Английская Википедия:English words without vowels

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Файл:Cwtch.jpg

heart-shaped shop sign stating "Anybody can cuddle but only the Welsh can cwtch"

English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters Шаблон:Angbr, as well as Шаблон:Angbr, which may also be a consonant depending on context. However, outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds.

Words without written vowels

There are very few lexical words (that is, not counting interjections) without vowel letters. The longest such lexical word is tsktsks, pronounced Шаблон:IPA. The mathematical expression nth Шаблон:IPA, as in delighted to the nth degree, is in fairly common usage. Another mathematical term without vowel letters is ln, the natural logarithm. A more obscure example is rng Шаблон:IPA, derived from ring by deleting the letter Шаблон:Angbr. Vowelless proper names from other languages, such as the surname Ng, may retain their original spelling, even if they are pronounced with vowels.

In the Middle English period, there were no standard spellings, but Шаблон:Angbr was sometimes used to represent either a vowel or a consonant sound in the same way that Modern English does with Шаблон:Angbr, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. This vocalic Шаблон:Angbr generally represented Шаблон:IPA, as in wss ("use"). However at that time the form Шаблон:Angbr was still sometimes used to represent a digraph Шаблон:Angbr (see W), not as a separate letter. In modern Welsh, "W" is simply a single letter which often represents a vowel sound. Thus words borrowed from Welsh may use Шаблон:Angbr this way, such as:

• The crwth (pronounced Шаблон:IPA or Шаблон:IPA, also spelled cruth in English) is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin.

He intricately rhymes, to the music of crwth and pibgorn.

• cwtch (a hiding place or cubby hole) is also from Welsh (albeit a recent word influenced by English, and used almost exclusively in the variant of English spoken in Wales, not in standard English), and crwth and cwtch are the longest English dictionary words without Шаблон:Angbr according to Collins Dictionary.
• A cwm (pronounced Шаблон:IPA) is used in English in a technical geographical or mountaineering context to mean a deep hollow in a mountainous area, usually with steep edges on some sides, like a corrie or cirque, such as the Western Cwm of Mount Everest. It is also sometimes used, by way of more recent borrowing from Welsh, in a more general sense of a valley. The spellings coombe, combe, coomb, and comb come from the Old English cumb, which appears either to be a much earlier borrowing from a predecessor of modern Welsh, or to have an even earlier origin, given that there was an ancient Greek word κὑμβη (kumbē) meaning a hollow vessel. In English literature, one can find the spellings combe (as in Ilfracombe and Castle Combe), coomb (as in J. R. R. Tolkien) or comb (as in Alfred, Lord Tennyson).

There are also numerous vowelless interjections and onomatopoeia found more or less frequently, including brr or brrr, bzzt, grrr, hm, hmm, mm, mmm, mhmm, sksksksk, pfft, pht, phpht, psst, sh, shh, zzz. It is questionable whether any of these are words: they are sequences of letters used to imitate a sound, and there is no limit to how many such sequences could be constructed.

Alphabetical list of words not containing the main 5 vowels but including Y

Some of these are merely interjections, some promoted by comic magazines (see above}. Many others are borrowed or derived from other languages, most commonly Greek, e.g. glyph (Greek), skyr (Icelandic), fyrd (Anglo-Saxon). Шаблон:Div col

• By(s)
• Byrl(s)
• Chynd
• Cly
• Cry
• Crypt(s)
• Cyst(s)
• Dry(ly)(s)
• Fly
• Flyby(s)
• Fry
• Fy
• Fyrd(s)
• Ghyll(s)
• Glycyl(s)
• Glyph(s)
• Gym(s)
• Gyp
• Gyppy
• Gyp(s)
• Gypsy
• Hwyl(s)
• Hymn(s)
• Hyp(s)
• Jynx
• Ky
• Lym(s)
• Lymph(s)
• Lynch
• Lynx
• My
• Myrrh(s)
• Myth
• Ny(s)
• Nymph(ly)(s)
• Ply
• Pry(s)
• Psych
• Pygmy
• Pyx
• Rhy
• Rhythm(s)
• Rynd(s)
• Scry
• Shy(ly)
• Sky
• Skyr
• Sly(ly)
• Spry(ly)
• Spy
• Sty
• Stymy
• Swy
• Sylph(s)
• Syn
• Sync(s)
• Synch(s)
• Synd(s)
• Sybyzgy
• Syzygy
• Thy
• Thymy
• Try
• Tryp(s)
• Tryst(s)
• Twyndyllyng(s)
• Tyg(s)
• Typp(s)
• Tyyn
• Vly
• Why(s)
• Wyn(s)
• Wynn
• Wry (ly)
• Wych
• Wyn
• Wynd(s)
• Wynn(s)
• Xylyl(s)
• Xyst(s)
• Ympt

Alphabetical list of words without the main vowels and also excluding Y

• Brr
• Brrr
• Bzzt
• Ch
• Crwth(s)
• Cwm(s)
• Cwtch
• Grr
• Grrl(s)
• Grrr
• Grrrl(s)
• Hm
• Hmph
• Hmm
• Hmmm
• Mhmm
• Mm
• Mmm
• Nth
• Pfft
• Phpht
• Pht
• Psst
• Pwn(s)
• Rng
• Sh
• Shh
• Sknch Шаблон:Citation needed
• Sksksksk
• Tsk(s)
• Tss
• Tsktsk(s)
• Twp
• Zzz

Words without vowel sounds

Weak forms of function words may be realized without vowel sounds, as in I can go Шаблон:IPA and I must sell Шаблон:IPA. Some of these forms are reflected in orthography as contractions, such as Шаблон:'s, Шаблон:'ll, Шаблон:'d, and n't.

See also

• Wiktionary:List of words that comprise a single sound
• Шаблон:Annotated link
• Words without vowels in other languages