,is a pagan god; svariti is to worn.


 
Talking about Indic- Slavic cognates.... In Indic languages and languages influenced by Sanskrit the word Svarga means heaven. lol I wonder how do they it in Polish, Russian, and other languages.


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## panjabigator

Swarg means heaven in Hindi.  Narak is hell.  I believe in telegu they have a -am ending. (in urdu its jannat and jahnum, respectively)


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## Pivra

panjabigator said:
			
		

> Swarg means heaven in Hindi. Narak is hell. I believe in telegu they have a -am ending. (in urdu its jannat and jahnum, respectively)


 
In Thai, the word Narak is pronounced Narok in Thai, and Svarga is pronounced Swan in Thai although they are both written the same ways as Hindi and Sanskrit. 

 Lets start a topic on IE cognates !!!

Sanskrit's  daanta = Spanish diente
danna = French Donner
Deva= Dios 

etc..... we should try to gather them, there are lots.


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## Etcetera

Pivra said:
			
		

> Talking about Indic- Slavic cognates.... In Indic languages and languages influenced by Sanskrit the word Svarga means heaven. lol I wonder how do they it in Polish, Russian, and other languages.


In Russian 'heaven' is небеса (nebesa; the stress falls on the last syllable, and it's the plural form). This word is used mainly in some solemn contexts, e.g. when speaking about God. 
There's also the word небо (nebo), and it's usually translated into English as 'sky'.
In Polish 'sky' is niebo, and 'heaven' may be the same, but I'm not sure about it. 

Interestingly enough, Svarog was a Slavic god of heaven. I didn't know that this name itself mean 'heaven', though. How interesting it is...


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## Aldin

actually in bosnian if you say S there is no vowel(like in ES),all bosnian letters in alphabet are pronounced without a vowel.So it's not even similiar with s(es).This is characteristical for Bosnian,Croatian,Serbian
Also K means towards something,S with something/someone

P.S. Visit Bosnian pyramids


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## modus.irrealis

I was reading something unrelated and came across this word from Bella Coola (a language from British Columbia), sk'lxlxc (where 'x' is said to be like the German ch), and it reminded me of this thread. This one's too much of a mouthful for me.


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## stargazer

Juri said:
			
		

> In Serbo-Croate and Slovene,there are a lot of such words: smrt-death,
> prt-tablecloth, krst-cross, mrk-eclipse, srd-anger, trs-cane,vrh-summit,
> krš-rocky region, srž-quintessence, krt-mole, brz-fast, prst-finger,
> sprt-to be quarrel, strd-coagulum, Krf-Corfù, Trst-Trieste;
> They are more, but all with semivowel "r".



Just a small correction: in Slovenian KRST means "baptism", STRD is a slightly dated word for "honey". BRZ (adjective) is not used in Slovenian, though we do have BRZINA (noun, "velocity") from the same root. SPRT is an adjective. PRST means "finger", but it can also mean "soil, dirt". There is also VRT (garden), SMRT (death), GRB (coat of arms), BRST (blossom, the act of blossoming), DRST (spawning), ZVRST (sort, type, kind, species; depending on the context). There are probably a couple more, but I can't remember them.
These words are pronounced with a mid-central vowel /ə/  (among the linguists also known as "schwa") inserted before /r/, e.g. "prt" is pronounced with /ə/ = pərt. This vowel is also used in English, e.g. in the word "famous", it is pronounced after /m/ ('feiməs). In British English it is pronounced in words where /r/ is in final position, e.g. in "colour, doctor, etc".


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## stargazer

There are some more words without vowels in Slovenian:
nouns - TRG (square), MRK (eclipse; also adjective meaning "gloomy, sullen"), KRČ (cramp, convulsion, spasm), GRK (Greek), BRK (singular of "moustache", singular form used idiomatically, otherwise in plural "brki"), ŠTRK (male stork), ŽRD (wooden beam/pole, part of a haywagon);
adjectives - TRD (hard, stiff, solid), GRD (ugly).


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## Cracker Jack

In Japanese, it is impossible to pronounce words without vowels, especially foreign words that have been adapted to its vocabulary.

Ex:

Christmas  =  Ku-ri-su-mas
tape  = te-po
curtain  =  ka-ten
ballpen  = bo-ru-pen
spring  = su-pi-ring (though this is not a borrowed word, it is pronounced this way.)


