Ough (orthography)
Tetragraph in English
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Ough is a four-letter sequence, a tetragraph, used in English orthography and notorious for its unpredictable pronunciation.[1] It has at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English, and no discernible patterns exist for choosing among them.[1]
History
In Middle English, ough was regularly pronounced with a back rounded vowel and a velar fricative (e.g., [oËx], [oËÉ£], [uËx] or [uËÉ£]).[citation needed]
List of pronunciations
| Pronunciation | Examples | Note |
|---|---|---|
| /Êf/ | Brough, chough, clough, enough, Hough, rough, shough, slough (see below), sough, tough | Rhymes with puff, stuff. Clough and sough are also pronounced /aÊ/. |
| /Éf/ or /ÉËf/ | cough, Gough, trough | Rhymes with off, scoff. Trough is pronounced /trÉËθ/ (troth) by some speakers of American English, and a baker's trough is also pronounced /troÊ/ in that variety.[2] |
| /aÊ/ | bough, clough, doughty, drought, plough, slough (see below), Slough, sough | Rhymes with cow, how. Clough and sough are also pronounced /Êf/. Plough is generally spelled plow in American English. |
| /oÊ/ | although, brougham, dough, furlough, Ough, though | Rhymes with no, toe. Brougham is also pronounced /uË/. |
| /ÉË/ | abought, besought, bought, brought, fought, nought, ought, sought, thought, wrought | Rhymes with caught, taught. Regularly so used before /t/, except in doughty /ËdaÊti/ and drought /draÊt/. Realized as [É] or [ÉË] in dialects exhibiting the cot-caught merger. |
| /uË/ | brougham, slough (see below), through | Rhymes with true, woo. Brougham is also pronounced /oÊ/. |
| /É/ | borough, Poughkeepsie, thorough, Willoughby, yarborough | Pronounced /oÊ/ when at the end of a word in American English (borough and thorough thus rhyme with burrow and furrow), but reduced to /É/ when followed by another syllable in many dialects (such as in thoroughly). |
| /Êp/, /Ép/ | hiccough | Variant spelling of the more common hiccup. |
| /Éf/ | Greenough | Pronounced /ËÉ¡rÉnÉf/ as the name of a river in Western Australia, and usually pronounced /ËÉ¡riËnoÊ/ as a surname. |
| /Ék/ | hough | Rhymes with dock, lock. More commonly spelled hock from the 20th century onwards. |
| /Éx/ | Brough, Clough, lough, turlough | Rhymes with Scots loch. Many speakers substitute [k] for [x]. |
Slough has three pronunciations, depending on its meaning:
- /slÊf/ (for the noun meaning a skin shed by an animal, and for the verb derived from it)
- /slaÊ/ (for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it. Also for the noun meaning a state of depression)
- /sluË/ (alternative American pronunciation for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it)[3]
The town of Slough in the Thames Valley of England is /slaÊ/.
Other pronunciations can be found in proper nouns, many of which are of Celtic origin (Irish, Scottish or Welsh) rather than English. For example, ough can represent /Ék/ in the surname Coughlin, /juË/ in Ayscough,[4] and /i/ in the name Colcolough (/ËkoÊkli/) in the United States.[5]
The two occurrences of â¨oughâ© in the English place name Loughborough are pronounced differently, resulting in /ËlÊfbÉrÉ/.[6] Additionally, three parishes of Milton KeynesâWoughton /ËwÊftÉn/, Loughton /ËlaÊtÉn/ and Broughton /ËbrÉËtÉn/â have different pronunciations of the combination.[7][8]
Some humorous verse has been written to illustrate this seeming incongruity:
- "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode, coughing and hiccoughing, thoughtfully through the streets of Scarborough."[9]
- "O-U-G-H" by Charles Battell Loomis[10]
- "Ough, a Phonetic Fantasy" by William Thomas Goodge[11]
- "I take it you already know" by T. S. Watt[12]
- "Enough Is Enough" by Rosemary Chen[13]
Spelling reforms
Because of the unpredictability of the combination, many English spelling reformers have proposed replacing it with more phonetic combinations, some of which have caught on in varying degrees of formal and informal success.[citation needed] Generally, spelling reforms have been more widely accepted in the United States and less so in other English-speaking areas.[citation needed]
In April 1984, at its yearly meeting, the Simplified Spelling Society adopted the following reform as its house style:[14][15]
- Change â¨oughâ© to â¨ufâ© when it is sounded as /Êf/: enough â enuf, tough â tuf
- Change â¨oughâ© to â¨ofâ© when it is sounded as /Éf/ or /ÉËf/: cough â cof
- Shorten â¨oughâ© to â¨ouâ© when it is sounded as /aÊ/: bough â bou, drought â drout, plough â plou
- Shorten â¨oughâ© to â¨oâ© when it is sounded as /oÊ/: though â tho (but doh for dough)
- Change â¨oughâ© to â¨auâ© when it is sounded as /ÉË/: bought â baut, ought â aut, thought â thaut
- Shorten â¨oughâ© to â¨uâ© when it is sounded as /uË/: through â thru