Supervocalics
For all the vowel fans out there
The English language certainly presents challenges to those who wish to attain fluency, but learners can look forward to unexpected delights along the way. Supervocalics are delightful!
supervocalic (adj) - a word, name, or phrase in which the five vowels–AEIOU–appear exactly once each in any order
BREAKDOWN: SUPER- (over) + VOC- (speak) + -AL (pertaining to) + -IC (like)
—a supervocalic is any word, name, or phrase that follows the supervocalic vowel structure
FUN FACT 1: The letter Y may sometimes be considered a vowel, but not for purposes of supervocalics.
FUN FACT 2: Supervocalic words are surprisingly common. Here’s a short list, at least one of which has appeared here on Roots2Words: ambidextrous, cafetorium, delusional, euphoria, facetious, gregarious, hallucinogen, intravenous, menstruation, pandemonium, precaution, sequoia.
FUN FACT 3: While we cover American English here, British English presents abundant additional supervocalics, including behaviour and favourite.
FUN FACT 4: The word supervocalic is itself supervocalic.
“With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.” —Chuck Palahniuk
