But if you're counting vowel sounds, rather than vowel letters, isn't it a tautology to say there are the 14 syllables and 14 vowel sounds? I'm trying to come up with a syllable that contains more (or fewer!) than one vowel sound, with no success.
I'm way out of my depth, but DH says yes, tautology by most definitions. (But since when have we objected to children announcing tautologies - or even failed to be impressed by them?!)
ETA: Wikipedia says there's no vowel sound in bird (or similarly-middled words), at least according to some linguists, so there are arguably no-vowel-sound syllables. I think I take the dissenting side on that one, though.
"Bird" definitely has a vowel in my accent! But arguably "button" might be an example of a two-syllable word where the second syllable has no vowel in my accent - but'n.
