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    Poem - The Chaos

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    ieralee
    The poem lists many pairs of English words that demonstrate inconsistencies in pronunciation and spelling (1). It notes how words like blood, flood and food are pronounced differently despite similarities in spelling (2). It provides numerous other examples of words that do not rhyme or have inconsistent pronunciations despite appearances, like billet and ballet or worm and storm (3). The poem concludes by advising the reader to "give up" trying to make sense of the inconsistencies in English pronunciation.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Poem - The Chaos

    Uploaded by

    ieralee
    42 views4 pages
    The poem lists many pairs of English words that demonstrate inconsistencies in pronunciation and spelling (1). It notes how words like blood, flood and food are pronounced differently despite similarities in spelling (2). It provides numerous other examples of words that do not rhyme or have inconsistent pronunciations despite appearances, like billet and ballet or worm and storm (3). The poem concludes by advising the reader to "give up" trying to make sense of the inconsistencies in English pronunciation.

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    Poem_ The Chaos

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    The poem lists many pairs of English words that demonstrate inconsistencies in pronunciation and spelling (1). It notes how words like blood, flood and food are pronounced differently despite similarities in spelling (2). It provides numerous other examples of words that do not rhyme or have inconsistent pronunciations despite appearances, like billet and ballet or worm and storm (3). The poem concludes by advising the reader to "give up" trying to make sense of the inconsistencies in English pronunciation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views4 pages

    Poem - The Chaos

    Uploaded by

    ieralee
    The poem lists many pairs of English words that demonstrate inconsistencies in pronunciation and spelling (1). It notes how words like blood, flood and food are pronounced differently despite similarities in spelling (2). It provides numerous other examples of words that do not rhyme or have inconsistent pronunciations despite appearances, like billet and ballet or worm and storm (3). The poem concludes by advising the reader to "give up" trying to make sense of the inconsistencies in English pronunciation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    The Chaos by G.

    Nolst Trenité (1870-1946) Exiles, similes, and reviles;

    Dearest creature in creation, Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

    Study English pronunciation. Solar, mica, war and far;

    I will teach you in my verse One, anemone, Balmoral,

    Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;


    and worse.
    Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
    I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
    Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
    Make your head with heat grow
    Billet does not rhyme with
    dizzy.

    Tear in eye, your dress will tear. ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet,

    So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. chalet.

    Just compare heart, beard, and Blood and flood are not like food,
    heard,
    Nor is mould like should and would.
    Dies and diet, lord and word,
    Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
    Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
    Toward, to forward, to reward.
    (Mind the latter, how it's written.)
    And your pronunciation's OK
    Now I surely will not plague you
    When you correctly say croquet,
    With such words as plaque and
    Rounded, wounded, grieve and
    ague.
    sieve,
    But be careful how you speak:
    Friend and fiend, alive and live.
    Say break and steak, but bleak and
    streak; Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

    And enamour rhyme with hammer.


    Cloven, oven, how and low,
    River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
    Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

    Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Doll and roll and some and home.

    Stranger does not rhyme with anger,


    Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
    Neither does devour with clangour.
    Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
    Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Mark the differences, moreover,

    Between mover, cover, clover;


    1
    Leeches, breeches, wise,
    Font, front, wont, want, grand, and
    grant, precise, Chalice, but police and

    Shoes, goes, does. Now first say lice;


    finger,
    Camel, constable, unstable,
    And then singer, ginger, linger,
    Principle, disciple, label.
    Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge
    and gauge, Petal, panel, and canal,

    Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

    Query does not rhyme with very, Worm and storm, chaise, chaos,
    chair,
    Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost,
    Senator, spectator, mayor.
    lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job,
    Tour, but our and succour, four.
    nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though
    Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
    the differences seem little, We say
    Sea, idea, Korea, area,
    actual but victual.
    Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
    Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
    Youth, south, southern, cleanse and
    Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
    clean.
    Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
    Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
    Dull, bull, and George ate late.
    Compare alien with Italian,
    Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
    Dandelion and battalion.
    Science, conscience, scientific.
    Sally with ally, yea, ye,
    Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
    Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
    Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
    Say aver, but ever, fever,
    We say hallowed, but allowed,
    Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
    People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
    Heron, granary, canary.
    Crevice and device and aerie.

    Face, but preface, not efface.

    2
    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!!!

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