From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of words that comprise a single sound
List of words that comprise a single sound
Languages may or may not allow words that consist of • : DeFrancis, ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, pocket ed.
a single phoneme. Of those that do, these are generally • : The Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project
vowels that serve as function words (grammar words,
like prepositions and pronouns), such as English a and
I; interjections, such as English ah! and sh!; or ono-
See also
matopoeia, such as zzz... for sleeping. However, there are • Words without consonants
a smaller number of cases of content words that also con- • Words without vowels
sist of a single vowel sound. These are especially com-
mon in monosyllabic tonal languages such as those of
East Asia. Words that consist of a single consonant sound
are rarer.
This is a list of content words in various languages
that comprise a single sound, in the sense that they can
be written with a single letter of the International Pho-
netic Alphabet not counting diacritics, and that stand on
their own. Only national or official languages with more
than ten million speakers are included.
Notes:
• Function words, interjections and onomatopoeia,
proper names, and words which cannot stand on
their own (like French a ’(s/he) has’) are excluded
from the list. With such words, contrived vowel-only
sentences can be made, such as dialectal Swedish Å i
åa ä e ö "And in the stream there is an island".
• The entries roughly follow the alphabetical order of
the IPA letters, based on graphic similarity.
Vowels
Consonants
Single consonants are much less common as words. Slav-
ic languages have consonantal prepositions, such as
Russian к /k/ ’to’, с /s/ ’with’, and в /v/ ’in’, but these
cannot stand on their own and so are not phonetic words.
References
[1] Caturvedi, A Practical Hindi-English Dictionary
[2] Francis Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English
Dictionary
[3] Angol–magyar nagyszótár (English–Hungarian
concise dictionary), Scriptum GIB, CD-ROM, László
Országh, 1999, ISBN 963-05-6963-9.
• : Oxford English Dictionary 2
• : Petit Robert 1
• : Cassell’s Italian Dictionary
• : Shinmeikai Kokugo Jiten 4
Jeffrey’s Japanese↔English Dictionary Server
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of words that comprise a single sound
Sound Written Meaning Language Notes
IPA)
(IPA) form
/a/ 唖 muteness Japanese obscure
/aː/ aa stream, river Dutch rare
/aː/ आ, آ come on! Hindi,[1] Per- used with younger than ego
sian[2]
/ɐ̃ː/ ả big sister Vietnamese dialectical
/ɑ̃/ an year French
/e/ 柄 handle, stem Japanese
/eꜜ/ 絵 1. painting, drawing Japanese
餌 2. feed, bait
/ē/ ê to be numb, ashamed Vietnamese
/ê/ ề let’s go! Vietnamese
/ě/ ế not saleable, unmarried Vietnamese
/eː/ air English Australian and Irish accents
ere (hay, hair, hare as well in h-dropping ac-
eyre cents)
heir
/ɛ/ haie hedge French
ais plank
/ɛ̄/ e to be afraid Vietnamese
/ɛː/ ? child Korean
/ɝː/ err to make a mistake English
/ɤ́/ ē to defecate and urinate Mandarin colloquial
/ɤ̌/ é 1. chant a poem Mandarin
2. a goose
3. a moth
4. to blackmail; erroneous
/ɤ̂/ è 1. hungry, to starve Mandarin
2. evil; fierce; to dislike
3. to hiccup
4. to grip, control
5. harness
6. palate
7. fish hawk
8. calyx
/ɤ̄ː/ ơ clay pot, be indifferent Vietnamese
/ɤ̃ː/ ở to reside, to stay Vietnamese
/ɤ̂ˀː/ ợ to belch Vietnamese
/i/ hie hie (tool) French
y there, to it
/i/ 胃 stomach Japanese Also ’boar’ below.
/i/ ? 1. tooth Korean (Sino-Korean)
2. louse
3. two
4. cog
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of words that comprise a single sound
/iꜜ/ 偉 1. greatness Japanese ’boar’ is /iꜜ/ or /i/.
