Sabrina Kilian <ski### [at] vtedu> wrote:
> Stephen wrote:
> > "Sabrina Kilian" <ski### [at] vtedu> wrote in message
> > news:4ad934db$1@news.povray.org...
> >
> >> I can not make those rhyme without butchering one or the other. Either
> >> Ar-ken-saw becomes Ar-kens-ur, or Four becomes Fou. Maybe there is a
> >> homograph of 'four' that I am missing? Or maybe I just need a proper
> >> Queen's English accent to get that one.
> >
> > As Bill said it depends on personal accent and I'll add regional and
> > class (there I go again :) to that.
> > Four and Ar-ken-saw do rhyme if you use a posh RP (Received
> > Pronunciation) English accent (fou-ar and saw-ar).
> >
> > The girl reading the poem in TC's post did really well IMO.
>
> Indeed she does. But I was not reading it in my 'deer ol Virginya home'
> accent, I tend to slip in to that one only on rare occasion. Still, I
> guess my RP accent is lacking what finishing touches I should have
> received in finishing school, as I have never heard "four" pronounced in
> two syllables.

A two-syllable 'four' suggests to me some region of northern England, but I
couldn't tell you exactly where. Personally, I would pronounce 'four' as 'for',
and I think I have a fairly middle-of-the-road neutral English accent, maybe a
touch southeast. This makes rhyming 'Arkansas' with 'four' extremely easy for
me, without sounding at all strange (to me!).

Funny how different lines trip up people differently :)

Post a reply to this message