Language with vowelless words

[BWL]

I have a colleague of Moroccan origin whose home is not Moroccan Arabic but rather Berber of the Shilha variety. His grandparents migrated from the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco to France about 30 years ago but raised all their children and grandchildren to speak Tachlhiyt (the local Berber dialect spoken in the High Atlas Mountains) and some Moroccan Arabic.

Tachlhiyt, like some other Berber dialects has words with no vowels. It is astonishing to hear my friend's grandmother say "Tktit!" meaning "You remembered!". Yes, it is "tktit" with only one vowel in the whole word (an "i").

"You cancelled" is "tfskht". A really amazing language.

[rgaz83]

Wow, I'm having a hard time even imagining what that sounds like. I'll have to try to find a recording somewhere. 

[Trellum]

Well, this isn't really new for me   Hebrew has no vowels   I've been reading hebrew since I was little, mostly religious texts (they had nikkud) so reading them wasn't as hard as most people would think.  There aren't that many languages that use no vowels, so far the only voweless language I had heard about was hebrew. I don't think I'll be learning the colloquial version of it anytime soon

[rgaz83]

Well, this isn't really new for me   Hebrew has no vowels   I've been reading hebrew since I was little, mostly religious texts (they had nikkud) so reading them wasn't as hard as most people would think.  There aren't that many languages that use no vowels, so far the only voweless language I had heard about was hebrew. I don't think I'll be learning the colloquial version of it anytime soon

Hebrew has vowels? They just don't tend to be written. At least, that is what I have heard before.

[Trellum]

Hebrew has vowels? They just don't tend to be written. At least, that is what I have heard before.

Hebrew has no vowels, at least that's what my hebrew school teacher used to say.  The hebrew alphabet has no vowels, but sometimes the nikkud are used (and that's why it is so easy to read religious texts).  But native hebrew speakers don't need this, because in Israel nikkud isn't used at all.  only on religious texts.  If you don't believe me, check this out: http://graftedinelena.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/the-hebrew-language-%E2%80%93-no-vowels/

Right, it has no vowels; it has instead 22 consonants and the words and sentences read from RIGHT TO LEFT!

I heard Yiddish speakers use nikkud a lot when they write, not sure about that.  I had an ashkenazi friend whose mother language was yiddish, but we never talked about languages...    We talked about a lot things, but languages never crossed our minds  

[mccanono]

with all due respect, I thought that word was just a series of random keyboard strokes. Haha.

I don't even know how to pronounce those words. Tough.

[rgaz83]

Hebrew has no vowels, at least that's what my hebrew school teacher used to say.  The hebrew alphabet has no vowels, but sometimes the nikkud are used (and that's why it is so easy to read religious texts).  But native hebrew speakers don't need this, because in Israel nikkud isn't used at all.  only on religious texts.  If you don't believe me, check this out: http://graftedinelena.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/the-hebrew-language-%E2%80%93-no-vowels/

I heard Yiddish speakers use nikkud a lot when they write, not sure about that.  I had an ashkenazi friend whose mother language was yiddish, but we never talked about languages...    We talked about a lot things, but languages never crossed our minds

Yes, there are no written vowels, but that doesn't mean that there are no vowel sounds. Indeed, the use of nikkud, however sparingly, indicates that there are vowels. There is a huge difference between a language with no vowels and one that just has no vowels written.

[Trellum]

Yes, there are no written vowels, but that doesn't mean that there are no vowel sounds. Indeed, the use of nikkud, however sparingly, indicates that there are vowels. There is a huge difference between a language with no vowels and one that just has no vowels written.

I think most languages have vowel sounds   but hebrew is the closest to being a voweless language, not many languages out there are written with no vowels.  So for me that qualifies as voweless language, since the alphabet uses NO VOWELS, and consists of consonants. 

[mareebaybay]

Words with no vowels seem very strange to me. They seem strange to me, because it is almost impossible to have words with no vowels. After thinking about it though I can fully understand how such a thing is actually possible. There are english words that have no vowels, it is just not common.

[justusforus]

Looking at both examples, my challenge would be how to even venture to guess the correct pronunciation.  Even with a vowel, you still have to decide a hard or a soft pronunciation, but with none at all it seems like driving with no lines on the road.  You have gotten me curious enough that I too will check online  to try and hear those words produced.

[SpiralArchitect]

with all due respect, I thought that word was just a series of random keyboard strokes. Haha.

I don't even know how to pronounce those words. Tough.

There are a bunch of other African languages with no vowel sounds or with approximations of vowel sounds. You'll have to listen to a recording to figure out the pronunciations.  :grin: