German may be difficult for a foreigner to learn, but at least making the move from written word to spoken language is uncomplicated: if a letter is there on the page, it is pronounced, and only in one way. English? Good luck. A friend of mine had a visitor from Germany who suggested that they go out for some "coffee and duffnuts." Perfectly understandable, given the myriad ways that "-ough" can be pronounced.
This is a curse for radio announcers, who have to read wire reports and record labels and try to guess at names. For instance, I have a bunch of albums by Stephen...well, here's a challenge. How do you pronounce the following?
1. Hough (Stephen, outstanding British-Australian pianist/composer/blogger)
2. Gough (Gough Whitlam, Australian Prime Minister 1972-75, famed for wit)
3. Pough (Richard, founder of the Nature Conservancy)
4. Brough (a town in Cumbria, England; also, a brand of motorcycles named after a racer)
5. Blough (a town in southern Pennsylvania)
6. Sough (a rather poetic verb describing the movement of wind through trees)
7. Chough (a corvine bird)
8. Lough (a body of water)
9. Slough (a body of water)
10. Slough (to shed skin, or the shed skin of a reptile)
Answers will eventually show up in comments, where you are also free to add your own ways to confuse those for whom English is a second language.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment