The quiz should be more coherent. In some countries like Italy, the "y" is identified as vowel (thus "o"), but in others it still appears as "y" (e.g. Kenya -> Konyo).
To be more specific, y is a vowel when it makes the sound of an i (as in Cyprus and Egypt), the sound of an e (as in Italy), or is part of a diphthong with another vowel (as in Norway and Seychelles.) It's a consonant when it makes a "yuh" sound (as in Kenya, Yemen, or Guyana.)
It's part of a diphthong formed with the "a" preceding it, so it's part of the aye sound and thus a vowel. It can't make the "yuh" sound when it's at the end of a word like that, only when it's followed by a vowel.
Y is a vowel when it's not a consonant. So names like Yemen would be Yomon, but Germany would be Gormono and Paraguay should be Porogooo. I made this quiz a long time ago before I really started checking for errors, so there's probably more than a few inconsistencies.
For me ondonosoo looked the most unrecognisable, not that it took me longer to get it, I always saw the next one even before I was done with the previous one, so it was more like how long does it take you to type all these countries, well had well over a minute to spare (1:18 I think?). But they looks the least like themselves so to speak. A lot of the orders hardly felt different than usal. Maybe my brain filters vowels as less usefull info, so recognisable without them. ondonosoo out of context does not immediately give me indonesia vibes however.
And yes I guess out of context okroono is not immediately distinguisable as being a country either. And I just looked at the result and these two are indeed the lowest
The introduction example was useful to me to flag the definition of "vowel" being used - but it might be worth clarifying it explicitly. At school we were not taught this "sometimes y" version (just a, e, i, o, u), but I have learnt from comments on other quizzes that different definition(s) are standard elsewhere.
Your examples are accurate, but they bear no resemblance to the word you are questioning. In Uruguay, the y is definitely functioning as a vowel - it forms a vowel sound in combination with the a.
It is, sometimes. "Lime" and "Lyme" are both pronounced exactly the same, with y in the latter making exactly the same sound as the i in the former, so why wouldn't y be a vowel there when i would be?
Finally, an actual comparison that makes sense and points out a legitimate potential inconsistency. I would argue that y is a consonant in both words, but I can see how a common pronunciation makes it sound like a vowel, particularly in Libya. It comes down to whether you think Libya has two syllables or three.
I personally pronounce Libya as lib-ee-uh and Kenya as ken-yuh which is why I wrote them the way I did. This seems to be the accepted pronunciation of both countries, so despite the similarities in how these two countries are written, the Y in Libya is a vowel and the Y in Kenya is a consonant.
As many people do. The reason the sound comes out that way is because the transition from 'b' to 'ya' is less smooth than from 'n' to 'ya'. It's a quirk of phonetics rather than a different function of the letter y.
It’s mind blowing how many people don’t know that in English Y is sometimes a vowel. It’s also amazing how adamant people can be when they have no idea what they’re talking about.
'consonants' and 'vowels' and all this gibberish in step by step points.
Consonants and vowels are types of phones that we use in the English language
Letters may carry these phones in speech, for example X can make the sounds /z/, /ks/, or /gz/
Letters aren't consonants or vowels by themselves but they will frequently be classified as such
Now back to consonants. A consonant is linguistically defined as a phone where the vocal tract is partially or completely constricted, aside from the glottal /h/
Also normally included in consonants are the liquids/glides, including /j/ (palatal glide)
So, Y can take on different phonemes in English, such as yellow - /j/, sky - /aɪ/, happy - /i/, gym - /ɪ/
I know we definitely agree that the letter I isn't a consonant. So if I is a vowel, and Y makes these sounds which I makes, then why is Y a consonant??
Point is, English phonology/phonetics is not a black-and-white thing, most definitions are fuzzy
A few real chuckles! First, half of the clues look like stuff I’ve actually typed (not the best typist around). And Kosovo! And I don’t think I’ll be planning a trip to the great nation of Othoopoo anytime soon.
Gotta love it whenever you get a country like Togo or Morocco where nothing changes lol. Not that I needed the help. But anyway, fun quiz! Congrats on the feature!
Due to the random nature of the quiz the first two countries I got were Togo and Kosovo, which made me think I had somehow misunderstood the quiz. Very enjoyable!
what do you mean "is probably a vowel in this quiz"?? XD
there's not even really any feasible way to pronounce it /sʲpɹɪs/ so, Y is always making a vowel sound in this situation. you can definitely have a case in this quiz where the Y is acting as a consonant, just take «Yemen» for example, it would properly be rendered as «Yumun», because the Y is a palatal glide /j/, but here it's totally a vowel as a /saɪ/ (where I'm from, /sʌɪ/)
technically, Y is a letter not a consonant because consonants are phones where the vocal tract is closed/restricted and letters are just meaningless symbols that I'm blabbering out in this comment.
also, maybe this is just a lack of linguistic education but you can easily tell if Y is functioning as a semivowel (glide) or a vowel if there's constriction in the vocal tract, in this case it makes the /i/ vowel (FLEECE), so unless you consider «fleece» to be vowel-less then maybe it's best not to think of letters as «consonants» or «vowels», and more of the sounds letters may carry as such :D
The quiz is finished. As far as I could figure it out, you excluded all the countries with more than one word. Some of them are only one word in German, so I added them.
I think this should be corrected.
Also, Congrats on your first featured quiz! It’s fun, especially being randomized!
So close.... (tomo)
And yes I guess out of context okroono is not immediately distinguisable as being a country either. And I just looked at the result and these two are indeed the lowest
All vowels changed to 'a' 'e' 'I' and 'u'
"Onswor most corrospond to hoghloghtod box!"
one note: if libya is loboo, kenya should be konoo
"Onswors chongo ovorO tomo yoo ploo! "
Just for consistency with the rest of the quizz ;)
My favorites are: Spoon, Popoo Now Goonoo and Molto
Consonants and vowels are types of phones that we use in the English language
Letters may carry these phones in speech, for example X can make the sounds /z/, /ks/, or /gz/
Letters aren't consonants or vowels by themselves but they will frequently be classified as such
Now back to consonants. A consonant is linguistically defined as a phone where the vocal tract is partially or completely constricted, aside from the glottal /h/
Also normally included in consonants are the liquids/glides, including /j/ (palatal glide)
So, Y can take on different phonemes in English, such as yellow - /j/, sky - /aɪ/, happy - /i/, gym - /ɪ/
I know we definitely agree that the letter I isn't a consonant. So if I is a vowel, and Y makes these sounds which I makes, then why is Y a consonant??
Point is, English phonology/phonetics is not a black-and-white thing, most definitions are fuzzy
Now it's Porogooo, but it should be Porogooy.
Very nice quiz!
there's not even really any feasible way to pronounce it /sʲpɹɪs/ so, Y is always making a vowel sound in this situation. you can definitely have a case in this quiz where the Y is acting as a consonant, just take «Yemen» for example, it would properly be rendered as «Yumun», because the Y is a palatal glide /j/, but here it's totally a vowel as a /saɪ/ (where I'm from, /sʌɪ/)
"Camaras? Camores? Cumoris?"
The quiz is also random, so it might've just been third least guessed out of your selection of 20.
also, maybe this is just a lack of linguistic education but you can easily tell if Y is functioning as a semivowel (glide) or a vowel if there's constriction in the vocal tract, in this case it makes the /i/ vowel (FLEECE), so unless you consider «fleece» to be vowel-less then maybe it's best not to think of letters as «consonants» or «vowels», and more of the sounds letters may carry as such :D
May I make a German translation?
Thanks for the permission to translate the quiz!