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## Telugu

In Telugu,its impossible coz all the words ends with vowel.


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## panjabigator

Telugu said:
			
		

> In Telugu,its impossible coz all the words ends with vowel.



Which is why Telugu is called the Italian of the east!


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## Flaminius

vince said:
			
		

> I believe Japanese has a syllabic "n". I don't know if there is a word read as nnnn though.



Phonologically, Japanese syllables are either CV or V, with the exception of syllablic N, or moraic N.  Syllabic N make a syllable by itself.  It is different from vowels in that it cannot stand at the initial position of a word, cannot be elongated and cannot combine with a consonant to form a syllable.  Therefore, no such words as nnnn.  Phonetic realisation of syllabic N varies from IPA [N], [n] and [m] to [ɲ], [ŋ] and [ã].



			
				Cracker Jack said:
			
		

> In Japanese, it is impossible to pronounce words without vowels, especially foreign words that have been adapted to its vocabulary.


 Modification of Jack's examples follows where a dot (.) means syllabic boundaries.

Christmas  = ku.ri.su.ma.su
tape  = tē.pu
curtain  = kā.te.n
ballpen  (ballpoint pen) = bō.ru.pe.n
spring  = su.pu.ri.n.gu

At word-final positions, syllabic N is usually realised as [N] (uvular nasal).  Before [ŋ] as in "supurin*g*u" it is normatively  [ŋ] but I often hear it realised as a nasalised vowel similar to [ã].

A consonant-only word is impossible in Japanese phonology due to the above mentioned CV constraint (every consonant should be followed by a vowel).


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## hapax legomenon

As modus.irrealis pointed out:​ ​ 

> I was reading something unrelated and came across this word from Bella Coola (a language from British Columbia), sk'lxlxc (where 'x' is said to be like the German ch), and it reminded me of this thread. This one's too much of a mouthful for me.


 ​ The North Pacific is *the* region for complex consonant clusters, putting the Slavic languages to shame (where, as has been pointed out, r etc. function as semivowels). The Itelmen (Kamchadal) language from Kamchatka (in the Luorawetlan family) is known for its consonant clusters, many of which are truly vowelless.​ ​ I recall a description by a 19th c traveller who said that, while the related Koryak language was pronounced "half in the mouth and half in the throat", Kamchadal was pronounced "half in the throat and half in the stomach". How any linguist managed to disentangle all this is beyond me. There must have been quite some danger of getting one's tape-recorder covered in saliva when asking informants to pronounce words such as these:
​ _sf_                "grass"​ _tksxqzukicen_         "I wanted to eat"
_sitlxpk'əl_         "with embers"​ _qk'olxc_             "come!"​ _ckpəc_            "spoon​ _tφscŋin_             "you carry it"​ _kstk'lknan_        "he jumped down"
​


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## stargazer

I've just thought of another one: ČMRLJ (bumblebee).


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## Qcumber

Whodunit said:
			
		

> However, sentences like
> Vlk zmrzl, zhltl hrst zrn.
> can't be pronounced without a single "schwa".


 
Whodunit, this is exciting. Where do you place the schwa in *vlk*?
If I use *ë* for schwa, will you pronounce it like *vëlk* or *vlëk*?


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## Qcumber

I think many people here confuse written vowels and pronounced vowels.
In the case of Sanskrit, where the default vowel is /a/, one cannot say a word like _campaka_ चम्पक "jasmine" has no vowel. It's not serious. Ditto with Arabic. The great majority of its speakers never bother to write the vowels, yet, in a word like _samak_ 
*سمك*
"fish [collective]" you've got two /a/s.
In_ rijl_ 
*رجل*
"foot", you've got an /i/.


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## werrr

Qcumber said:
			
		

> Whodunit, this is exciting. Where do you place the schwa in *vlk*?
> If I use *ë* for schwa, will you pronounce it like *vëlk* or *vlëk*?


There's no schwa in Czech language. Or maybe, we pronounce it when saying one single consonant. But all one-consonant-words in Czech are prepositions and all are pronounced together with following word, so no schwa is needed.


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## Qcumber

Werr, I'm afraid this sounds impossible. Perhaps you confuse spelling with pronunciation: you see no vowel in *vlk* so you conclude there is no vowel in the pronunciation of this word.
I'm anxious to read Whodunit's answer.


