I found myself lying awake last night, and circumstances reminded me of the word "owl." A curious word--it's got one vowel, but two syllables. I tried to distract myself from the anxieties that were keeping me awake by thinking of another such word, and I got nowhere. Not even "awl," despite the similarity. Plenty of words have two vowels and one syllable, and that old Scrabble standby with two letters and two syllables, "aa", percolated into my sleeplessness. What eventually let me get to sleep was thinking of my niece's pronunciation when she was feeling cranky this summer, pronounced with the kind of whine that only a young child can pull off: "I'm hot" pronounced "I'm hoo-oe-aaaawwt!" One vowel, at least three syllables, stretched out over about fifteen seconds, and "Mom" was pronounced just the same way.
Anyone know any other one-vowel, multisyllable words? Please comment if you do. I'll sleep better.
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wow
ReplyDeleteDog, cat. It's all in the way your pronounce it, and if you've done something wrong and the person saying Dog, or Cat is not happy with Moi.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you go hayseed enough, "dog" is pronounced "Dough-ogg", or you can get there via Brooklyn, "doo-ug". I'm not sure Webster's would approve, but I think my niece could pull it off.
DeleteWhat does the cat call you if Cat is feeling hissy?
My daughter had to write haikus in class and was told that fire is only one syllable, so I wrote this for her:
ReplyDeleteTeacher says fire
is only one syllable.
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
There's that joke about the foreigner seeing a nativity creche in Georgia and being confused because the three wise men were dressed as firemen...it was explained that the wise men "came from afar."
Deleteten points and a gold star to your daughter