English words without vowels English words without vowels English orthography typically represents vowel sounds with the five conventional vowel letters , as well as , which may also be a consonant depending on context. However, outside of abbreviations, there are a handful of words in English that do not have vowels, either because the vowel sounds are not written with vowel letters or because the words themselves are pronounced without vowel sounds. There are very few lexical words (that is, not counting interjections) without vowel letters. The longest such lexical word is "tsktsks", pronounced . The mathematical expression "nth" , as in "delighted to
Phonological history of English high front vowels corresponded to similar Old English vowels, while came from Old English . For other possible histories, see English historical vowel correspondences. In particular, the long vowels sometimes arose from short vowels, via Middle English open syllable lengthening or other processes. For example, "team" comes from an originally long Old English vowel, while "eat" comes from an originally short vowel that underwent lengthening; the distinction between these two groups of words is still preserved in a few dialects, as noted in the following section. Middle English was shortened in certain words. Both long and short forms of such words often existed