Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Without a vowel or vowels.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective linguistics Lacking vowels.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

vowel + -less

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word vowelless.

Examples

  • Nearly vowelless, that is, meaning the aeiou familiar to speakers of English and Spanish.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 2 1986

  • As I said, they had syllabic resonants which were directly reflected in the seemingly "vowelless" spelling wherever l, m, n and r are found sandwiched between consonants.

    Oddly formed locatives with inessive postclitic in Etruscan 2009

  • The many "vowelless" spellings like leprnal and atrśrce show that this was a phonemic fact in later Etruscan.

    Oddly formed locatives with inessive postclitic in Etruscan 2009

  • The many "vowelless" spellings like leprnal and atrśrce show that this was a phonemic fact in later Etruscan.

    Oddly formed locatives with inessive postclitic in Etruscan 2009

  • However, you probably didn't mean that this was an actual consonant cluster **ndʰ- but rather that you were referring to the seemingly "vowelless" syllable *n̥-.

    Pre-IE Syncope has an easter-egg surprise for you 2008

  • The reason that I bothered with the argument of vowelless [mz] being pronounceable is simply that I do, in fluent speech, usually produce the vowelless [mz], and therefore wanted to explain the more objectionable position, figuring the vowelled pronunciation of Ms. could defend itself.

    “Ms.”-ing the point « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • So while the name of the god Amon was spelled out as ỉ-m-n in the vowelless script, the name was pronounced *ʔAmúna in the second millenium BCE hence Coptic amoun.

    Archive 2010-02-01 2010

  • So while the name of the god Amon was spelled out as ỉ-m-n in the vowelless script, the name was pronounced *ʔAmúna in the second millenium BCE hence Coptic amoun.

    Aegean phonotactics against word-initial /j/ 2010

  • With what I've learned so far about the evolution of the Ancient Egyptian language as it evolved into Coptic, I'm going to go out on a limb and deduce for myself that the vowelless transliterated words qn and ỉkn were probably pronounced around 1500 BCE something like *qánә 'reed' and *ʔәkánә 'basin, bowl', both matching the vocalisms of the other reflexes as well as accounting for the later Coptic result.

    Archive 2009-01-01 2009

  • With what I've learned so far about the evolution of the Ancient Egyptian language as it evolved into Coptic, I'm going to go out on a limb and deduce for myself that the vowelless transliterated words qn and ỉkn were probably pronounced around 1500 BCE something like *qánә 'reed' and *ʔәkánә 'basin, bowl', both matching the vocalisms of the other reflexes as well as accounting for the later Coptic result.

    Mediterranean wanderwort fiesta 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.