What Word uses w as a vowel?

Answer

Any word with a final W, such as cow or few or tomorrow, uses the w as a vowel.

I just found out Friday, 11-21-08 that the people in the state of Washington were not taught that 'w' is sometimes a vowel. This was quite a shock to me so then I did research on the subject and wrote the following paper. I am over fifty and had no idea that this was such a controversy until two days ago.

'Vowels Y & W Made Easy'

A vowel is the sound in a spoken language were the vocal tract is open and there is no build up of air pressure between the vocal cords at the upper part of the larynx, i.e.; ah, oh, ee, ay, ow …. There are five true (they are only) vowels a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y & w. Y and W can be a vowel or a consonant depending upon where it is in the word. In English orthography some letters may represent a consonant in some circumstances, and a vowel in others.

Diphthongs-- two vowel sounds that slide together when you say them. Example: ey - ā, oy-oi, uy-ī , au-aw, ew- ū ,ou-ow, ow-ō, W is always a vowel sound following another vowel and not starting a new syllable like bewail.

Rule of thumb for y:

As a consonant: The beginning of a word or beginning of a syllable - yard, beyond...

As a vowel: Y as long 'i' sound at the end of single syllable words - by, cry, fly, my…..

Y as a long 'e' sound at the end of a double syllable words - baby, carry, funny, windy….

Y as a short 'i' sound the middle of a word as it vowel - gym, myth & hymn.

Y taking the place of the 'i', ay at the end of a word making the long a sound - play, tray….

Y taking the place of the 'i', ey at the end of a word changing the sound to long a - hey, they..

Y taking the place of the 'i', oy at the end of a word - boy, joy, toy….

Y taking the place of the 'i', uy at the end of a word once again sounds like a long i- buy, guy

Rule of thumb for w: in 'wow' (wou) w is both a consonant and a vowel

As a consonant: The beginning of a word or beginning of a syllable - wagon, always….

As a vowel: In the English language there is not a word with a single w as a vowel. It always has a partner before it.

As with the y it replaces the u at the end of words and before an l or n -….

W taking the place of the 'u', aw at the end of a word making the au sound - claw, paw….

W taking the place of the 'u', ew at the end of a word changing the sound to long u - new, crew, flew,…..

W taking the place of the 'u', ow at the end of a word sound like ou in ouch- how, now, brown, cow, owl…

W taking the place of the 'u', ow at the end of a word sounds like long o - blow, crow, bowl

Vowel itself is an interesting word in which the w is a vowel (vou-el) the ou sounds like in ouch.

I found two word where the 'W' comes before the partner vowel. (1) geo·duck also gwe·duc (gōō'ē-dŭk') n. A very large, edible clam of the Pacific coast of northwest North America, (2) two [too]

I hope that this will help someone.

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I'll add this bit that I just posted another place:

There are two contexts in which 'w' is indeed a vowel in English:

1. As a 'stand-alone' vowel. At least four Welsh words which have made their way into English. The best known is 'cwm.' Three others are 'crwth' (might be 'crwdd' in the original Wesh, I'd guess), 'cyr' and 'cwtch.' However, the Oxford English Dictionary lists only cwm and cwtch. So, if you think the OED gets to decide such things, then then cwn and cwtch are Engish words, and the others are not.

2. Dipthongs. E.g., as in down, wow, and caw, and many others. For that matter, some people claim that 'r' in 'butter' acts a a dipthong vowel, as does 'l' in 'bottle,' and 'n' as in 'button.' I'm not sure I buy those exampless, and have seen no authorative ruling on those. I suspect that professional linguists would disagree on those.

Here's the OED entry for 'cwm' and 'cwtch.' I paste the noun usage for cwtch, but it is also in the OED as a verb, meaning to hug or to cuddle, or, in a different usage, to lie down.

I think the pasting of the OED text is 'fair usage.' Also, it's a subscription service, and perhaps my pasting it might get them a subscription or two via this advertising?

Jim

Cwm. A valley; in Phys. Geogr., a bowl-shaped hollow partly enclosed by steep walls lying at the head of a valley or on a mountain slope and formed originally by a glacier; a cirque.

1853 MRS. GASKELL Ruth I. vii. 170 Some 'Cwm', or hollow. 1882 GEIKIE Text-bk. Geol. III. II. ii. 407 Several hundred feet below, in the corrie or cwm at the bottom, lies the re-cemented glacier. 1933 Geogr. Jrnl. LXXXII. 202 The snow-patches are cwm-ice masses occupying deep scallops in an elevated position of the old erosion-surface. 1936 Nature 19 Dec. 1041/2 Its glaciers..widened their heads into cwms and gave to the basin its only fiord. 1951 Times 27 Nov. 5/7 While 'cwm' may occur..purely as a place-name..technically the word is restricted to the huge cauldron-shaped hollows found high up on heavily glaciated slopes. 1953 J. HUNT Ascent of Everest ii. 14 When Mallory saw it..in 1921, he named it the 'Western Cwm'. 1957 G. E. HUTCHINSON Treat. Limnol. I. i. 59 Such amphitheaters are called cirques in the French-speaking parts of the Alps, Kars in the German-speaking regions, cwms in Wales, and corries in Scotland. All four terms have achieved some degree of international usage, but the first seems to have been the most widely employed.


Cwtch, now Welsh English.

1. A cupboard or cubby-hole, esp. used as a hiding place.

1890 J. D. ROBERTSON Gloss. Words County of Gloucester 27 Cooch and corner, nook and cranny. 1973 M. STEPHENS Exiles All 25 We huddled under the cwtsh, making Beasts against the candle's light. 1983 K. GOODING Rainbow Trail vi. 63 A cwtch is a hiding place. 1985 J. EDWARDS Talk Tidy 17 The coal cwtch or the cwtch under the stairs. 1992 Times (Nexis) 28 Feb., And our house like most of the others had a cwch under the stairs, which was the cupboard. 2004 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 6 Aug. 15 They assured us if the atom bomb dropped, we'd have three whole minutes (or was it four?) to put brown paper over the windows, retreat to the cwtch under the stairs, and stay cwtched for three or four weeks.

2. A cuddle; a hug. Cf. CWTCH v. 2.

1992 Times 28 Feb. 'Come and have a cwch,' (rhymes with butch) mothers say to their children. 2000 N. GRIFFITHS Grits (2001) 403 There's tears in her eyes again so a give her a cwtcha great big one and bollox to embarrassment. 2005 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 22 June 11 Utter the immortal words, 'Come 'ere and 'ave a cwtch then,' and hope that your recipient does not turn and flee.

First answer by Bennett hammond. Last edit by Jfgzo. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 12 [recommend question]