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From: "Vladimir Menkov" <vmenkov@cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Question: Vowelless word
Message-ID: <1995Mar13.213605.29258@news.cs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University
References: <3k0rl6$mq7@netnews.upenn.edu> <AARS9PlG74@mlan.msk.ru>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 21:36:00 -0500
Lines: 29

In article <AARS9PlG74@mlan.msk.ru>,
Helena V. Lazareva  <helena@mlan.msk.ru> wrote:
...
>As far as I know since I was a student, "wolf" in Czekh ("vlk") is
>a typical vowelless word. 

Actually there are a couple of authors in the USA with this last name
(obviously, of Czech (or perhaps Croatian?) origin). I always wondered
how they pronounce they last name. I already know that thouse with the
last name Zajac sometimes use the pronunciation "Zey-dzhik" (or maybe
Zay-chik :-)

>Secondly,  the symbol "tvyordy znak" from the point of
>view of a Russian cannot be considered a vowell. Thus some Bulgarian
>words, as for example "angle" (containing two tv.znak's) look perfectly vowelless.

Well, but I think that the "yer" is pronounced in Bulgarian more or
less like a schwa, so for a Bulgarian speaker this is just a word
with two vowels... 

But of course for a Russian speaker the _appearance_ of such a written
word (wow! not a single vowel) is as impressive as that of the name
of the Tuvan capital Kyzyl for some Americans. (See Feynman's "Tuva
or bust!").

	--Vld.



