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Are there any English words that have no vowels and no Y?

Question #101345. Asked by AW3404.
Last updated May 15 2021.

Related Trivia Topics: English  
hunni123
Answer has 4 votes
hunni123

Answer has 4 votes.
Brrr: The sound of shivering
Crwth: An ancient stringed musical instrument
Cwm: A cirque (a steep-walled mountain basin shaped like half a bowl)
Grr: The sound of a dog
Hm: An interjection expressing assent
Hsh: An interjection used to urge silence
Nth: adjective pertaining to an indefinitely large number
Phpht (pht): An interjection used to express annoyance
Psst (pst): An interjection used to attract someone’s attention
Shh (sh): An interjection used to urge silence
Tch: An interjection expressing vexation or disgust
Tsk: An exclamation of annoyance
Tsktsk: To utter tsk
Tst: An interjection used to urge silence

That's all I could find.

Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 15 2021.
Dec 21 2006, 5:53 AM
skysmom65
Answer has 9 votes
Currently Best Answer
skysmom65
19 year member
1504 replies

Answer has 9 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
"Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels. But they do have Y functioning as a vowel.




Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 15 2021.
Dec 21 2006, 7:10 AM
DerekT star
Answer has 2 votes
DerekT star
23 year member
40 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
In the UK, I don't think "y" is not considered as a vowel as it is in North America. This fact has caused many arguments at our Pub Quiz nights

My crossword favourites are "tryst" or the ubiquitous
"gry" but there must be many more.

Dec 21 2006, 8:54 AM
avatar
zbeckabee star
Answer has 4 votes
zbeckabee star
Moderator
19 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.
If we refer to words that lack "true" vowels (a, e, i, o, and u), the answer is that a number of them do; among them are: hymn, rhythm, myth, sylph, and syzygy (the alignment of three celestial objects). These words contain the so-called semivowel y and none of the true vowels.

link http://www.grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1029289/8966.htm

Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 15 2021.
Dec 21 2006, 9:01 AM
davejacobs
Answer has 2 votes
davejacobs
22 year member
956 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
One might dispute crwth and cwm, as they are welsh words, and w is a vowel in welsh.

Dec 21 2006, 9:39 AM
avatar
Baloo55th
Answer has 3 votes
Baloo55th
22 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
Rhythm and syzygy do contain vowels. Y in English can be both consonant and vowel. If it's pronounced as an i then it is a vowel. Some grammars follow the Latin rules for English, and the Latin rules don't work for English. And they forget that in Latin v could be consonant or vowel (we usually write the vowel sound of v as u) and don't allow English the same privilege with regard to y. As Dave points out, the w in crwth is a vowel in Welsh, and therefore must be when the word comes over into English as a loanword.

Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 15 2021.
Dec 21 2006, 10:57 AM
avatar
looney_tunes star
Answer has 8 votes
looney_tunes star
19 year member
3308 replies avatar

Answer has 8 votes.
The answer depends on exactly how you define an "English word". Since Scrabble claims to allow only English words, and my downloaded game allows such words as mm, I would have to say yes. (But they are not 'normal' words, as discussed in the following extract from [grammarmudge.cityslide.com/articles/article/1029289/8966.htm, no longer online])
The debate is further complicated by the view held by some people that certain uttered sounds that have distinct meaning (e.g., Shhh! Grrr! Psst! Zzzz!) are true words and therefore qualify as words without vowels (or, for that matter, semivowels). If we disqualify these words and words ending in y (together with acronyms such as RSVP and abbreviations such as P.S. and P.M. ), every English word contains at least one of the principal vowels.

After I posted the above answer, several people disagreed. Among the dissenters were those citing cwm, a Welsh word for "valley," which does have a listing in some English dictionaries. Therefore, I probably needed to clarify further to rule out words that are strictly dialect, especially Gaelic or Welsh words in which w may have a vowel sound. Someone else suggested that nth was a word with no vowels. But the n in nth stands for any number, so then we might as well argue that 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on are vowel-less words.


Response last updated by nautilator on Dec 10 2016.
Nov 29 2008, 9:01 PM
gonnzo
Answer has 6 votes
gonnzo
17 year member
766 replies

Answer has 6 votes.
A crossword staple: nth. As in, the generic version of eighth, ninth, tenth, etc.

link http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nth

Response last updated by nautilator on Dec 10 2016.
Nov 30 2008, 8:55 AM
blakey
Answer has 3 votes
blakey
22 year member
193 replies

Answer has 3 votes.
here you go.
link http://wordslisted.com/words/no-vowels/

Scrabble Words – No Vowels, No Y
BRR
BRRR
CRWTH
CRWTHS
CWM
CWMS
HM
HMM
MM
NTH
PFFT
PHPHT
PHT
PSST
SH
SHH
TSK
TSKS
TSKTSK
TSKTSKS

Dec 11 2014, 12:50 AM
avatar
Upstart3 star
Answer has 3 votes
Upstart3 star
12 year member
170 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
I think it depends on your definition of 'vowel'. Cwm and Cwth which are borrowed from Welsh have the 'w' producing a vowel sound or (beautiful word) monophthong.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel

Dec 11 2014, 3:35 AM
avatar
nautilator
Answer has 3 votes
nautilator
Moderator
13 year member
467 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.
It should be noted that the reason y is sometimes included as a vowel is because it often stands for a vowel sound. Thus, if you want to exclude y, you may want to exclude w for the same reason: it represents a vowel sound in a few arcane words like cwm amd crwth.

Excluding both y and w, most words that do not contain vowels are mainly interjections like bzzt, grrr, hm, hmm, mm, mmm, pfft, pht, phpht, and tsktsks.

Wyrm and myrrh can be considered vowel-free as the y in both of them does not stand for a vowel sound. On the other hand, nth is pronounced with a vowel sound ("enth") in it.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_without_vowels#Without_W_or_Y

Dec 10 2016, 10:05 PM
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