意 2. feelings, meaning
医 3. medicine
井 4. a well
亥 5. boar
寝 6. sleep
藺 7. a rush
/î/ yì 1. a unit of weight Mandarin
2. a line in a dancing group
3. meaning
/î/ ì be inert, sluggish Vietnamese
/îˀ/ ị defecate Vietnamese
/ī/ y to conform Vietnamese
/ĩ/ ỷ to depend on, Idesia, niche for ancestral Vietnamese
tablets
/ǐ/ ý an idea, intention, circumspection Vietnamese
/o/ eau water French
haut high
os bones (pl)
/oꜜ/ 尾 1. tail, ridge Japanese
雄 2. a male
緒 3. cord, thread
/ō/ ô suburb, betel box, umbrella, square Vietnamese
/ô/ ồ to rush Vietnamese
/õ/ ổ nest, bed Vietnamese
/ǒ/ ố spotted, dirty Vietnamese
/oː/ ó old Hungarian[3] used mostly in compounds
/oː/ ? five Korean (Sino-Korean)
/oː/ å stream Swedish
/oː/ owe English Irish accent
/ø/ œufs eggs French
/øː/ ö isle Swedish
/øː/ ? outside Korean pronounced [weː] by many
/øː/ öö night Estonian
/øˀ/ ø island Danish
/ɔˀ/ å (small) river Danish
/ɔ̄/ o to flirt, paternal aunt/young girl, pork Vietnamese
larynx
/ɔ̌/ ó eagle Vietnamese
/ɔː/ awe fearful respect English h- words in aitch-dropping accents,
haw hawthorn berry -r words in non-rhotic accents
haw nictitating membrane
haw for a horse to turn to the left
hoar greyish
whore prostitute
oar paddle
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of words that comprise a single sound
ore metal-bearing mineral
ore seaweed
/œ̃/ un one French
/u/ août August French août is also pronounced /ut/
houe hoe
houx holly
/u/ ? 1. suddenly Korean top is pronounced /u/ in North Korea
2. top
/u/ 兎 The Hare, in the Chinese zodiac Japanese
/uꜜ/ 鵜 1. cormorant Japanese (2) is an inflection of eru
得 2. get, obtain
有 3. bhava
/ú/ wū 1. house, room Mandarin
2. filth, filthy, to defile
3. tungsten
4. a crow, black
5. shaman, wizard
/ǔ/ wú 1. there is not; nothing Mandarin
/ù/ wǔ 1. five Mandarin
2. a dance, to dance, to flourish
3. to seal, to muffle
4.martial, valiant
5. ranks
/û/ wù 1. a thing, matter Mandarin
2. mist, fog
3. an error, to miss, to harm
4. to realize
5. business, to strive for, to devote
6. to hate
7. to meet face to face
8. to warm up
/ū/ u mother, swollen, tumour, to swell Vietnamese
/û/ ù quickly Vietnamese
/ũ/ ủ to keep covered for warmth, sullen Vietnamese
/ûˀ/ ụ a mound, basin Vietnamese
/ɯ̌/ ứ to climb, to accumulate, to exude Vietnamese
/y/ eu, eue had French past participle of avoir (have)
/y/ ? top Korean pronounced [wi] by many
/ý/ yū 1. doctrinaire, abstruse Mandarin
2. silt, to silt up
/y̌/ yú 1. a fish Mandarin
2. the surplus
3. foolish
4. yu (a wind instrument)
5. to catch fish, usurp
6. to exceed
7. nook
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia List of words that comprise a single sound
/ỳ/ yǔ 1. to give, support Mandarin
2. rain
3. language
4. feather, wing
/ŷ/ yù 1. to encounter, to treat; treatment Mandarin
2. wish, desire
3. prison, lawsuit
4. recover
5. jade
6. residence; to reside
7. ravine
8. reputation; to praise
9. give birth to, raise
10. to drive a vehicle, to ward off; imperi-
al
11. in advance; to get ready
12. taro
13. region
14. sandpiper
Sound Written form Meaning Language Notes
m̏ 唔 1. not; to hold in the mouth Cantonese
嘸 2. unclear
ŋ̏ 吾 1. I, us Cantonese
梧 2. Firmiana simplex; support
蜈 3. centipede
鼯 4. giant flying squirrel
鋘 5. sword
ŋ̗ 五 1. five Cantonese
午 2. noon
啎, 忤 3. disobedient
伍 5. army; associate with
ŋ̀ 誤 1. err, error, interfere Cantonese
寤 2. scarce
晤 3. interview, meet
悟 4. realize
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