What are vowels?

Famous quotes containing the word vowels:

“As no one can tell what was the Roman pronunciation, each nation makes the Latin conform, for the most part, to the rules of its own language; so that with us of the vowels only A has a peculiar sound.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

“These equal syllables alone require,
Though oft the ear the open vowels tire;”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

“Playing “bop” is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.”
—Duke Ellington (1899–1974)