English is such a wacky language

[annathepiper]

In having the hero of my story make this very observation to my heroine, I realized that the words 'through', 'cough', 'rough', 'bough', and 'dough' all mean that the letters 'ough' can be pronounced five different ways! This greatly amuses the language geek in me, and I have been trying to figure out whether there are other words in English that end in 'ough' that involve other sounds besides those of the words here. Can anyone think of any? Credit to mamishka for the suggestion to post the question!

Comments

[avram]

There was a collection of Dr Seuss’s early work called Tough Coughs as He Ploughs the Dough. And there’s an OUGH Song!

Let’s see... the sounds you’ve got are “oo”, “awf”, “uff”, “ow”, and “oh”. There are a few words where ough just makes an “aw” sound, without the f: bought, sought, fought, etc.

Trough is pronounced either “trawf” (like cough) or “trawth” — that second one is less common, but it’s another sound. And if you really want to get picky, the plural troughs can be pronounced “trawvz”, giving you “awv”, still another. Total: eight.

There's a place near one of my friends...

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

...signposted "Hough".

We had this very discussion, and came up with

'off' as in cough
'uff' as in rough
'uh' as in borough
'owe' as in though
'ooo' as in through
'ow' as in plough
'och' as in lough
'aw' as in bought

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[avram]

In my local dialect, the ough in borough is pronounced “owe”, the same as the one in though.

Lough brings it to nine, counting the ones I mentioned.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

There are 11 altogether, and I once saw a sentence that used all of them.

In addition to agrumer and fleetfootmike's countribution, there's also "up" as in "hiccough".

Plough through enough dough? Hiccough, cough.

And don't forget "Paint the aisle again."

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

:)
'-borough' - number 3 in my 'how to spot an American in England by how they pronounce place names" tests, hot on the heels of making them pronounce Leicester and Glasgow. (I note with amusement that someone had made a point of coaching Stevie Nicks at the Mac gig in Glasgow, I also noted that (on every night I saw them) she had an extra piece of paper on the floor by her set list, with the name of the city in BIG letters (she's somewhat myopic, apparently)).

[annathepiper]

The scary thing about this entire discussion is that risu came up with a reference that said that the combination 'ough' could be pronounced fourteen different ways!

To wit:

1. awe: thought, bought, fought, brought, ought, sought, nought, wrought
2. uff: enough, rough, tough, slough, Clough, chough
3. ooh: through, slough
4. oh: though, although, dough, doughnut, broughm, Ough, furlough, Greenough, thorough
5. off: cough, trough
6. ow: bough, plough, sough
7. ou: drought, doughty, Stoughton
8. uh: Scarborough, borough, thorough (alt), thoroughbred, Macdonough, Poughkeepsie
9. up: hiccoughed
10. oth: trough (alt)
11. ock: lough, hough
12. och (aspirated): lough
13. ahf: Gough
14. og: Coughlin (also #5)

Cool, huh? :)

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[annathepiper]

Heh! Looks like you hit all the ones risu gave me when she looked all this up. Isn't English WACKY? :)

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I'm used to saying borough as burrow, pretty much. Let's hear it for Kentucky accents!

[annathepiper]

::LAUGH:: That's three for the 'ai' combination! I can't think of others off the top of my head, though, that come with multiple sounds.

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[annathepiper]

Wait a minute--okay, so how do you pronounce 'Glasgow'? I know Edinburgh is supposed to come out 'ed-in-bur-ow', more or less--though with my accent it'll probably come out 'ed-in-bur-uh'--but am I being blatantly American if I say 'glas-go'?

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[wrog]

borough as "burrow"

I thought that is the standard pronunciation. Where the hell do people say "burruh"?

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[annathepiper]

Darned if I know, though I could probably see it in Scotland. fleetfootmike would probably better comment on that than I would, though!

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[wrog]

ah, I was thinking US and I missed it the first time around that all of the people listing borough as "burruh" were the same person and that person is in Scotland. Makes sense now.

(... though I was always told Edinburgh is pronounced "Ed-in-bruh" [i.e., 3 syllables, not 4]. Oh well...)

Re: There's a place near one of my friends...

[annathepiper]

Hrmm, I shall have to take a closer listen when Dara and I go back to Scotland in 2005 and doublecheck that pronunciation on Edinburgh. :) I want to see the city again anyway!