Every Vowel Word Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And joining us now from New York City is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hello.

Hi, Martha.

Hi, Grant.

Hi, John.

What’s up, buddy?

I’m ready to use some language.

Let’s use it.

Use some language.

You know, we talked a while ago about supervocalics.

Do you remember when we talked about supervocalics?

No.

Those are words or phrases that contain each of the vowels, A-E-I-O-U, just once.

Oh, right.

Just once.

Okay.

I have a couple of friends who are really into this.

Of course, I have a lot of puzzle and word friends, and they even have a Facebook page dedicated to it.

For example, the word super vocalics is a super vocalic.

It has a U and E and O and A and I.

Right.

Okay.

Our puzzle today is I’ll give you a clue to a super vocalic.

For example, this one.

In the movie Star Wars, Luke famously lives with his aunt and uncle on this kind of facility that apparently harvests the dew off of things.

You might say, do you happen to know what that was?

Moisture farm?

Yes, a moisture farm.

Wow, okay.

Moisture farm has O-I-U-E and A.

That’s a super vocalic.

Oh, wow.

That one’s a little tougher than some of the others, but I saved it for the example.

Okay, great.

Okay, let’s try some.

Here we go.

Before you visit Austin or San Antonio or Dallas, you might want to consult the bureau that’s in charge of this.

Okay, so it’s not tourism.

Yeah, that’s one of the words.

Is it?

Oh, it is?

Yeah.

Texas Tourism?

Yes, Texas Tourism.

Texas Tourism Bureau.

Okay.

No, no, just Texas Tourism Bureau.

I don’t even know if there is a Texas Tourism Bureau.

Gotcha.

It could be a committee.

Texas Tourism is a super vocalic.

E-A-O-U-N-I.

Very good.

Who knew?

Here’s the next.

This is a series of platform video games created by Nintendo featuring their famous plumber character.

Super Mario.

Super Mario.

Very good.

Super vocalic.

Super Mario.

Super vocalic.

Now, if you have too much stuff, you can put some of your stuff in a facility that has these rooms where you store stuff.

Well, it’s a storage.

Yeah, there’s two E’s in that.

What do we call it? A storage.

Unit.

Yes, a storage unit.

Very nice.

This infant animal is so, so, so cute.

But be prepared for when it grows up and gets all prickly.

Pot, oh no.

It’s not a hedgehog.

Porcupine baby.

Porcupine baby or baby porcupine.

Really?

Yes, baby porcupine, super vocalic.

All right.

When someone shares their concerns, this common verbal response basically lets them know that, yes, my ears work.

Acoustic.

I hear you.

I hear you.

I hear you is right.

That’s a really tiny, very short super vocalic.

It’s got only just eight letters, and it’s got all the vowels, even Y.

Lancelot, Galahad, Gawain, Pelennor, and Tristan are all these.

Knights of the…

No, that doesn’t work.

We need to get rid of the…

Of the…

Just switch it around.

Round table knights.

Yes, round table knights.

Very good.

This huge organization, you can describe it by the super vocalic, it’s run by a pope.

Catholic Church?

Say again.

Catholic Church?

Missing an E.

Catholic…

The Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church is right.

Sorry, you have to jump through that hoop there.

But yeah, we needed the E.

He only appeared in a few episodes.

But this character from the TV show Seinfeld was very popular and based on a real New York restaurateur.

The Soup Nazi.

The Soup Nazi.

It’s a super vocalic.

Yes, very good.

You guys did fantastic on those super vocalics.

Well, thank you, John.

Thanks, John.

Take care now.

Thank you, guys.

See you soon.

And if you want to talk about any kind of language, super vocalic or otherwise, call us 877-929-9673 or send us an email.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.