Most languages of the world allow syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

s without consonants, and monosyllabic words may therefore consist of a single vowel. Examples in English are a, O, I, eye (all of which are diphthongs: /eɪ, oʊ, aɪ/). A smaller number of languages allow sequences of such syllables, and thus may have polysyllabic words without consonants. This list excludes monosyllables (see instead List of words that comprise a single sound) and words such as English whoa and yeah which contain the semivowel

Semivowel

In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...

s y and w.

English

English has very few words of more than one syllable without a consonant, apart from proper names such as Aeaea

Aeaea

Aeaea or Eëa was a mythological island said to be the home of the sorceress Circe. Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for a year on his way home to Ithaca....

, Aiea

Aiea

Aiea or Aiea may refer to:* Members of the Hawaiian flowering plant genus Nothocestrum**Nothocestrum breviflorum A.Gray - Smallflower aiea...

, Aia

Aia

Aia is a small village situated on the slopes of Mount Pagoeta in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain. It is located 30 km to the west of Donostia-San Sebastián and about 10 km inland from the coastal town of Zarautz. Aia is set amongst rolling green hills and lush green forests, and...

, Io

IO

Io, IO, I/O, i/o, or i.o. may refer to:-An abbreviation:* I.O., a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy* i.o., "in illo ordine", Latin phrase meaning "respectively"...

, Eiao

Eiao

Eiao is the largest of the extreme northwestern Marquesas Islands. The island was discovered in 1791 by the American navigator Joseph Ingraham, who named it Knox Island in honor of the then-current United States Secretary of War, Henry Knox...

, Oea, and sometimes Iowa (below), and perhaps a few taxonomic

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

 terms such as Iouea below.

• The Maned Sloth, or ai, is pronounced with two syllables: ˈɑː.i.
• aa, a type of lava, is spelled without consonants, but is pronounced with a glottal stop, which is marginal in English: ˈɑːʔɑː.
• euouae, a musical cadence taken from the vowels in the hymn Gloria Patri doxology: "seculorum Amen", is the longest English word spelled without any consonant letters. However, it is also pronounced with a consonant: juː.ˈoʊ.iː.
• Iouea, a genus of fossil sponges, has all five vowels, but it is not clear if it is pronounced with a consonant, aɪjuːˈiː.ə, or without one, aɪ.oʊˈiː.ə.
• The US state of Iowa
  Iowa
  Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
  
   is transcribed by some dictionaries with a consonant, ˈaɪ.ɵ.wə, and by some without, ˈaɪ.oʊ.ə. Due to the fact that the English o vowel is a diphthong
  Diphthong
  A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
  
  , there is little difference between these pronunciations.
• euoi, an interjection expressing Bacchic frenzy.

Dutch

Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 has a few words without consonants.

• aai, meaning 'caress', pronounced [aːɪ]
• au, an interjection
  Interjection
  In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
  
   meaning 'ouch', pronounced [ʌu] or [ɔu]
• ei, meaning 'egg', pronounced [ɛɪ]
• oei, an interjection
  Interjection
  In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
  
   meaning 'wow', 'oh my', pronounced [uɪ]
• ooi, meaning 'ewe', pronounced [oːɪ]
• u, meaning 'you' (formal), pronounced [y]
• ui, meaning 'onion', pronounced [œɥ]
• ie, unstressed third person singular masculine pronoun 'he', pronounced [i]
• eeuw, meaning 'century', pronounced [e:u] (The is purely graphical)

Japanese

Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 has numerous words, such as ai "love", which are borrowed from Chinese or are composed of Chinese loans and have no consonants. A smaller number of native words fit this description as well.

• aa ああ in that way
• aaiu ああいう that kind, like that
• ai 合, 会, 相, 間 together, between
• ai 鮎 sweetfish
• Aioi 相生 the city of Aioi
  Aioi, Hyogo
  is a city located between Himeji and Okayama, in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. As of 2008, the city had an estimated population of 32,584 and the density of 369.14 persons per km². The total area is 90.43 km².- History :...
  
