The "Real" Definition of Vowel....do you believe it?

[StarSwirl05]

So today I was told of a new definition for the word "vowel", that basically says if it isn't pronounced, it's not a vowel, not what we think a vowel is ("a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes "y") Take "bird" for instance. We never pronounce the "i" so with this definition it isn't a vowel. Of course, I'm totally not a believer of this because what if you have an accent? You may pronounce things differently. So is this a definition you've heard of before or is it totally new?

[Kiwi]

Can't say I've ever heard that.

A lot of time the vowel is present in the sound (even in "bird"), you just aren't noticing it as a separate sound.

[LeighAnnApanites]

That's different. I've never heard that before. And, since I'm a word nerd, I went and looked it up. Two different dictionaries say a vowel is a sound that doesn't interrupt the flow of air (paraphrasing, of course) or one of the letters that make that sound, so I guess you could make the argument that if it's not pronounced, it's not a vowel, but like kiwi said, they're not always obvious. A silent "e" might fit that example, but . . . huh . . . interesting.

[Eviecorn]

I can safely say, as someone who holds an English degree, that I've never, ever heard this.

[kaoskat]

That's nuts. I've never heard such a thing and refuse to accept its absurdity. Of course I also refuse to accept that J has no top.

[rybett]

I reject that reality and substitute the real one.

[Daiyuflower]

Well I took a phonetics class once, and I would say that that is probably the phonetic definition of a vowel.  It must be "voiced" or pronounced to be considered a vowel in the context of that word.  If you were to write out "bird" using the phonetic alphabet, it would probably appear as [brd] because the usual "i" sound is not present. 

[Griffin]

Well I took a phonetics class once, and I would say that that is probably the phonetic definition of a vowel.  It must be "voiced" or pronounced to be considered a vowel in the context of that word.  If you were to write out "bird" using the phonetic alphabet, it would probably appear as [brd] because the usual "i" sound is not present.

Daiyuflower has right, except that the phonetic - or rather, phonemic - transcription would be something like /bɜːd/ or /bɜːrd/ depending on whether you pronounce the /r/ or not. So this word has a mid-central vowel sound /ɜ/, very different from the /i/ (/ɪ/) sound that you have, for instance, in 'hit', regardless of the fact that both words are spelled with 'i'. 

The key question is, are we talking about written or spoken language? (And what language, although here I'm sure it's safe to make references to English only. ) That is, whether the term 'vowel' refers to phonemes (sounds) or graphemes ("letters"). In a phonetic context, a vowel can be defined like LeighAnnApanines suggested, a voiced sound where the air flow is not interrupted or obstructed, as opposed to consonants. Every language has a different set of vowel sounds, and a different set of consonant sounds, but the Latin alphabet has only a limited number of letters so it's impossible to have a single character (grapheme) to represent every individual vowel sound. In the case of English, the representations are particularly obscured due to historical reasons (e.g. sound changes known as the Great Vowel Shift that took place somewhere between the 15th and 18th century, after the English spelling system had largely been standardized). That is why a single vowel sound, let alone a diphtong (two vowel sounds combined into one), can be represented in several ways in spelling. Cf. for example 'meat' and 'sleek' for /i:/ ("ee") or 'take', 'break', 'wait', 'hey' for /ei/ ("ey").

When referring to graphemes, a vowel is any grapheme that is used for describing the actual vowel sounds, i.e. usually 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', and 'u', but there may be others. 'y' may be used to represent a vowel or a consonant depending on the environment it occurs in, e.g. /baɪ/ (by) vs. /jɛloʊ/ (yellow). Notice that the character 'y' is not used in the phonemic transcriptions of either of these words. In Finnish, 'y' represents the vowel /y/, a close rounded vowel close to the German sound spelled with 'ü'. (Try to say the long /i:/ of 'sleek' with rounded lips and you'll get a sound close to /y:/.) In addition, Finnish has two more vowels: 'ä' and 'ö', pronounced as /æ/ and /ø/ respectively. The first one you have in the English word 'cat', the second one doesn't occur in English but it's a mid vowel like the one you have in 'bird' or 'the'.

Okay, I think it's time to stop, this is getting way too technical and complicated. Long story short: 'bird' does indeed have one vowel sound (and two or three consonant sounds depending on the speaker's accent). Or if you're referring to its written form, four graphemes of which one is a vowel and three are consonants. In any case, 'i' is only one way of representing this vowel sound, others would include e.g. 'ea' as in 'heard', which has two graphemes to represent a single sound. In many English words the characters do not represent the sounds very accurately, as the spelling may have been fixed before the pronunciation.

[banditpony]

Wow Griffin That's awesome information ~

[babylofty]

So today I was told of a new definition for the word "vowel", that basically says if it isn't pronounced, it's not a vowel, not what we think a vowel is ("a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes "y") Take "bird" for instance. We never pronounce the "i" so with this definition it isn't a vowel. Of course, I'm totally not a believer of this because what if you have an accent? You may pronounce things differently. So is this a definition you've heard of before or is it totally new?

I'm curious as to who told you this - a friend or a teacher? If it was a teacher, they need to go back to school!

[StarSwirl05]

So today I was told of a new definition for the word "vowel", that basically says if it isn't pronounced, it's not a vowel, not what we think a vowel is ("a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and sometimes "y") Take "bird" for instance. We never pronounce the "i" so with this definition it isn't a vowel. Of course, I'm totally not a believer of this because what if you have an accent? You may pronounce things differently. So is this a definition you've heard of before or is it totally new?

I'm curious as to who told you this - a friend or a teacher? If it was a teacher, they need to go back to school!

My dad did, and he showed the definition via his cell phone as well.

[Vintergatan]

I think Griffin's post is a clear indicator that this is no simple issue for a linguist. Simplistic definitions such as the one your dad told you are usually a sign of a layperson taking out the only thing they understood from a very complex read (no offence to anyone of course )

I also hold a degree in linguistics (albeit Scandinavian) and as someone who had to tackle Danish vocals I can outright tell you that things are never that simple

But as I said, Griffin's post should illustrate my point quite well ^^