Talk:Ough (combination)

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[edit] Examples needed

If there really are "over ten" pronunciations, can we please have examples of them all? — sjorford++ 16:49, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I got:

enough (rough, tough) cough (trough) bough through thorough (borough) dough (though) nought (bought, wrought, sought, ought) lough hiccough

But various pages on internet report it as being pronounceable in between 12 and 14 ways. The following is from http://home.planet.nl/~blade068/languagefun/pronunciation.htm.

The combination ough can be pronounced in fourteen different ways:
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. oc[h] (aspirated): lough
13. ahf: Gough
14. og: Coughlin (also #5)
The following sentence contains them all:
Rough-coated(2), dough-faced(4), thoughtful(1) ploughman(6) John Gough(13) strode through(3) the streets of Loughborough(2+8); after falling into a slough(2) on Coughlin(14) road near the lough(12) (dry due to drought)(7), he coughed(5) and hiccoughed(9), then checked his horse's houghs(11)and washed up in a trough(10).

User:Leitmotif

Why are there examples from Scots, which is a different language from English? One could just as well start including examples of the [uɣ] or [ouɡ] sort - I'm sure you could find languages that do just that. But the real point here is the unpredictability of this tetragraph's pronunciation in present-day English. (That renders "hough" a bit pointless too.) --Tropylium 14:54, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
Also, your (6) and (7) are the same, /aʊ/. You might also want to note that (5) and (13) are both /ɒf/ in British English. 91.105.17.245 10:59, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Original of this tetragraph

Can we say something about the origin of such tetragraph? I heard that "ou" was originally the closed /o/ and /gh/ was the glottal stop. Is it true? --Tomchiukc 05:37, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

See Gh (digraph) and Ou (digraph) .--Adolar von Csobánka (Talk) 14:56, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
In English, "gh" historically represented /x/ (the voiceless velar fricative). In modern English, "gh" is either silent or pronounced /f/ (see ough).
English ou originally represented [uː], as in French, but its pronunciation has changed as part of the Great Vowel Shift.
--Adolar von Csobánka (Talk) 14:56, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What's so special about "-omb"?

Is it really relevant to the article?

The letter combination "ea" seems to have even more possible sounds: ei (great, steak); ee (steal, deal); e (stealth, dealt); i-e (real); i-ae (reality, reaction); i-ei (create); ei-a (seance, real); and even more as part of combination "ear": eer (hear, teardrop); air (bear, wear); er (search, heard) --My another account 07:47, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Woughton, Loughton and Broughton

The article says that "ough" is pronounced differently in each of these place names, but does not give the pronunciations. I think it's a little unfair to tantalise the reader in this way. Note that the pronunciations are not currently given in the articles for the towns themselves. — Paul G 06:35, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Pronounciations have now been added to the articles for Woughton and Loughton: apparently, they're 'wufton' and 'lowton' (same pronounciation as in Slough). We're still in the dark about Broughton, but I'd guess that it's probably pronounced like the English word 'brought'. Terraxos (talk) 22:14, 22 January 2008 (UTC)