I have a T-shirt which states "English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar." Okay, now that's a lot for one t-shirt, but it reinforces what a devil of a language English really is. So how do we learn it? Slowly, if not at birth. Miss a cue or two, and pow, you're out. But we mowed the hay, plowed the snow, rowed the rivers, watched the towers, and what a fight we fought. I offer the following new doggerel to help you flow down the stream of pronunciation easier.
"The cow and sow just had a row
about the way to mow.
Oh wow, you really don't know how,
Called out the bossy crow.
So Pow! and Zow! they knocked him out,
And then they watched a show."
Pausing only to polish the Polish silver, I remain
Your scribe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I mispronounced that meaning of "row" until I watched a British program, probably Upstairs/Downstairs, and even then didn't realize at first that the spelling of what they were pronouncing as "rau" was "row", which I had pronounced "roh", regardless of the meaning. I also have a friend named Cindy Rau, which she pronounces like the quarrel.
ReplyDeleteIt's startling to realize that "towers" has two pronunciations and meanings. If a horse pulls a boat up a river, it's towing it, and it's a tower. Never saw that before I re-read Three Men in a Boat.
ReplyDelete