英语词汇vowel的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

vowel. Our word vowel comes ultimately from the Latin vo- calis and is first recorded in the late 13th century. The most common vowel sound in English is the upside down e (;sw) of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the unaccented syllable that is found in so many English words—as in the first sylla- ble of attend, observer, and alleviate; in the last syllable of words like custom and sofa; and in most pronunciations of the indefinite article, such as a man. Alistair Cooke makes this point in discussing the lack of phonetic training in England and America, venturing that 99 scholars in 100 wouldn’t know it. Few would know, either, that w and y are also letters that can represent vowel sounds, of which there are as many as 23 in English. Fewer still would know that the English word with the most consecutive vowel sounds is queueing, lining up, which has five. The word with the most consonants in a row? Maybe the six in latchstring. In order of use, the seven most frequent vowel sounds are ;sw, a, ai, o, u, w, and y. When a certain Dr. Vowel died in the early 19th century, a certain Dr. Barton Warren commented to a friend: “Thank Heaven it was neither you nor I!”

词汇	vowel
词源	vowel. Our word vowel comes ultimately from the Latin vo- calis and is first recorded in the late 13th century. The most common vowel sound in English is the upside down e (;sw) of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the unaccented syllable that is found in so many English words—as in the first sylla- ble of attend, observer, and alleviate; in the last syllable of words like custom and sofa; and in most pronunciations of the indefinite article, such as a man. Alistair Cooke makes this point in discussing the lack of phonetic training in England and America, venturing that 99 scholars in 100 wouldn’t know it. Few would know, either, that w and y are also letters that can represent vowel sounds, of which there are as many as 23 in English. Fewer still would know that the English word with the most consecutive vowel sounds is queueing, lining up, which has five. The word with the most consonants in a row? Maybe the six in latchstring. In order of use, the seven most frequent vowel sounds are ;sw, a, ai, o, u, w, and y. When a certain Dr. Vowel died in the early 19th century, a certain Dr. Barton Warren commented to a friend: “Thank Heaven it was neither you nor I!”
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