Only one vowel

Originally posted by jimslyp69
Rhythms. 7 letters no vowel. Longest in the dictionary I think.
Strengths. 9 letters. Longest with one vowel.
I would hazard a guess that strengthens is the longest with two vowels.

Please tell me, what is a vowel? It seems to be an another definition of a vowel in English speaking countries than in others.

In Swedish we have 9 different vowel letters, they can be pronounced in twenty or so ways, not counting diphtongs. But y is definitely a vowel anywhere you can see the letter in a word, no discussion about it.

Every word have to have at least one vowel, any none vowel words makes no sense to us Swedish talkers.

So why has the word "rythm" no wovels? What about 'y'? Doesn't the words 'rythm' and 'rothm' pronounce differently because of the vowel?

Please, give me a language lesson...

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Please tell me, what is a vowel? It seems to be an another definition of a vowel in English speaking countries than in others.

In Swedish we have 9 different vowel letters, they can be pronounced in twenty or so ways, not counting diphtongs. But y is definitely a vowel anywhere you can see the letter in a word, no discussion about it.

Every word ha ...[text shortened]... hm' pronounce differently because of the vowel?

Please, give me a language lesson...

In English vowels are A, E, I, O, U. Sometimes other letters are pronounced as vowels (Y especially) but they aren't true vowels and aren't usually counted in this case.

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
In English vowels are A, E, I, O, U. Sometimes other letters are pronounced as vowels (Y especially) but they aren't true vowels and aren't usually counted in this case.

Thank you, XanthosNZ, much appreciated!

Somewhere in former Yugoslavia there is a town called Krk. Here R is treated as a vowel (I suppose).
Rules differ between languages and it is always interesting to learn more.

The only English word I can think of which doesn't contain a vowel or a y is "nth", as in "to the nth degree". I consider words like "cwm" to be Welsh, not English.

If you are allowing rhythm as a word with no vowels, then clearly you should allow rhythmless as a word with just one vowel. This contains ten letters and so beats strengths.

Myrrh, why, sky, try, fly, by, sly, cry, sty... the list goes on and on.

Barn, Yard, Brown, Crown, Blush.
Aint Y usually referred to as a vowel, or isnt that just French?