AEIOU: 120 Known Human Beings
A cavalcade of supervocalic stars
Behold: the Supervocalic
Supervocalics are words or phrases with AEIOU once each, and no Ys. This is the first of a 3-part series examining complete sets of supervocalic people, places and things. The goal was to find known human beings reasonably famous supervocalic people for each of the 120 orderings of AEIOU. After copious amounts of Google searching, the feat has been accomplished.
Given the nature of the challenge, the standard of “reasonably famous” was generally as loose as necessary to fill a slot, though people needed to have some claim to fame greater than local renown to make the list. Of course, preference was given to internationally well-known names (Count Basie, Bela Lugosi), but just as readily to those with well-known accomplishments (meatpacker Samuel Wilson who is “Uncle Sam”, Pearl Harbor general Minoru Genda).
Some names have been mentioned previously in Word Ways (see Susan Thorpe’s ‘ Vowel Mates” in Aug 1996, or the May 2003 Kickshaws), though most were assembled by spotting them somewhere or searching the web for specific first or last names.
- The list leans towards US popular culture, though plenty of international names, historical figures, and luminaries from architecture, archaeology, and even recreational linguistics appear.
- Fictional, mythological, or biblical characters, and commonly used nicknames, pseudonyms and titles (such as Pope or Sir) were welcomed.
- If someone hit the US Top 40 charts, had a major film, TV, or theater credit, played a professional or major college sport, or wrote something sold on Amazon.com, they were famous enough to qualify.
The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and on-line pro sports databases were fertile ground for quasi-celebrities, though I avoided trivial listings. In an age where almost everyone appears somewhere on the Web, it was not enough simply to appear in a birth, death, or phone listing, local news story, or personal, university, or company website.
Who’s the interestingest?
For each slot I arbitrarily selected the most famous or subjectively most interesting person available. Many alternatives were possible and in some cases it was close. Charles Bukowski, Blanche DuBois, or Wilona from “Good Times” Ja’Net DuBois — tough choice! Baseball’s Van Lingle Mungo topped author Alice Munro and Soprano’s character Artie Bucco because of his great name. Sure, Thomas Cruise goes by Tom, but it was either him or the not-so-famous Broadus Mitchell. Mike Douglas won by a nose over author Dinesh D’Souza and Sister Souljah.
Most slots were filled by reasonably well-known people, but some required a reach. The toughest may have been EUOAI. Helmut Nodari, who appeared in the 1961 Austrian classic “ Autofahrer Unterwegs,” is the lone entrant with just one IMBD credit. (He is surely getting more press in this article than he did for that performance.) He beat out Gertrud Joachim, who published one article in the ACM Journal in 1959. Various ZebuIons and Eudoras had even less claim to celebrity. With no offence to Helmut or Gertrud, clearly we’re scraping the bottom of the fame barrel. Other slots which could stand some help: AEIUO, EOUIA, IEOAU, IUAEO, IUAOE, OAIEU.
