Trenité was a Dutch linguist :)
Dearest
creature in creation,
Study
English pronunciation.
I
will teach you in my verse
Sounds
like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I
will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make
your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear
in eye, your dress will tear.
So
shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just
compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies
and diet, lord and word,
Sword
and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind
the latter, how it’s written.)
Now
I surely will not plague you
With
such words as plaque and ague.
But
be careful how you speak:
Say
break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven,
oven, how and low,
Script,
receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear
me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter,
laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid,
measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles,
similes, and reviles;
Scholar,
vicar, and cigar,
Solar,
mica, war and far;
One,
anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen,
lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude,
German, wind and mind,
Scene,
Melpomene, mankind.
Billet
does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet,
wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood
and flood are not like food,
Nor
is mould like should and would.
Viscous,
viscount, load and broad,
Toward,
to forward, to reward.
And
your pronunciation’s OK
When
you correctly say croquet,
Rounded,
wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend
and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy,
privy, famous; clamour
And
enamour rhyme with hammer.
River,
rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll
and roll and some and home.
Stranger
does not rhyme with anger,
Neither
does devour with clangour.
Souls
but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font,
front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes,
goes, does. Now first say finger,
And
then singer, ginger, linger,
Real,
zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage,
foliage, mirage, and age.
Query
does not rhyme with very,
Nor
does fury sound like bury.
Dost,
lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job,
nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though
the differences seem little,
We
say actual but victual.
Refer
does not rhyme with deafer.
Feffer
does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint,
pint, senate and sedate;
Dull,
bull, and George ate late.
Scenic,
Arabic, Pacific,
Science,
conscience, scientific.
Liberty,
library, heave and heaven,
Rachel,
ache, moustache, eleven.
We
say hallowed, but allowed,
People,
leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark
the differences, moreover,
Between
mover, cover, clover;
Leeches,
breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice,
but police and lice;
Camel,
constable, unstable,
Principle,
disciple, label.
Petal,
panel, and canal,
Wait,
surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm
and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator,
spectator, mayor.
Tour,
but our and succour, four.
Gas,
alas, and Arkansas.
Sea,
idea, Korea, area,
Psalm,
Maria, but malaria.
Youth,
south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine,
turpentine, marine.
Compare
alien with Italian,
Dandelion
and battalion.
Sally
with ally, yea, ye,
Eye,
I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say
aver, but ever, fever,
Neither,
leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron,
granary, canary.
Crevice
and device and aerie.
Face,
but preface, not efface.
Phlegm,
phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large,
but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought,
out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear,
but earn and wear and tear
Do
not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven
is right, but so is even,
Hyphen,
roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey,
donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask,
grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation
(think of Psyche!)
Is
a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t
it make you lose your wits,
Writing
groats and saying grits?
It’s
a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn
with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington
and Isle of Wight,
Housewife,
verdict and indict.
Finally,
which rhymes with enough,
Though,
through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough
has the sound of cup.
My
advice is to give up!!!
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário