Monday, August 29, 2011

The ending syllable “ough,” which . . .


is such a terror to foreigners, is snown up in several pronunciations in the flowing lines:

Wife, make me some dumplings of dough –
They’re better than meat for my cough;
Pray, let them be boiled till hot through,
But not till they’re heavy or tough.
No I must be off to my plough,
And the boys (when they’ve had enough)
Must keep the flies off with a bough,
While the old mare drinks at the trough.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

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