O for the open sound!

By Dr LIM CHIN LAM

A-RAMBLING through words in the English language, I chanced upon one notable feature. Of all the speech sounds, the open sound – a terminal syllable with a vowel-sound not closed by a consonant-sound – is a pleasingly fluid one, in prose, verse, and song.

It is especially so in music. Even the titles of opera illustrate this point. For example, the Italian Cavalleria Rusticana or La Forza del Destino is made up of words whose pronunciation trips fluidly from the tongue, as compared with the German Der Ring des Nibelungen or Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, whose words hint of sibilance or staccato.

There are many interesting observations that can be made on this topic, and spelling is one of them.

Spelling

Languages with an alphabetic script cannot do without vowel-letters. The English language has an alphabet with 26 letters – five vowel-letters (a, e, i, o, u) and 21 consonant-letters (b, c, d, f, g, ... x, y, z). While a vowel-letter can be sounded on its own, a consonant-letter can hardly be sounded without an accompanying vowel-sound. Wh_t d_ y__ th_nk?

Because of the quirks of English spelling, words ending with vowel-letters may be not be open-sounded – the terminating vowel-letters are silent; e.g. askance, belle, capable, complete, forsake, gratitude, miracle, plague, plague, tongue.

Then there are words ending in (1) one, two, or three vowel-letters but pronounced with one vowel-sound (bonanza, schwa, epitome, forte, confetti, potpourri, cargo, embargo, snafu, tutu + camaraderie, communique, jubilee, reggae, taboo + beau, bureau, trousseau) [the single vowel-sound may even be a schwa, “an indeterminate or indistinct vowel sound” (coma, patina, sofa)];

(2) one, two, or three vowel-letters but pronounced as a diphthong, “a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves seamlessly into the other” (alumni, cacti + academia, shanghai, subdue + adieu) or pronounced as a diphthong plus a schwa (paranoia).

But then there are words with terminating consonant-letters which are not pronounced. The last syllable of such words, largely of French origin, contains one vowel-letter terminated by one silent consonant-letter (apropos, boudoir, debris, depot, fracas, gourmet, patois, tower, sorrow). The words terminated by the two silent consonant-letters –gh are largely of Old English or Anglo-Saxon origin (dough, neigh, thorough).

Then there are words with the ending syllable containing one or two vowel-letters terminated by one or two consonant-letters which are nevertheless pronounced as an open-ended diphthong (endow, meow, peer, pier, sepoy + bough, plough).

Finally, there is the special situation involving the letter ‘y’. Although termed a consonant-letter, ‘y’ also functions as a vowel. In open-ended words, ‘y’ is sounded as [i], as in amnesty, completely, memory, miscellany; or as the diphthong [ai], as in ally, comply, butterfly.

Observations on usage

Most of the open-ended words are nouns. Some are verbs in the original language. For example, the Latin credo, placebo, and veto are verbs for the first person singular in the indicative mood – but in English, credo and placebo are used as nouns while veto is used as both noun and verb. Some are adverbs (akimbo, incognito, incommunicado, impromptu).

With so many words ending in vowel-letters, one would have thought that one or other of the vowel-letters would serve as a suffix, but no. The closest to being affixes are the vowel-letters ‘i’ and ‘o’ which serve as infixes linking two word-elements, as in cuneiform, Anglo-Chinese School, concavo-convex lens, gastro-intestinal, socio-economic, Russo-Japanese War. The open-ended words make up many common expressions. Examples: à la, bona fide, da capo, de facto, in situ, in vitro, in vivo, in delicto flagrante, ipso facto, lingua franca, magna cum laude, mala fide, mens sana in corpore sano, persona non grata, prima donna, pro bono publico, pro proportione, pro rata, summa cum laude, vice versa.

There are other interesting aspects to open-ended words (especially those ending in –o). They appear in many situations:

1) in musical terms – largely of Italian origin: allegretto, allegro, alto, aria, arioso, barcarolle, basso, canto, castrato/castrati, concerto, contralto, crescendo, diminuendo, diva, falsetto, forte, fortissimo, habanera, intermezzo, libretto/libretti, maestro, mezzo-soprano, moderato, oratorio, piano, pianissimo, pizzicato, poco, rallentando, seguidilla, solo, soprano, staccato, tremolo, vibrato, virtuoso

2) in technical (biological, medical, etc.) terms – largely of Greek or Latin origin and ending in -a and sometimes incorporating the digraphs –ae- or –oe-: acne, amnesia, analgesia, angina, anorexia nervosa, apnoea, arrhythmia, asthma, bulimia, carcinoma, cloaca, dementia, diarrhoea, dysplasia, eczema, fibula, glyconuria, haemophilia, haemotoma, haematuria, hernia, hydrophobia, hyperplasia, hypoplasia, hypothermia, hysteria, influenza, insomnia, kleptomania, lunula, megalomania, papilloma, paranoia, pellagra, pneumonia, prurigo, retina, rubella, rubeola, septicaemia, tachycardia, teratoma, thalassaemia, tibia, trauma, ulna, uvula, variola, vertebra, vertigo

3) in apocopated words – audio, chemo, condo, convo (Malaysian usage), demo, disco, expo, homo, limo, mayo, medico, mezzo, mono, neuro, photo, pro, psycho, radio, stereo, video

4) in evocative words, which are easily formed and immediately understood, with all the connotations included – cracko, fatso, saddo, sicko, stinko, wacko, weirdo.

[Note: My sister-in-law is not content to use the word cheapo on its own. For extra mileage, she gives it a Hispanic flavour, hence el cheapo!]

~~~A word a day keeps your brain alive~~~