Guest Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 Can you name three words in the English language which have at least five letters but do not contain a, e, i, o, or u? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 lymph - nymph dryly - shyly - slyly - spryly - wryly lynch - synch [look like they should rhyme anyway ...] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 Can you think of three more? None of those are the ones I was considering. Very nice, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 tryst pygmy flyby crypt glyph myrrh hymns* myths* *tried not to go to plurals ... kind of cheating, but myth is such a neat word. and, ok, rhythm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted January 31, 2008 Report Share Posted January 31, 2008 And gypsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 (edited) I am glad that you said "Can you name three words in the English language which have at least five letters but do not contain a, e, i, o, or u?" instead of just asking for words which do not contain vowels because... Yes, the letter Y is a vowel or a consonant! In terms of sound, a vowel is 'a speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction...', while a consonant is 'a basic speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed' (definitions from the New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998). The letter Y can be used to represent different sounds in different words, and can therefore fit either definition. In myth or hymn it is clearly a vowel, and also in words such as my, where it stands for a diphthong (a combination of two vowel sounds). On the other hand, in a word like beyond there is an obstacle to the breath which can be heard between two vowels, and the same sound begins words like young and yes. (This consonant sound, like that of the letter W, is sometimes called a 'semivowel' because it is made in a similar way to a vowel, but functions in contrast to vowels when used in words.) Whether the letter Y is a vowel or a consonant is therefore rather an arbitrary decision. The letter is probably more often used as a vowel, but in this role is often interchangeable with the letter I. However, the consonant sound is not consistently represented in English spelling by any other letter, and perhaps for this reason Y tends traditionally to be counted among the consonants. http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq...utother/lettery Edited February 2, 2008 by bigbear311 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 bonanova Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Wait, there's more ... Grrrr! and Shhhh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted February 2, 2008 Report Share Posted February 2, 2008 Wait, there's more ... Grrrr! and Shhhh! You seem to have forgotten brrrr, and pssst. Any others? hmmmm.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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Can you name three words in the English language which have at least five letters but do not contain a, e, i, o, or u?
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