Single-phoneme "and"

Discussion of natural languages, or language in general.
Post Reply
User avatar
alice
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 707
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 4:43 pm
Location: Three of them

Single-phoneme "and"

Post by alice »

Is there any language in which the word for "and" is /u/? It's easy to find examples for the other four principal vowels.

For that matter, are there any other words which are /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/ in various languages?
Zompist's Markov generator wrote:it was labelled" orange marmalade," but that is unutterably hideous.

User avatar
Soap
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1228
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: Scattered disc
Contact:

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Soap »

Wiktionary says that Maltese is one example:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/u#Maltese

It maybe mutates depending on surrounding phonemes, but I'd still say that if it's /u/ in bare form, then it's a winner.
Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey says:
Image

Yng
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 880
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 3:17 pm
Location: Llundain

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Yng »

Syrian Arabic and lots of other Arabic dialects.
كان يا ما كان / يا صمت العشية / قمري هاجر في الصبح بعيدا / في العيون العسلية

tà yi póbo tsùtsùr ciivà dè!

short texts in Cuhbi

Risha Cuhbi grammar

zompist
Boardlord
Boardlord
Posts: 3368
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:26 pm
Location: In the den
Contact:

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by zompist »

alice wrote:For that matter, are there any other words which are /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/ in various languages?
Probably the other simple conjunctions. I'll start you off with

/a/ - Russian but
/e/ - Aromanian and/or/but
/o/ - Spanish or
/u/ - Portuguese or

Or maybe 'one'.

a - Luwian, Dzorgai Qiang
e - Bijiang Bai
i - Harzani, Hmong, Mandarin
u - Valencian, Makasai

Sadly, no /o/. But as a bonus:

ɨ - Northern Li
ɯ - Qi
å - Thayetmo

Zju
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 243
Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 11:10 am

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Zju »

Bulgarian uses five out of its six vowels as standalone words, and the sixth as interjection:

/a/ - and, but
/ɔ/ - at (archaic); oh!
/u/ - in (for animate nouns)
/ɛ/ - is (be.3.SG.PRS)
/i/ - and
/ɤ/ - huh?; well...

but there's more:

/f/ - in (or /v/, I'm sure it could be analysed as either)
/s/ - with
/ʃ/ - FUT= (very marked, only in quite colloquial and fast speech)

User avatar
Arzena
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 240
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:19 pm
Location: ¡California, Tejas, Marruecos!

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Arzena »

Moroccan Arabic's word for 'and', which varies between [o] and .
A New Yorker wrote:Isn't it sort of a relief to talk about the English Premier League instead of the sad state of publishing?
Abi wrote:At this point it seems pretty apparent that PIE was simply an ancient esperanto gone awry.
Shtåså, Empotle7á, Neire Wippwo

User avatar
clawgrip
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1723
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:21 am
Location: Tokyo

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by clawgrip »

alice wrote:For that matter, are there any other words which are /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/ in various languages?
Japanese:
i stomach
u cormorant
e picture, へ e to; toward
o tail (not used so much), を o accusative particle

svld
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:08 pm
Location: tw

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by svld »

Taiwanese
i - heal
e - shoe
a - crow
o - black
u - have

User avatar
alice
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 707
Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2002 4:43 pm
Location: Three of them

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by alice »

Aaaargh!!! I'll rephrase the question as I really meant it:

Are there any *individual* words (perhaps "lexemes"?) which are *each of* /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/ in various languages? So if "cormorant " is /a/ in no language, it doesn't count.
Zompist's Markov generator wrote:it was labelled" orange marmalade," but that is unutterably hideous.

Magb
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:42 am
Location: Oslo, Norway

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Magb »

zompist wrote:å - Thayetmo
I've never heard of this language, and googling it is proving difficult (some quick and dirty research indicates it's possibly a dialect of this language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C3%B6_language, is that right?). Do you happen to know how they came to use <å>, and what vowel it represents?
alice wrote:Aaaargh!!! I'll rephrase the question as I really meant it:

Are there any *individual* words (perhaps "lexemes"?) which are *each of* /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, and /u/ in various languages? So if "cormorant " is /a/ in no language, it doesn't count.
I think I got you. Let me see if I remember how to logic:
V={a,e,i,o,u}
L=a language
W=a word
Alice's Universal Vowel Word Conjecture: ∃W. ∀V. ∃L. W∈L ∧ W∈V
Or in English: Does there exist a word such that for all the vowels a/e/i/o/u there exists a language where that word is that vowel?

zompist
Boardlord
Boardlord
Posts: 3368
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 8:26 pm
Location: In the den
Contact:

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by zompist »

Magb wrote:
zompist wrote:å - Thayetmo
I've never heard of this language, and googling it is proving difficult (some quick and dirty research indicates it's possibly a dialect of this language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C3%B6_language, is that right?). Do you happen to know how they came to use <å>, and what vowel it represents?
Yes, that's it. Wherever I have å in my numbers list, it's likely to come from Grierson's Survey of India, and represents [ɔ].

User avatar
Ser
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1542
Joined: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:55 am
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia / Colombie Britannique, Canada

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Ser »

Spanish:

a - to, towards
e - allomorph of y 'and' (used before a word starting with /i/: padres e hijos /"pad4es e "ixos/)
i - 'go!' (Central American dialectal imperative of ir 'to go')
y /i/ - and
o - or
u - allomorph of o 'or' (used before a word starting with /o/: siete u ocho /"sjete u "otSo/)

User avatar
clawgrip
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1723
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:21 am
Location: Tokyo

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by clawgrip »

to/toward:
a: various Romance
e: Japanese, Korean
i: Welsh, Samoan, Hawaiian
o: ??
u: Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian

Anyone know one for o?

hwhatting
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 2315
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2002 2:49 am
Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by hwhatting »

clawgrip wrote:to/toward:
Anyone know one for o?
In a pinch, we could count French au here ("to" plus male article)...

User avatar
clawgrip
Smeric
Smeric
Posts: 1723
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:21 am
Location: Tokyo

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by clawgrip »

Yes, I was thinking that...since au is "to the" it is sort of acceptable and sort of not.

Echobeats
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 183
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:17 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Echobeats »

Scandinavian languages have /O/ for "and". Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic spell it <og>, and Swedish spells it <och>.

Anyone know of a language with a single consonant phoneme for "and"? Say /m/ or /n/?
[i]Linguistics will become a science when linguists begin standing on one another's shoulders instead of on one another's toes.[/i]
—Stephen R. Anderson

[i]Málin eru höfuðeinkenni þjóðanna.[/i]
—Séra Tómas Sæmundsson

Axiem
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 260
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 8:15 pm

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Axiem »

Colloquial American English uses /n/ for conjunction. To the point where it's in the names of restaurants: "Steak 'n Shake", "In 'n Out Burger", or music genres: "rock 'n' roll".

User avatar
Jonlang
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 305
Joined: Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:21 am
Location: Cymru
Contact:

Re: Single-phoneme "and"

Post by Jonlang »

Welsh has:

a /a/ - and
â /aː/ - with/by means of
y /ə/ - the
i /iː/ - to/for
e /eː/ - he
o /ɔ/ - he/from/of

Although some of these have alternate forms too.
My conlangery Twitter: @Jonlang_
Me? I'm just a lawn-mower; you can tell me by the way I walk.

Post Reply