On 3 May 2016 at 05:15, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d@puremagic.com> wrote: > On 5/2/2016 12:09 PM, Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d wrote: >> >> For every rule, there are 101 exceptions. :-) >> >> >> http://shirah-goes-again.blogspot.de/2011/01/entire-english-language-is-big.html > > > What's the problem? :-) >
You can colour me impressed if you were able to read it out loud without stuttering to sound out a word. :-P The last list had my partner (native Italian) throw her pen down and give up for the day on many occasions, consider the following rhyming couplets or same sounds. (bough, bow), (cough, quaff), (dough, doe), (enough, stuff), (hough, shock), (lough, lock), (plough, vow), (sough, brow), (though, know), (through, threw), (thorough, morrow) Though I've really noticed the difference since we first lived together - such as nowadays she says biscuit to rhyme with kit, rather than quit. :-) Then again, I discovered a few years ago that I was a retroflex speaker of English. Which when you are non-native, I've been frequently told is very difficult to understand, if compared to your typical North American (rhotic) or Oxford-English (non-rhotic) speakers that you get on news channels. My old neighbour and friend when I lived in the UK found that out the hard way when after three months of talking with me on a near daily basis, thought they could understand native English very well (they considered me a challenge). They discovered otherwise a few weeks later trying to communicate with locals on holiday in Norfolk. ;-)