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Etymology of the English word vowel

the English word vowel
derived from the Old French word vouel
derived from the Medieval Latin word vocalis (able to speak; having a notable voice; tuneful)
derived from the Late Latin word vox (voice, tone, expression)
derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *wekĘ·-

Date

The earliest known usage of vowel in English dates from the 14th century.

Cognates

Dutch vocaal, French voyelle, German Vokal, Norwegian vokal, Swedish vokal

Usage

Word found in Modern English



Comments

Syloke J Soong
03 Jun 2009, 15:07
The accepted theory that the origin of the world vowel is the Latin "vokal". Are there any solid proofs besides academic conjectures and hypothesis?

French has had quite some influence from Arabic due to the ardent French support of "crusades" towards the "holy land". I propose that the French word "vouel" from which our English word "vowel" is directly derived is actually from the Arabic character "Wau" which is directly related to the Hebrew character "Vav". Not from the latin "vokal".

At which time the crusades had caused many semitic words to creep into European usage. Where, the relationship between the words "vowel" and "vocal" is merely convenient and convincing conjecture.

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