The Herald, Sharon,
PA Published Sunday, June 1, 1997



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Sherman
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My Word!







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  • Foeneticklee speaking, mastering English kan bee tuff

    THE WIND was ROUGH
    And cold and blough.
    She kept her hands
    inside her mough.

    It chilled her THROUGH,
    Her hands turned blough.
    But still the squall
    The faster flough.

    And even THOUGH
    There was no snough,
    The weather was
    A cruel fough.

    It shook each BOUGH
    And she saw hough
    The animals froze
    Each cough and sough.

    It made her COUGH
    Pray, do not scough
    She coughed until
    Her hat blew ough.


    This anonymously written ditty (a short, simple song) is a good example of the chasm that stretches between the sounds of words and the spelling of words. In this instance it is the letter cluster -ough. There were five different sounds for -ough in the five stanzas. They are: rough (ruf), through (thru), though (tho), bough (bou), and cough (cawf). There are five more sounds _ 10 in all _ for -ough: bought (bot), hiccough (hik-up), lough (lok,a lake), thorough (thur-o), and trough (trof, as in cough, but sometimes pronounced traw-th).

    This difference between the sounds of a word and the spelling was created by:
    • The inadequacy of our Roman alphabet to represent all our language sounds.

    • Our borrowing words from other languages like French, Italian, and others with their unconventional sounds.

    • The gradual changes in the way we pronounce words, most of which have not been changed in the spelling. One writer figured that about 80 percent of our words are not spelled phonetically.
    Here are 10 more examples of the differences between phonology (speech sounds) and orthography (correct spelling).

    Ache _ mustache; Beau _ beauty; Card _ ward; Do _ go; Early _ dearly; Five _ give; Goose _ choose; Here _ there; Moth _ mother, and Word _ sword.

    Then there's the story of a Frenchman who came to New York City to study English. After several difficult days of learning to pronounce the sounds of -ough, break/speak, scour/four, father/fatter, he dejectedly walked by the theater district on his way to his hotel. On one marquee was the sign ``The Brothers Karamazov _ Pronounced Success.'' So he went to his room and committed suicide!

    To complicate our situation there are those silent letters, the ones that are written but not pronounced. Here are just 10 examples, alphabetically unspoken.

      1. A is silent in bread.

      2. B is silent in thumb.

      3. E is silent in steak.

      4. G is silent in reign.

      5. I is silent in thief.

      6. K is silent in know.

      7. L is silent in would.

      8. S is silent in aisle.

      9. W is silent in two.

      10. Z is silent in rendezvous.

    There's more.

    Let's take the reverse of ``letters representing different sounds'' so that a ``single sound can be represented by different letters.'' Example: Fish. In the early 1920s, George Bernard Shaw announced a new way to spell fish_ Ghoti. GH as in enough. O as in women. TI as in nation. Also, PHUSI can spell fish. Ph as in physic. U as in busy. SI as in pension.

    My first name would be CHSRRHMBAGKN.

    CHS is SH as in fuchsia.

    RRH is ER as in myrrh.

    MB is M as in limb.

    AG is A as in diaphragm.

    KN is N as in knife.

    CHSRRHMBAGKN equals SHERMAN.

    You might like to try this exercise on your own name, and see what happens.


    My Word! of April 5 asked readers for anagrams of their names. (An anagram is a word or phrase reordering the letters of another word or phrase.)

    KAYLA MARIE SINDLINGER sent a wonderful rearrangement of her name: I AM A REALLY KIND SINGER. It is remarkable, since Ms. Sindlinger is only 11 years old, in the sixth grade at COMMODORE PERRY SCHOOL DISTRICT. Way to go, Kayla!

    That's all for today. My Word!
    Sherman S. Jubelirer is a self-described verbivore, a devourer of words. The retired owner of the Whitmer-Smith store in Sharon shares his love of words with The Herald's readers in this column, which appears on the first Sunday of each month.




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