WHEN IS "w" A VOWEL

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#61298 Tue, 14 Dec 04 01:30 AM

MY CHILDREN ARE BEING TAUGHT THAT "W" IS A VOWEL. I NEVER REMEMBER THIS GROWING UP AND WAS NEVER TAUGHT IT IN COLLEGE.

PLEASE HELP,

CYNDI

Guest

Vowels

CalifJim

#61314 Tue, 14 Dec 04 03:32 AM

It is probably part of a particular way of teaching reading. I wouldn't get too excited about it.

Strictly speaking, we can never see vowels, so that "W" sitting there on the page is not a vowel and neither is this "A". We can only hear vowels. Vowels are sounds. Loosely speaking, the vowel letters A, E, I, O, and U are often called vowels. "Y" and "W" may or may not be included among the vowels, depending on the teaching method.

The typical sound we make (in English) when we see the letter "W" is called either a semi-vowel, a semi-consonant, or a glide. The same terminology can be used to describe the sound of "Y" in the word "Yes". The sound of the "Y" is a front glide related to the sound "EE" (bee) and the sound of the "W" is a back glide related to the sound "OO" (boo).

A good reason to include Y and W as vowels (vowel letters, actually) is that they pair with other vowel letters to create digraphs which have characteristic sounds. "AY", "EY", "OY", "AW", "EW", "OW". But when not at the end of a word, these are "AI", "EI", "OI", "AU", "EU", "OU". (Of course there are exceptions. That's how English is!) Because Y and I form a pair that substitute for each other, and W and U also, it's not such a bad idea to include both when introducing the concept to children.

Hope that helps! Smile [:)]

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,964)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Vowels, Consonants

Anonymous

#182951 Sat, 14 Jan 06 01:48 AM

Yes, there are two words in the english language that use the letter "w" as a vowel.

The first is "cwm" pronounced "coom" which is the basin at the bottom of a mountain sometimes containing a lake and the other is "crwth" which is an ancient celtic musical instrument. Hope this answers your question.
Tara

Anonymous

Vowels

nona the brit

#183063 Sat, 14 Jan 06 11:44 AM

Yes but these two are really Welsh; used in English as we have no equivalent word, in the way that we also have words from many other languages.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,347)

The name says it all.

Sam C

#183108 Sat, 14 Jan 06 02:24 PM

in addition to what others have said, the distinction between vowel and consonant is not clear cut. no dividing line. /w/, the sound at the beginning of words like 'witch', 'wear' and 'walk', is both vowel- and consonant-like.

when you look at how it's produced, pronunciation, it is similar to /u:/, the vowel in 'moon', except the tongue's a bit lower and further back and the lips are slightly closer together. still, there's very little obstruction of air flow.

when you look at how it patterns, its distribution, the places it occurs in words, it seems subject to the constraints of consonants. how often does the sound at the beginning of 'walk' occur before anything but a vowel?

in linguistics speak, phonetically it's vowel-like, phonemically it's consonant-like.

sam

Sam C

Joined on Mon, Dec 19 2005

New Member (45)

Vowels, Consonants, Pronunciation

Anonymous

#242642 Tue, 04 Jul 06 06:13 PM

i guss its a vowel i never new that until my kids told me.

Anonymous

Vowels

Anonymous

#264027 Fri, 08 Sep 06 04:54 AM

Good thread. My friends and I were just arguing over whether W is a vowel or a consonant. Reply #2 disproved both sides, which is good to know that there's a middle ground.

Anonymous