vowel

vowel

English

Etymology

From Middle English vouel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal.

Pronunciation

• enPR: vouʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈvaʊ.əl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (also) enPR: voul, IPA^(key): /vaʊl/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊəl, -aʊl

Noun

vowel (plural vowels)

1. (phonetics) A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.

   In Welsh, the w usually represents a vowel.

2. (orthography) A letter representing the sound of vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and y.

   Facetious is spelled with five vowels in alphabetical order.

Antonyms

• (sound): consonant
• (letter): consonant

Derived terms

Terms derived from vowel

• back vowel
• disemvowel
• front vowel
• nasal vowel
• oral vowel
• rounded vowel
• semivowel
• vowel harmony
• vowelization, vowelisation
• vowelize, vowelise
• vowelless
• vowelling
• vowel lowering
• vowel point
• vowel reduction

 

Related terms

• vocalic
• consonant
• liquid

Descendants

• → Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì

Translations

sound

Afrikaans: klinker (af), vokaal (af) Albanian: zanore (sq) f Arabic: صَائِت‎ m (ṣāʾit), مُصَوِّت‎ m (muṣawwit) Aragonese: vocal f Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) (jaynavor) Asturian: vocal f Azerbaijani: sait Bashkir: һуҙынҡы (huðınqı) Basque: bokal Belarusian: гало́сны (be) m (halósny) Bengali: স্বর (svôr) Bikol Central: tiyaw Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f (glásna) Burmese: သရ (my) (sa.ra.) Catalan: vocal (ca) f Chechen: мукъаме (muqʼame) Chinese: Mandarin: 母音 (zh) (mǔyīn), 元音 (zh) (yuányīn) Corsican: vucale f Czech: samohláska (cs) f Danish: vokal (da) c, selvlyd (rare) Dutch: klinker (nl) m, klinkerklank m Esperanto: vokalo Estonian: täishäälik (et), vokaal (et) Faroese: sjálvljóð n Finnish: vokaali (fi) French: voyelle (fr) f Galician: vogal (gl) f Georgian: ხმოვანი (xmovani) German: Vokal (de) m; (specifying sound vs. letter) Vokallaut m; (chiefly elementary school) Selbstlaut (de) m Greek: φωνήεν (el) n (foníen) Ancient: φωνήεντα (γράμματα) n pl (phōnḗenta (grámmata)), φωνῆεν n (phōnêen) Haitian Creole: vwayèl Hausa: wasali Hebrew: תְּנוּעָה‎ (he) f (tnu‘á) Hindi: स्वर (hi) m (svar), सुर (hi) m (sur) Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu) Icelandic: sérhljóð (is) n Indonesian: huruf hidup (id), vokal (id) Ingrian: vokala, glasnoi Interlingua: vocal Irish: guta (ga) m Italian: vocale (it) f Japanese: 母音 (ja) (ぼいん, boin) Kalmyk: эгшг (egshg) Kapampangan: kakatni Kazakh: дауысты (kk) (dauysty) Khmer: ស្រៈ (km) (sraʼ), ស្វរៈ (km) (svaʼraʼ) Korean: 모음(母音) (ko) (mo'eum) Kyrgyz: үндүү (ky) (ündüü) Lao: ສະຫລະ (sa la) Latin: vōcālis (la) f Latvian: patskanis m, vokālis m Lithuanian: balsis (lt) Macedonian: само́гласка f (samóglaska) Malay: bunyi hidup, vokal Maori: oro puare Mongolian: Cyrillic: эгшиг (mn) (egšig) Mongolian: ᠡᠭᠡᠰᠢᠭ (egesig) Navajo: zaʼáán Norwegian: Bokmål: vokal (no) m Occitan: vocala (oc) f Old Norse: hljóðstafr Persian: واکه‎ (fa) (vâke) Plautdietsch: Metlut m Polish: samogłoska (pl) f Portuguese: vogal (pt) f Punjabi: ਸਵਰ m (savar) Romanian: vocală (ro) f Russian: гла́сный (ru) m (glásnyj) Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m (svara) Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: самоглас m, са̏могласнӣк m, во̀ка̄л m Roman: samoglas m, sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m, vòkāl (sh) m Slovak: samohláska f Slovene: samoglasnik (sl) m Southern Altai: ӱндӱ (ündü) Spanish: vocal (es) f Swahili: vokali (sw), irabu (sw) Swedish: vokal (sv) c, vokalljud n, självljud (sv) n (archaic) Tagalog: patinig Tajik: садонок (sadonok) Telugu: అచ్చు (te) (accu) Thai: สระ (th) (sà) Turkish: ünlü (tr), sesli (tr) Turkmen: çekimli Ukrainian: голосни́й m (holosnýj) Urdu: مصوت‎ (musavvat) Uzbek: unli (uz) Veps: vokal' Vietnamese: nguyên âm (vi), mẫu âm (vi) Volapük: vokat (vo) Walloon: voyale (wa) f Welsh: llafariad (cy) f Yiddish: וואָקאַל‎ (vokal) Zulu: unkamisa class 1a/2a

