Skip to main content
Back to Show
Otherwords

Is "R" a Vowel?

Season 3 Episode 2

There's a good argument that the letter R is, at least sometimes, not a consonant at all, but a vowel. Does that mean your 1st grade teacher was lying to you? Not exactly. R is an incredibly weird letter, with so many different sounds and functions, it's a wonder that we use one symbol to represent them all. And how people pronounce that one letter can speak volumes about their history and social

Only Available with Passport Starting
Support Provided By
Season
What People Get Wrong About African-American English
11:23
Here are the deep misconceptions about African-American English (AAE).
Can Computers Really Talk? Or Are They Faking It?
11:26
Is it really "language," or just a digital illusion?
What's the Longest Word?
6:59
We'll have to figure out what the word "word" really means...
The Unexpected Origins of the Word ‘Monster’
8:00
What can we learn about our relationship to monsters?
Otherwords Season 5
5:51
We're gonna have to ask you to go ahead and watch this video. "
Inside the Fiercest Debate in Linguistics
12:22
It's one of the most contentious debates in linguistics!
Why A.I. Struggles with Negative Words
7:05
The ways we use negation in language can be pretty complex, even AI can’t seem to make sense of it.
The Ancient Origins of Body Words
8:36
Join us as we try to figure out how our body parts got their names.
Active loading indicator