Phonology

Alejandro García Gómez

Regular past

/d/

Talked, waited, decided, laughed, washed, studied, allowed, hoped, ended, liked.

PRONUNCIATION POEM

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble but not you
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through.
Well done! And now you wish perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of hard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead-
For goodness sake don’t call it ‘deed’
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

TEXT OF MY CHOICE

A Dog’s Tale (1903 – 1904) by Mark Twain. CHAPTER 1, page 2

“My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me, I do not know these nice distinctions myself. To me they are only fine large words meaning nothing. My mother had a fondness for such; she liked to say them, and see other dogs look surprised and envious, as wondering how she got so much education.”