> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@reutershealth.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 11:50 AM
>
> "Alain LaBonté " wrote:
>
> > unlike English "ough" which is pronounced I don't know in
> how many ways
> > (ut, up, o, etc., 11 ways, was I told)
>
> bough (rhymes with now)
> dough (rhymes with go)
> enough (rhymes with cuff)
> cough (rhymes with off)
> bought (rhymes with taut)
> through (rhymes with sue)
> hough (rhymes with lock, probably unique)
> hiccough (rhymes with up, probably unique, also spelled
> "hiccup")
> thorough (schwa vowel or short o, depending on dialect)
>
But in our accounting of this slough of oughy despair let us not slough over
"slough", the doughtiest of oughs!
There, that makes 11, with one dual. (key: 1st slough = slew/slu, or slao
rimes with cow; 2nd slough = sluff; doughty = doubt ;)
>
> My favorite is "oignon", which should obviously be pronounced
> /wanjo~/,
> and I understand that some people do say that.
How should it be pronounced? Surely not with an oink. I always thought
(going purely by eye) that /wanyo~/ was the correct pronunciation.
-gregg
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