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From: tll@druxu.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: seven vowels?
Message-ID: <749@druxu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 12:19:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: druxu.749
Posted: Tue Oct 11 12:19:44 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 01:12:03 EDT
References: <826@bronze.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Denver
Lines: 16

I was always taught in school that the vowels are a, e, i, o, u and
sometimes y and w.  When I asked for an example of a word where w
is a vowel, I was given such words as "snow".  I was not impressed.
Years later, I learned of two words whose only vowel is w.  Both
are of Welsh origin.  I quote from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate
Dictionary (I assume these words would also appear in better dictionaries):

	cwm \'kum\ n [Welsh, valley]: cirque
	crwth \'kruth\ n [Welsh]: crowd

(The u in the pronunciations is supposed to have an umlaut, but my
keyboard doesn't.  Anyway, the sound is as in "foot".)

			Tom Laidig
			(AT&T Infromation Systems Laboratories, Denver)
			...!ihnp4!druxu!tll