Vowel in each syllable?

In phonology /l/ amd /m/ can be considered a syllabics letters.

Yes, congratulate her.

The written language does not parallel exactly the spoken language (and it can’t, given speech variations and change over time.)

One problem you’re having is the “schwa” vowel. This vowel has no exact written form. In phonetics it’s shown by a symbol like an upside-down lower-case e. This is the common unstressed vowel in English, the sort of unstressed short “uh”; the second and third vowels in “elephant”.

If I use the keyboard symbol # to represent the schwa, E for so-called short e, and ’ to mark stress. “elephant” is pronounced [El’ # f#nt]

With that clear, then the next symbol problem is th as in this, that; we also have no easy keyboard symbol for that so I’ll just leave th.

So the word “rhythm” is pronounced [rith’ #m]
The schwa vowel is never stressed and is very short and soft, but it does count as a vowel, and forms a syllable.

By the way, please DO NOT insert a third vowel and third syllable into “athlete”, which doesn’t need one.

It’s one of those questions of degree and dialect. We do keep “voicing” the vowel sound so your friendly neighborhood dictionary agrees it’s a syllable.

So… do you know the word that has no vowel??? (SHHH! Don’t tell!)

But… my dictionary let me down yesterday… there was a “stray carrot” on a web page - and I *knew* she meant a stray < mark… she meant carat? Yes… but Merriam Webster didn’t think so.

In my Webster’s Collegiate (circa 1960), I find “rhythm” but no rhythum. I believe you are thinking of the word that would be used in this sentence: “I have a great sense of rhythm; I’m a good dancer.” If so, it is rhythm, or so says Mr. Webster.

Rhythm, according to Webster, is a one syllable word with only one vowel sound (/i/); however, dialectic differences often make us pronounce as two syllables, especially from the more southern regions.

I teach my students that a syllable is a word part with one—and only one—vowel sound. That could be two letters as in /ou/ or /au/, but would not—since I’ve been teaching—include letters that are separated by consonants.

Rhythm is a word that I generally look up or use spell-check. I want to add an “n” at the end, an extra “u” or something…I just doesn’t seem right.

If you’ve seen “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”…It comes from the Greek root word “rhythmos” meaning “to flow.” So there you have it! Opa!

If you haven’t seen the Greek Wedding, I highly recommend it. We laughed out loud with the whole audience. John Corbett is precious!

Actually, the word you are looking for is “caret”. Yes, it sounds just like “carrot” and “carat”, another of those “to, too, two” homophone sets. I can’t type a caret on the internet without special codes; it’s shaped like > but with the arrow pointing upwards.
The term caret used to be a specialized printer’s technical term, I believe. Now that we all have printers and everyone’s knowledgeable about fonts and point sizes these things are moving into the standard language.
The upward arrow caret is used a lot in math and science to express exponentials, since it’s hard to type superscripts on calculators or internet.

Back to baptism, comunism, rhythm, and so on, well, I don’t think Mr. Webster is the last word. Usually I go for the old Oxford but it’s so heavy (library discard) that it’s a major operation to use it. Maybe later. Mr. Webster did a fine job in many ways, but his goal was to simplify the American form of the English language, and he would often rather force the word to obey the rule than modify the rule to fit the word.

I don’t think it’s dialect either. My dialect is central Canadian, similar to general American but with a few British and Scottish tendencies. We also have a multicultural city here in Montreal. Everyone I know says “rhythm” with a second unstressed schwa syllable.

Hmmmmm? A word with no vowells? Perhaps some tv show’ll let me know. Well for us Southerners - we can turn the word “I” into a two syllable word - so how bout that? Two syllables - 1 letter. Of course some call it a diphthong (you don’t wear em at the beach) but if you’re real Southern - elongated diphthongs become vowells.

My name for instance: Ken (properly pronounced Ki ‘- un)

Other words for thought: couldn’t’ve wouldn’t’ve shouldn’t’ve never’ve d’y’all’s

Thanks for the nice word games.

I’m sorry, but speaking of elongated diphthongs in mixed company is in poor taste…

You’re too much, y’all! Opa!

Well, for those of us in math, there’s an easy word that is *written* without a vowel, although it is *said* with one:

nth, pronounced “enth”.

What does it mean? Well, n stands for any number, most often a counting number, so you count one, two, three, four, five, six, … , n

and then the ordinals are first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, …, nth.

Honest, not a joke — you’ll see it in any advanced algebra text.

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When I was living in Maryland, standing in Kmart one day I heard one of the staff say a complete sentence without a single consonant!
The best transcription I can make on the computer is

yaw ee’uh yeh?

Translation available after you make your best guesses (points for creativity)

Canadian: You’re here, eh?
Southern: Ya’ll are here, huh?
New York: Youse guys made it, ah?

You eaten yet?

//

Not the translation yet.

Close, but missing one detail

Thanks for the input. I actually mispelled the word initially as I typed what I heard! Yes, the correct spelling is rhythm. I too am a transplanted US southerner who can po on a drawl so I hear two syllables when I say rhythm.

I did explain to the student that if we are using the vowel(s) as a marker for counting syllables the explanation is likely the schwa sound but wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. And sure enough Patti, I learned something new. Susan, we searched two dictionaries, one online and my Webster New World American English dictionary (1972) and found they both listed the word as two syllables.

What dictionaries do you all use? Mine is need of replacement. A British English dictionary would be easier to find here than an American one but would like the name of a good American English dictionary as well. Have a good dall y’all. Keila

My more recent pocket version of American Heritage listed rhythm as two syllables with a schwa vowel in the 2nd syllable. My Websters New Collegiate (9173) lists rhythm as one syllable. Language is an evolving topic.

My house is full of dictionaries - but I like rhyming dictionaries and dictionaries of slang and word origins. If I’m really in a fix - I go to the library and open up that giant one in the middle of the room. Then I get stuck there for 10 -30 minutes - just thumbing through and learning.

I loved the word “nth”

My son asked where the abbreviation (lb.) came from. I forgot.

I just love language, too. I even enjoyed my class on history of linguistics. (That’s kind of sick, I guess.) I enjoy telling my kids w/reading disorders about language history. Helps ‘em know why things are not absolute like in math or other languages.

I even like foreign dictionaries. I especially like English/American dictionaries of root words—word builder kinds of things.

You are, I see from Great Leaps, quite the poetry writer. My kids seem to enjoy doing your poems. We sometimes do them like a reader’s theater or in two voices. Frog Chant is one that is fun in two voices.

Lb. from Latin “librum” which meant a weight, I think something similar to the British pound weight. It also meant “book” and with both meanings was adapted into French as “livre”.

OK, question: How many others of you out there read to yourself “lub” for lb., “ozz” for oz., etc.? I have to translate into English when reading aloud.