  
• aoi 青い blue/green
• au 会う, 合う to meet, to fit
• ee ええ yes
• ie 家 house
• ie 言え tell!
• ii いい good
• iie いいえ no
• iu 言う to say, tell, call
• oe 追え chase!
• oi 甥 nephew
• oioi 追々 gradually
• ooe 覆え cover!
• ooi 多い many
• ooi 覆い covering
• oou 覆う to cover
• ou 追う to chase, to follow
• ue 上 above, top, on top of
• ue 飢え hunger
• uo 魚 fish

Swahili

• au or
• aua to survey
• eua to purify
• oa to take a wife
• ua a flower
• ua a boma
  Boma (enclosure)
  A boma is a livestock enclosure, a stockade or kind of fort, or a district government office. The term is used in many parts of eastern, central and southern Africa and is incorporated into many African languages as well as colonial varieties of English, French and German.As a livestock enclosure,...
  
   (fenced enclosure)
• ua to kill
• uo a sheath

Hawaiian

Polynesian languages

Polynesian languages

The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Polynesians share many cultural traits...

 have numerous words with glottal stop

Glottal stop

The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...

, such as Hawaiian

Hawaiian language

The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...

āaua "coarse", aeoia "to be well supplied", uauooa "distant voices", which may be spelled with all vowels in English transcription; however, glottal stop is a full consonant, and such words will not be considered here.

• aea to rise up
• aeae andante
• aeāea sp. small green fish
• ai to copulate
• aia there is; depending on (you)
• āio, ioio grooves
• ao light, day; cloud; world; be careful; sp. mat; sp. fish
• aoaoa sp. seaside shrub
• au era; current; gall; weather; poor-quality sweet potatoes; pumice; grain of wood; to weed; to set; sp. shrub
• āu your
• aua to observe (rare)
• auau to hurry
• aue = ue 3
• auēuē calling, crying, humming
• ea command; air, breath, life; to rise; to smell
• eaea air, breath; high waves; a smell (as of seaweed)
• eia here
• eo to lose
• eō here!, to call, to answer
• iā yard (from English)
• iāia (to, for) him, her
• io (part of a paddle)
• iōē to answer a chant
• i ou to you
• iū you (from English)
• oaoa = ohaoha
• oe a drawn-out sound
• Oea (name of a star)
• oeoe whistle, siren, etc.
• oi to move
• oī = ōwī
• oia to continue
• oio (part of a canoe rim)
• oioi to squirm
• ou your; to float, lean on (rare)
• o ua o = ua ona o aforementioned
• ua rain; demon
• uai to move s.t.
• uaoa mist (rare)
• uaua tough
• uauai to repeatedly move s.t.
• ue (uwe) to twist, pry; pandanus mat
• uē (uwē) to weep
• uea (uwea) wire (from English)
• ueue (uweuwe) to wriggle
• uēuē (uwēuwē) a dirge
• ui to ask
• uia sp. taro
• uiui to ask & ask
• uō (uwō) to bellow
• uoi to move along together
• uōuō (uwō.uwō) shouting
• uouoa, uoa false mullet (sp. fish)

Rapa Nui

• aai who? whose?
• aau to throw or catch with both hands; contagion
• ai to copulate; there is; this much
• ao command; nightfall
• âo to serve food
• au I; smoke; current; dew; bile
• aûa enclosure, ring (Tahitian loan)
• auau to shout in pain
• ea to rise, get up
• êi a lampoon
• eo a fragrance
• éoéo ashes
• îa he, she, it
• ioio a bit
• oi to move away
• ôi to stir; ôiôi to stir and stir
• oou yours
• ua cause, reason; ceremonial staff
• ûa the rain
• uáuá to reside, resident
• ûaûa muscles, tendons
• uéué to flutter
• ui to ask

Finnish

• yö night (y is always a vowel in Finnish)
• aie intention
• aio plan to do!
• auo open!
• oio take a shortcut!
• ui swim!
• ei no

Esperanto

• ia some (kind of)
• iai to hee-haw
• iao a hee-haw
• ie somewhere, anywhere
• iea of somewhere or other
• io something
• ioa of something or other
• iu someone
• iua of someone or other

Kurdish

South Kurdish (Kirmaşanî, Qesrî, Kełhuřî, Feylî) also allows syllables without consonants.

• a means yes [ɑ]
• î means this (demonstrative adjective) [i]
• û means and [u]
• îe means this (demonstrative pronoun) [ia]
• eü means he, she [ay]