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## werrr

Qcumber,

I know what's difference between spelling and pronunciation and there's really no schwa unless you speak about some dialect. The only usage of schwa in Czech is when saying a single consonant as name of letter (with your marking "b", "k", "r" are pronounced as "bë", "kë", "rë") and it is colloquial (standard names of this letters are "bé", "ká", "er").

Whodunit's "Vlk zmrzl, zhltl hrst zrn" is really hardly pronounceable without adding some phone, even for natives. I done it one times in ten attempts and I'm not sure I'm able to repeat it. But it is glottal stop what is facultatively(!) added, no schwa.


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## irinet

chuff said:


> Well, at present, I can only think of one Romanian word I've seen and that is the abbreviation for the word *dumneavoastrã*, which is *dvs.*



It's used in writing only. Your example made me think of the '*pls*' abbreviation.


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## Penyafort

Liquids and nasals can work as a sort of vowel sometimes, so those examples in English and Czech would be just partially right.

I'd say, though, that those prepositions like _v_ in Russian are a better example, but notice how they are prepositions, that is, not 'real' words.

Same goes with interjections such as _tsk tsk_.

On the other hand, oral fast pronunciation of some French or Portuguese sentences have almost no vowel indeed.


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## ilocas2

Penyafort said:


> Liquids and nasals can work as a sort of vowel sometimes, so those examples in English and Czech would be just partially right.



I agree. Czechs are proud of these words with syllabic r and l and they show off with them in front of other nations how they are superior and unique that they are able to pronounce these words, but in fact it's only a feature of language and anyone can learn to pronounce it by practising.


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## SuperXW

Cantonese pronunciation of the Chinese surname 吳: ng.


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## Penyafort

ilocas2 said:


> I agree. Czechs are proud of these words with syllabic r and l and they show off with them in front of other nations how they are superior and unique that they are able to pronounce these words, but in fact it's only a feature of language and anyone can learn to pronounce it by practising.



Yes. I don't find it that difficult to say Brno, once you know that the r works as a sort of vowel. Yet people are very used to their native systems, to the point that r's can never be seen as anything but a consonant. It is funny, though, to see how this is solved. In English, they use a vowel before the r (Berno), while in Spanish, the tendency is to say a vowel after the r (Breno).


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## kimyoungmi

maybe4ever said:


> i dont think it is possible to pronouce any word without using vowel sound.



It's easy to think like this, but it's Anglo-centric.  Take Cantonese again; two people gave examples of "m" and "ng" (in fact, allophones of the same sound), and my small dictionary shows almost two dozen more words in that form.  You can say these without opening your mouth.  There is VOICING for these nasals, and that voicing feels like a vowel -- if open-mouthed and unobstructed, it IS a vowel -- but that's true of any other voiced consonant.  If you actually change the airflow into or out of a vowel position to say the non-vowel syllable, you can argue that it is not fully consonantal, but if you start and stop the word in its consonant mouth position (if one consonant) or move seamlessly between consonant obstructions (a little harder, with clusters), it really can be vowel-less.


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## Red Arrow

Qcumber said:


> Werr, I'm afraid this sounds impossible. Perhaps you confuse spelling with pronunciation: you see no vowel in *vlk* so you conclude there is no vowel in the pronunciation of this word.
> I'm anxious to read Whodunit's answer.


The L and R are geminated in such Slavic words.

Gemination doesn't happen in Slovene and Serbo-Croatian as far as I know. So they pronounce Krk with a schwa before the R.


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## jessica005

I think there can't be any word without any vowels irrespective of any languages.


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## SuperXW

jessica005 said:


> I think there can't be any word without any vowels irrespective of any languages.


