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Who really said it

Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing, and the consonants for very little

Not Voltaire — probably Court de Gébelin Unknown circulating unattributed by 1833
Disputed Free to reuse

Researchers have never located this in Voltaire’s writings. The nearest ancestor is Antoine Court de Gébelin’s Monde primitif (1775), whose etymological principles include “les voyelles ne sont rien” — vowels count for nothing — alongside the claim that consonants are constantly substituted for one another. The saying was in circulation as an unattributed jest by 1833; Voltaire’s name was attached later.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing, and the consonants for very little” …où la voyelle ne fait rien, et la consonne fort peu de chose. —Anonymous jest, circulating by 1833; the idea traces to Court de Gébelin's Monde primitif (1775). Not Voltaire. Public domain.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Voltaire. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

Evoking the world of Voltaire — French Enlightenment philosopher. Theme: "Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing, and the consonants for very little". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing, and the consonants for very little". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Probable origin
Antoine Court de Gébelin, Monde primitif (1775)
Circulating unattributed
Quarterly Review, October 1833 (in French)
Earliest English Voltaire credit
Foreign Quarterly Review, October 1836
Voltaire source
None ever located

…où la voyelle ne fait rien, et la consonne fort peu de chose. Circulating by 1833

The French form as it appeared in 1833 — already a stock jest, already without an author. The Voltaire label arrives afterwards.

Quote Investigator — Court de Gébelin to the Voltaire credit

How we traced it

  • Court de Gébelin’s Monde primitif (1775) sets out etymological principles including that vowels count for nothing in comparing words, and that corresponding consonants substitute freely — the substance of the joke, stated seriously Quote Investigator ↗.
  • By October 1833 the Quarterly Review was quoting it in French as a circulating saying with no author attached. The earliest English attribution to Voltaire that researchers have found is the Foreign Quarterly Review of October 1836, calling it his ‘jest’ — nearly sixty years after his death the chain ↗.
  • An earlier Voltaire attribution is reported in A. W. von Schlegel’s 1815 review of the Grimms’ work. We flag this as reported but unverified — it rests on a secondary listing and we have not inspected the 1815 review itself, so we do not assert it as the earliest Wikiquote ↗.
Public domain

Free to reuse. There is no Voltaire text here, but every candidate source is long out of copyright: Court de Gébelin died in 1784, Schlegel in 1845, and the 1833 and 1836 review wordings are nineteenth-century periodical text. You may quote the French and English forms freely — just do not credit them to Voltaire. This is not legal advice.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is a joke about a real intellectual fashion — eighteenth-century etymologists who derived any word from any other by waving away the vowels. It has a plausible origin, and Voltaire is not it.

Not Voltaire never found in his works

No researcher has located it in Voltaire’s writings, and the earliest attributions to him postdate his death by decades — 1836 in English on the firmest evidence the chain ↗.

Court de Gébelin (1775) said in earnest

His Monde primitif lays out, as serious method, that vowels count for nothing and consonants interchange. The famous line is that method restated as ridicule — the joke is at his expense, not Voltaire’s invention.

A. W. von Schlegel reported, unverified

Schlegel is said to have credited Voltaire in an 1815 review. We have not inspected that review and do not assert it — if correct it would move the earliest Voltaire attribution back two decades, still long after his death.

Not Voltaire. The idea belongs to Court de Gébelin’s 1775 etymological method; the saying circulated anonymously by 1833 and only later acquired his name full trail ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It skewers a genuine scandal of early philology: if you may discard the vowels and swap the consonants at will, you can derive any word from any other, and many eighteenth-century etymologists cheerfully did.

The joke survived because the temptation did. It still gets quoted at anyone deriving grand conclusions from surface resemblance between words — which is the same argument, two centuries later.

The joke is at the etymologists' expense. Voltaire just got the credit.

The chain, 1775 to 1836

Court de Gébelin, Monde primitif (1775): vowels count for nothing; consonants substitute freely — stated as method.

Louis de Bonald (1800) and an 1807 English translation: ‘Vowels are nothing in etymology.’

Quarterly Review, October 1833: the French jest, quoted with no author.

Foreign Quarterly Review, October 1836: ‘in etymology vowels are nothing, and consonants next to nothing’ — credited to Voltaire.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Knowledge Doubt

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

In Etymology Vowels Count for Nothingquoteinvestigator.com

The chain from Court de Gébelin (1775) through the 1833 unattributed French form to the 1836 Voltaire credit.
Voltaire — Wikiquote (disputed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists the saying among sayings attributed to Voltaire without source, and notes the reported Schlegel 1815 attribution.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Voltaire

Voltaire

1694–1778 · French Enlightenment philosopher

Voltaire is the default author for any French-sounding piece of learned mockery, and a jest deflating a pretentious new science is exactly his register. He also had the advantage of being dead: the saying was circulating anonymously by the 1830s, and attaching it to the most quotable Frenchman of the previous century gave it a pedigree it never had.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Court de Gébelin, Antoine. Monde primitif. Paris, 1775. (Etymological principles: vowels count for nothing; consonants substitute freely.)

MLA (9th ed.)

Court de Gébelin, Antoine. Monde primitif. 1775.

APA (7th ed.)

Court de Gébelin, A. (1775). Monde primitif.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Etymology is a science in which the vowels count for nothing’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/etymology-is-a-science-in-which-the-vowels-count-for

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