White Flag -- "rythm", no vowel in

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 19, 2012, at 6:54 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

> I think the word cwm functions primarily as an answer to trivia questions

And secondarily as a way to use up your Scrabble rack at the end of the game, once you've already spent your (real) vowels.

LH
>
> cwm  (km)
> n.  See cirque.
> [Welsh, valley.]
> cwm [kuË∆m]
> n  1. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) (in Wales) a valley
>    2. (Earth Sciences / Geological Science) Geology another name for cirque [1]
>
> http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cwm
>
> Definition of CWM
> chiefly British
> : cirque 3
> Origin of CWM
> Welsh, valley
> First Known Use: 1853
>
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cwm
>
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 6:01 PM, Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon at cox.net> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon at COX.NET>
>> Organization: Maybe tomorrow
>> Subject:      White Flag  -- "rythm", no vowel in
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I am really going to have to show my ignorance now.
>>
>> When I was little, the officially sanctioned vowels were "AEIOU and
>> sometimes W and Y".
>>
>> All theses years since I have (when four-leaf clovers are plentiful)
>> searched for an occurrence of an English "w" making what seems to me to
>> be a vowel sound (what ever THAT turns out to mean), and one of "y" that
>> does not.
>>
>> (For me, a "vowel sound" is one that allows me to pronounce successive
>> sharp-edged consonants.)
>>
>> Would somebody pleas point me to an example of each?
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