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Is there a language known to have no minimal pairs separating vowels, or in which only one vowel exists phonemically in the language, or whose speakers don't detect a difference between any two vowels when they appear in words in the language? (My knowledge of linguistics is poor enough that I'm not sure whether those three criteria are identical.)

Alenanno
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msh210
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  • According to this site, Ubyx has the fewest vowel sounds at 2. That said, English has more vowel sounds than vowels, so I'm not sure if that's what you want. (Warning: that site also lists a "longest English word" which is not actaully a possible thing. Take everything on that site witha grain of salt) – acattle Jun 29 '12 at 06:05
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    @acattle, thanks. I don't know what you mean by "English has more vowel sounds than vowels": more phones than phonemes? Also (though less relevant to my question), I don't understand why you say a longest English word can't exist: English has been around a finite number of seconds, spoken by a finite number of people, so there've been finitely many words spoken; surely one of them is longest. – msh210 Jun 29 '12 at 06:07
  • I meant that in English both the long and short vowel phoneme are assigned to the same written vowel. Also, the most common vowel in English, the schwa, is not assigned to any written vowel (it can be pretty much any vowel depending on the word). So if you ask a child "what are the English vowels?" they say "a, e, i, o ,u, and sometimes y" but if you ask a linguist then you get a more complicated answer. – acattle Jun 29 '12 at 06:10
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    @acattle, re vowels, thanks, but I wasn't referring in the question to orthography at all. Re longest word, we can discuss it, but it seems irrelevant to the question, so this is probably not the right place to do so. – msh210 Jun 29 '12 at 06:14
  • You are correct. I was just pointing it out to say that that website might not be very reliable, from a lingusit's point of view I can't edit my original comment but I will delete my off-topic comment. On topic: Ubyx Vowel Phonology – acattle Jun 29 '12 at 06:16
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    There is an analysis of Arrernte (Pama-Nyungan) which finds it to have only one phonemic vowel. I'll dig out the paper. – Gaston Ümlaut Jun 29 '12 at 07:16
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    Wikipedia on Ubykh vowel phonology, Wikipedia on Arrernte vowel phonology. – hippietrail Jun 29 '12 at 08:40
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    According to the WALS chapter on vowel quality inventories, "the smallest vowel quality inventory recorded is 2 and the largest 14". – Otavio Macedo Jun 29 '12 at 15:58
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    @OtavioMacedo, if the WALS is considered authoritative, then that sounds like an answer. (And thanks.) – msh210 Jun 29 '12 at 16:02
  • @msh210, re: "I don't know what you mean by "English has more vowel sounds than vowels": more phones than phonemes?" I was under the impression that the term "vowel sounds" includes vowels and diphthongs. – James Grossmann Jul 02 '12 at 08:13
  • @JamesGrossmann, oh, thanks. As indicated in the question, my knowledge of linguistics is not great. – msh210 Jul 02 '12 at 15:32

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There's a famous 1960 book by Aert Kuipers called Phoneme and Morpheme in Kabardian (Eastern Adyghe), in which he argues that there is only one phonemic vowel in Kabardian, because it has so many distinctive phonemic consonants that their features determine the features of adjoining vowels. This produces a fairly normal profile of phonetic vowel variation ("normal", at least, for a NW Caucasian language), but only requires that the positions of the vowels be marked phonemically, since all their phonetic features are predictable from their position among surrounding consonants.

This is an extreme case, and there was a big debate on the subject; the final outcome seems to be that there are now three phonemic vowels recognized in Kabardian, sort of like PIE laryngeals. But there are still some afterthoughts.

Ergo this entry, from Jim McCawley's Days in the Month of May that are of Interest to Linguists:

  • May 13. Vowel Day. (Public holiday in Kabardian Autonomous Region). The ceremonial vowel is pronounced by all Kabardians as a symbol of brotherhood with all speakers of human languages.
jlawler
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