Phonetic spelling?

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#181251 - 12/26/08 10:38 PM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: The Pook]
Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 8,981 LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel
LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 8,981 Land of the Flat Water	Originally Posted By: The Pook Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8 Here in the Northern Plains, a channel of water runoff, similar to a canal, can be called a slough. ...and that'd be pronounced ...? Yes, it is slu . ----please, draw me a sheep----

#181254 - 12/27/08 01:16 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: LukeJavan8]
Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 The Pook old hand
The Pook old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania	Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8 Here in the Northern Plains, a channel of water runoff, similar to a canal, can be called a slough. Here we would perhaps call that a 'sluice' (rhymes with juice). Maybe where you are it is a corruption of sluice rather than coming from the word for a marshy bog, slough, by dropping off the sibilant sound from the end? (More often though we would call such a thing an irrigation canal or table drain, or race (if associated with mining)).

#181267 - 12/27/08 05:06 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: The Pook]
Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel
zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh	Maybe where you are it is a corruption of sluice rather than coming from the word for a marshy bog, slough, by dropping off the sibilant sound from the end? I doubt it. The dictionaries don't agree with you. There are many sloughs in California mainly in the delta region (link and link). Ceci n'est pas un seing.

#181312 - 12/29/08 04:54 PM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: zmjezhd]
Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 8,981 LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel
LukeJavan8 Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2008 Posts: 8,981 Land of the Flat Water	Quote: i]Maybe where you are it is a corruption of sluice rather than coming from the word for a marshy bog, slough, by dropping off the sibilant sound from the end?[/i] I doubt it. The dictionaries don't agree with you. There are many sloughs in California mainly in the delta region ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_(wetland)]link Thanks for the links, especially the one with the fantastic picture of the Stockton Slough. The slough's here are also named, and, while not as large as the pictured one, some carry small boats from one place to another. And my dictionary agrees with you, but I am yet to check on-line ones. Again thanks for the picture: really good. Last edited by LukeJavan8; 12/29/08 04:58 PM. ----please, draw me a sheep----

#181373 - 01/02/09 06:52 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: The Pook]
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 PastorVon member
PastorVon member Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 USA, North Carolina	I have not read all the posts in this thread so I may be speaking out of turn. However, I am surprised that no one threw this at the group: GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU What does that spell phonetically? Vaughn Hathaway

#181374 - 01/02/09 06:54 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: PastorVon]
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 PastorVon member
PastorVon member Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 USA, North Carolina	Originally Posted By: PastorVon I have not read all the posts in this thread so I may be speaking out of turn. However, I am surprised that no one threw this at the group: GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU What does that spell phonetically? It spells POTATO. Here is the break down: GH OUGH PHTH EIGH TTE EAU If GH stands for P as in Hiccough If OUGH stands for O as in Dough If PHTH stands for T as in Phthisis If EIGH stands for A as in Neighbour If TTE stands for T as in Gazette If EAU stands for O as in Plateau Vaughn Hathaway

#181375 - 01/02/09 07:12 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: zmjezhd]
Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 PastorVon member
PastorVon member Joined: Dec 2008 Posts: 107 USA, North Carolina	Originally Posted By: zmjezhd ... and that'd be pronounced ...? I've only heard the /slu/ pronunciation used in the States. I grew up in the central Mississippi River valley in southern Illinois. The Mississippi has many such sloughs (slu). Some are dead-ended; others are like linked ponds. In the 1840s and 1850s a series of large floods changed the channel of the Mississippi south of present-day Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, north of present-day Chester, Illinois. Prior to the 1840s, what is today Kaskaskia Island was a somewhat long peninsula of land between the Mississippi on the west and the Kaskaskia or Okaw River on the east. Following the floods, the Mississippi cut across the peninsula and took over the channel of the Okaw forming two very large 90 degree turns. Separating today's Kaskaskia Island which is still a part of Illinois from the State of Missouri is a series of sloughs (slu-s), nearly all of which are navigable with small craft. By the way, a famous English novel includes a slough in its narrative, the Slough of Despond. I don't know if Bunyan pronounced it slu or sluff. The novel is Pilgrim's Progress and the author was John Bunyan. Vaughn Hathaway

#181377 - 01/02/09 08:00 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: PastorVon]
Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 tsuwm Carpal Tunnel
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 this too shall pass	>I don't know if Bunyan pronounced it slu or sluff. I don't know how Bunyan pronounced it either (or either), seeing as hough how Bunyan is still dead; but the OED pronounces it slow (rhymes with bough), sloo only as a dialect form, and refers to slew as a US or Canada spelling/pronunciation. They drew near to a very Miry Slough... The name of the Slow was Dispond. - Bunyan (1678) [OED2] NB: regarding the variable spellings in Bunyan - link -joe (flat foot floogie with a floy-floy) friday

#181378 - 01/02/09 09:00 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: PastorVon]
Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 The Pook old hand
The Pook old hand Joined: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,067 Tasmania	Originally Posted By: PastorVon By the way, a famous English novel includes a slough in its narrative, the Slough of Despond. I don't know if Bunyan pronounced it slu or sluff. The novel is Pilgrim's Progress and the author was John Bunyan. Yes I did mention it above I believe. Bunyan probably pronounced it to rhyme with cow. Slew (IPA slu) seems to be dialectical North American for a canal. The English bog is a (IPA) slau.

#181408 - 01/03/09 12:36 AM Re: Phonetic spelling? [Re: PastorVon]
Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803	Originally Posted By: PastorVon If GH stands for P as in Hiccough Only those poor misguided folks at Lake Superior State University would spell hiccup like that.

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