letter

Afrikaans: klinker (af), vokaal (af) Arabic: حَرَكَة‎ f (ḥaraka) (short vowel sign), حَرْفُ مَدّ‎ f (ḥarfu madd) (long vowel sign) Aragonese: vocal f Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) (jaynavor) Asturian: vocal f Bashkir: һуҙынҡы (huðınqı) Basque: bokal Belarusian: гало́сная f (halósnaja) Bikol Central: tiyaw Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f (glásna) Catalan: vocal (ca) f Central Dusun: vokal Chechen: мукъаме (muqʼame) Chinese: Mandarin: 母音 (zh) (mǔyīn), 元音 (zh) (yuányīn) Corsican: vucale f Czech: samohláska (cs) f Danish: vokal (da) c Dutch: klinker (nl) m Faroese: sjálvljóð n Finnish: vokaali (fi) French: voyelle (fr) f Galician: vogal (gl) f, letra vogal f Georgian: ხმოვანი (xmovani) German: Vokal (de) m; (specifying letter vs. sound) Vokalbuchstabe m Greek: φωνήεν (el) n (foníen) Ancient: φωνῆεν n (phōnêen) Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu), magánhangzóbetű Icelandic: sérhljóði m Indonesian: huruf hidup (id), vokal (id) Ingrian: vokala, glasnoi Interlingua: vocal Irish: guta (ga) m Italian: vocale (it) f Japanese: 母音 (ja) (ぼいん, boin), 母音字 (ja) (ぼいんじ, boinji) Kapampangan: siwala, siuala Korean: 모음(母音) (ko) (mo'eum) Lao: ສະຫລະ (sa la) Latvian: patskanis m, vokālis m Macedonian: само́гласка f (samóglaska) Malagasy: zanatsoratra (mg) Malay: huruf hidup, vokal Maori: oro puare Mongolian: Cyrillic: эгшиг үсэг (egšig üseg) Occitan: vocala (oc) f Persian: واکه‎ (fa) (vâke) Polish: samogłoska (pl) f Portuguese: vogal (pt) f Romanian: vocală (ro) f Russian: гла́сная (ru) f (glásnaja) Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m (svara) Scots: vouel Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: самоглас m, са̏могласнӣк m Roman: samoglas m, sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m Slovak: samohláska f Spanish: vocal (es) f, letra vocal f Swahili: vokali (sw), irabu (sw) Swedish: vokal (sv) c Tagalog: patinig Tamil: உயிரெழுத்து (ta) (uyireḻuttu) Telugu: అచ్చు (te) (accu) Thai: เสียงสระ, สระ (th) (sà) Turkish: ünlü (tr) Ukrainian: голосна́ f (holosná) Veps: vokal' Volapük: vokat (vo), vokatatonat Walloon: voyale (wa) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Guaraní: (please verify) pu'ae Gujarati: (please verify) રવર n (ravar) Indonesian: (please verify) huruf hidup (id), (please verify) huruf vokal (id) Interlingua: (please verify) vocal

See also

• vocalization

Placing of an element:

• prevocalic (occurring before a vowel)
• intervocalic (occurring between vowels)
• postvocalic (occurring after a vowel)

Types of vowels (phonetics):

• front, central, back
• rounded, unrounded
• close, near-close, close-mid, mid, open-mid, near-open, open

Verb

vowel (third-person singular simple present vowels, present participle vowelling or (US) voweling, simple past and past participle vowelled or (US) voweled)

1. (linguistics) To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).
   • 2019, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Arabs, Yale University Press, p. 52:

     However it should be vowelled – perhaps ‘Almaqah’ – his name seems to be composed of ‘Il’, the general name of the paramount Semitic deity […] , plus another element that is possibly from the Sabaic verb wqh, ‘to command’ […] .

Synonyms

• vowelize
• vocalize

Translations

to add vowel points

Arabic: حَرَّكَ‎ (ar) m (ḥarraka)

Anagrams

• wolve