Ranking : The language with more vowels

[loqu]

Well, I begin with the fact that I don't believe in those groupings. All those things about Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance have no real sense to me, because I believe in the continuum thing and trying to group the languages is, as we say in Spanish, putting doors in the countryside. So while I don't see Catalan as fully Iberian, it's not totally Gallic to me, more like a bridge, like a medium gray in a grayscale.

Jack, let me disagree with you in that thing about the Catalans coming from the Pyrenees in the 8th century. Which are the sources for that? It's not like they are a clear ethnicity like the peoples in Siberia; I'd consider equally Catalan the peoples who lived in current Catalonia in the 7th century; after all, they were all Hispano-Romans with no clear borders and their language wasn't formed as a clear separate entity yet. Sounds odd to speak in ethnic terms about the Iberian peoples after the Roman conquest, except for the Basques, who weren't assimilated.

[kibo]

Uhm, just a correction, Serbo-Croatian (or BCMS) doesn't have 10 vowel phonemes, no

[Boes]

Uhm, just a correction, Serbo-Croatian (or BCMS) doesn't have 10 vowel phonemes, no

It's what I copied from Fenek (page 4) ... from the book Istoričeskaja tipologija slavjanskih jazykov (Kiev, 1986), in his post he states (that it states that) Serbo-Croatian has 10 vowels.

[Kenny]

Hungarian: 14 or 9 if you don't count the long counterparts as separate ones

/ɒ/, /a:/, /ɛ/, /e:/, /i/, /i:/, /o/, /o:/, /ø/, /ø:/, /u/, /u:/, /y/, /y:/
written as: a, á, e, é, i, í, o, ó, ö, ő, u, ú, ü, ű

[Travis B.]

English: ca. 11 + 4
I, i:, U, u:, @, E, (O), {, v, A:, Q
diphthongs: oU, EI, AU, AI
written in very complicated ways...

It is probably not a good idea to pin down English to having a fixed number of vowel phonemes, as there is considerable vowel variation in English (not just with respect to realization, but with respect to the actual basic phonemes distinguished in the first place).

That said, though, if one has to choose a number, 14 is probably the most likely number to choose for an average number of vowel phonemes for an English dialect (and the one that I have seen mentioned most frequently).

[Kenny]

You are right, however, we're talking about Standard English now, even if there is no such thing. There is one in theory though .

[Tenebrarum]

Dutch: 13 + 3 = 16
/ɪ/, /ɶ/, /ɔ/, /ɛ/, /ɑ/, /ə/ /i/, /y/, /u/, /e/ , /ø/, /o/, /a/
- Diphthongs: /ɛi/, /ɶy/, /ɑu/
- Written as: a, e, i, o, u, aa, ee, ie, ij, ei, oo, uu, eu, au, ou, ui

English: ca. 11 + 4
I, i:, U, u:, @, E, (O), {, v, A:, Q
- Diphthongs: oU, EI, AU, AI
- Written in very complicated ways...

French: ca. 16
a, (A), E, o, @, e, 2, 9, i, O, u, y, A~, o~, E~, (9~)
- No diphthongs
- Written in general a, â, e/è/ai, o/au, e, é, eu, eu/oeu, i, o, ou, u, an, on, in, un

German: ca. 17 + 3
a, a:, E, E:, e:, @, I, i:, O, o:, 9, 2:, U, u:, Y, y:, 6
- Diphthongs: aI, aU, OI
- Written a, a(h)/aa, e/ä, ä(h), e(h)/ee, e, i, i(h)/ie, o, o(h)/oo, ö, ö(h), u, u(h), ü/y, y/ü(h), er; ai/ei, au, äu/eu

Panjabi: ca. 20
i, I, e, {, a, @, u, U, o, Q
+ nasal counterparts for all of them (according to Pittsboy)

Polish: ca. 7
a, a~, e, e~, i, o, u
- Written a, ą, e, ę, i/y, o, ó/u

Portuguese: ca. 14
a, 6, E, e, @, i, O, o, u, 6~, e~, i~, o~, u~
for diphthongs and triphthongs, see Luís' post

Romanian: ca. 7
a, @, 1, e, i, o, u
- Written a, ă, â/î, e, i, o, u

Spanish: ca. 5
a, e, i, o, u
- Written a, e, i/y, o, u

Belarussian - 6 vowels

Bulgarian - 6 vowels

Czech - 10 vowels

Macedonian - 5 vowels

Polish - 8 vowels

Russian - 6 vowels

Serbocroatian - 10 vowels (?)

Slovak - 14 vowels

Slovene - 13 vowels

Upper Sorbian - 7 vowels

Ukrainian - 6 vowels

Vietnamese - 11 vowels
/ɑ:/, /ɑ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /i/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɤ:/, /ɤ/, /u/, /ɯ/
- Written as: a, ă, ê, e, i/y, ô, o, â, ơ, u, ư
- Diphthongs: 25
- Triphthongs: 10

[kibo]

Uhm, just a correction, Serbo-Croatian (or BCMS) doesn't have 10 vowel phonemes, no

It's what I copied from Fenek (page 4) ... from the book Istoričeskaja tipologija slavjanskih jazykov (Kiev, 1986), in his post he states (that it states that) Serbo-Croatian has 10 vowels.

I am aware of that but that book is damn wrong.

[Travis B.]

You are right, however, we're talking about Standard English now, even if there is no such thing. There is one in theory though .

Ah, but the problem is that such is not fixed at all even within Standard English, due to a number of mergers that have occurred between Received Pronunciation and General American, and then in turn within different varieties of General American itself. There have even been more limited mergers that have occurred within Received Pronunciation in the last century, which would also affect the count for it. Likewise, the non-rhoticism of RP has resulted in new diphthongs or long vowels which would not be shared with GA, now that I think of it, making the counts for the two further diverge.

[null]

Sedang (used in Vietnam) has 55 vowels.

[Tenebrarum]

Sedang (used in Vietnam) has 55 vowels.

I wouldn't buy that superficial description. The truth is its seven vowels are further differentiated by phonation (breathy voice, creaky voice etc.), which is typical of the Mon-Khmer family. Phonemically speaking, phonation works just like tonality, and it's indeed what gave rise to tones in Vietnamese.

[pittmirg]

Uhm, just a correction, Serbo-Croatian (or BCMS) doesn't have 10 vowel phonemes, no

It's what I copied from Fenek (page 4) ... from the book Istoričeskaja tipologija slavjanskih jazykov (Kiev, 1986), in his post he states (that it states that) Serbo-Croatian has 10 vowels.

Probably they counted long and short vowels, which gives 5 + 5 = 10 vowels.

Ah, and I think many of you guys are talking about vowel quality inventories rather than about the mere number of vocalic phonemes.

Cf.:

http://wals.info/feature/description/2