For those who don't believe its existence, again, the Cantonese pronunciation of 五(five), 午(noon), 唔(not), 伍(fteam), 吳(a Surname) are all Ng [ŋ̍] (only in different tones). It is called a vocalic consonant. Your throat is completely closed when pronouncing the sound. I don't think it can be treat as a vowel anyway.
You may refer to this video. [Youtube title: Sound of Cantonese : ng]


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## Messquito

It's argued that Mandarin words with pinyin /zi/, /ci/, /si/, /zhi/, /chi/, /shi/, /ri/ have no vowels, the /i/'s are actually just the voiced version of the consonants. For example, /si/ is actually [sz], /shi/ is actually [ʂʐ̩], /ri/ is actually [ɻɻ], etc. The "seemingly-vowel" parts are actually just a long syllabic consonant [z], [ʐ̩] or [ɻ], which acts as the nucleus of the syllable.  During the whole utterance of the word, the "tongue placement" never changes, it continues from the onset to the nucleus. That is one of the reasons that the nucleus is seen as a consonant.

A second theory is that the nucleus is a vowel ([ɿ] for /zi/, /ci/, /si/, or [ʅ] for /zhi/, /chi/, /shi/, /ri/). Those vowels have the same tongue placement as the consonant; it's just that they see them as vowels rather than syllabic consonants.

Another group of people argue that the tongue posture actually lowers a tiny little bit during the articulation, and that makes the nucleus an extremely high vowel ([ɯ] for /zi/, /ci/, /si/,or [ɨ] for /zhi/, /chi/, /shi/, /ri/).

Interestingly, I've observed that the voiced quality can be gone in fast speech when these syllables are followed by a voiceless sound. That is, the voiced consonant assimilate to a voiceless one, or the vowel is dropped.
e.g. 你死定了/ni *sz* tiŋ lɤ/ or /ni *sɿ* tiŋ lɤ/ or /ni *sɯ* tiŋ lɤ/ >> [ni *ss* tiŋ lɤ]


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## Messquito

In Hokkien, regardless of the tones, there are 18 possible no-vowel syllables: m, mh, png, tng, thng, nng, kng, khng, mng, hng, tsng, tshng, sng, ng, phngh, khngh, hngh.

-m: [m], the same as the sound mm you make when you think. e.g. 阿*姆*(aunt), *毋*(no)
[hm], the same as the sound hmm you make when you think e.g. *茅*仔草(thatch)

-mh: [hmh], the same as the "hmm" in "mm hmm", an impolite version of "yes". e.g. *噷噷*(silent, not talkative)

-ng: [-ŋ], take [nŋ] for example, you produce, [ŋ] right after the onset of [n]. However, some might argue it's actually [nəŋ], with a schwa in the middle. It is arguable because the back of the tongue actually raises to [ŋ] the same time its tip lowers to end the [n] sound, so there is virtually no time for a vowel between.
e.g. 卵/兩[nŋ], 酸/耍[sŋ], 央[ŋ], 光[kŋ], 遠[hŋ], 問[mŋ], 飯[pŋ] etc.

-ngh: [-ŋh], e.g. 吭[khŋh] (motorcycle noise)


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## franknagy

Hungarian:
"pszt" = hist.
"hm" = hem.


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## Ectab

In Arabic, we have three words that are originally vowel-less words:
sm (name)
bn (son)
st (not sure of its meaning, because it is not used in MSA but acccording to almaany it means "anus")

In Arabic, there should be no words begin with consonant followed by no vowel, therefor we add a fake vowel in the beginning called همزة وصل ,that is not pronounced when it is followed by another vowel, to make it easier to pronounce.
so they become:
(i)sm
(i)bn
(i)st

there are also the case vowels that are not pronounced in pausa:
(i)smu (nominative)
(i)sma (accusative)
(i)smi (genitive)

e.g
(i)smu-hu 'Aliyy  (his name is Ali) i is pronounced.
ma-smu-ka (what's your name) i isn't pronounced.


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## Mahaodeh

Jhorer Brishti said:


> In most Arabic texts the vowels are omitted so the word itself must be recognized by the consonants. I have heard that certain Arabic words do not have any vowels(which is not so hard to imagine seeing as their are so many guttural and other complex phonemes) at all..



No, actually, this is not accurate. The long vowels are written and the short vowels are not _written_, but they are pronounced. Words are recognised by the constant + the long vowels + the word form. You see, Arabic is quite standardised and you don't need the short vowels to recognise the word, but you do need them to pronounce the word.

As a rule, you can not have more than two constants without a vowel between them (that's why some Arabs have a hard time pronouncing words like 'children'). There are a couple of words that don't have vowels, but there are special rules for pronouncing them such as adding a (sort of) temporary vowel or using the words between words that end or start with vowels.


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