Yesterday I was happy to complete another year of language teaching. Now I can enjoy a brief respite from having to tackle the thorny topic of English pronunciation.
Italian is a phonetic language so the locals are used to pronouncing all the vowel sounds. This means that Tom Cruise becomes Tom ‘CREW-IS’ and the gel I bought from the hairdresser’s today was sold to me as ‘TEEDY HIRE’ instead of ‘tidy hair’.
I have every sympathy with learners who have to contend with all the linguistic inconsistencies of English where two words spelt almost identically sound completely different.
To illustrate this issue, a Dutchman by the name of Gerald Nolst Trenité, (using the nom de plume Charivarius) wrote an epic poem called The Chaos which highlights about 800 such irregularities.
Apparently only 10% of native English speakers in the world are able to give a word perfect recital of the poem.
Are you one of them?
The Chaos by Charivarius (1922)
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. Continue reading
