Ough (orthography)

''Ough'' is a four-letter sequence, a tetragraph, used in English orthography and notorious for its unpredictable pronunciation.Adam Brown, ''Understanding and Teaching English Spelling: A Strategic Guide'', 2018, , p. 214 It has at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English, and no discernible patterns exist for choosing among them.

History

In Middle English, ''ough'' was regularly pronounced with a back rounded vowel and a velar fricative (e.g., , , or ).

Most common pronunciations

* as in ''though'' (cf. ''so'').
* as in ''through'' (cf. ''true'').
* as in ''tough'' (cf. ''stuff'').
* or as in ''cough'' (cf. ''off'').
* as in ''thought'' (cf. ''saw'').
* as in ''plough'' (cf. '' how'')

List of pronunciations

''Slough'' has three pronunciations, depending on its meaning:
* (for the noun meaning a skin shed by an animal, and for the verb derived from it)
* (for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it. Also for the noun meaning a state of depression)
* (alternative American pronunciation for the noun meaning a muddy area, and for the verb derived from it)
The town of Slough in the Thames Valley of England is .

An example sentence using the nine pronunciations commonly found in modern usage (and excluding ''hough'', which is now a rarely used spelling) is, "The wind was rough along the lough as the ploughman fought through the snow, and though he hiccoughed and coughed, his work was thorough."

Another, slightly shorter example would be, "The rough, dough-faced ploughman fought through the borough to the lough, hiccoughing and coughing."

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 in the surname Coughlin, in Ayscough, and in the name Colcolough () in the United States.

The two occurrences of in the English place name Loughborough are pronounced differently, resulting in . Additionally, three parishes of Milton Keynes—Woughton , Loughton and Broughton —all have different pronunciations of the combination.

''Tough'', ''though'', ''through'' and ''thorough'' are formed by adding another letter each time, yet none of them rhyme.

Some humorous verses have been written to illustrate this seeming incongruity:
* "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode, coughing and hiccoughing, thoughtfully through the streets of Scarborough."
* "O-U-G-H" by Charles Battell Loomis
* "Ough, a Phonetic Fantasy" by William Thomas Goodge
* "I take it you already know" by T. S. Watt
* "Enough Is Enough" by Rosemary Chen

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. Generally, spelling reforms have been more widely accepted in the United States and less so in other English-speaking areas. One problem is that a pronunciation with the velar fricative is still found locally in parts of North-East Scotland, where, for example, ''trough'' is pronounced .

In April 1984, at its yearly meeting, the Simplified Spelling Society adopted the following reform as its house style:"The Society's 1984 Proposals"
''Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society'' (February 1988).

*Shorten to when it is sounded as : ''through'' → ''thru''.
*Shorten to when it is sounded as : ''though'' → ''tho'' (but ''doh'' for ''dough'').
*Shorten to when it is sounded as : ''bough'' → ''bou'', ''drought'' → ''drout'', ''plough'' → ''plou''.
*Change to when it is sounded as : ''bought'' → ''baut'', ''ought'' → ''aut'', ''thought'' → ''thaut''.
*Change to when it is sounded as : ''cough'' → ''cof''.
*Change to when it is sounded as : ''enough'' → ''enuf'', ''tough'' → ''tuf''.

Already standard

*''hiccup'' instead of the folk etymology ''hiccough''
*''hock'' instead of ''hough'' (this word is rare in the United States)
*''plow'' instead of ''plough'' (standard in American English)

In early colonial America, John Smith used the spelling ''raugroughcum'' for the animal that is today known as the raccoon. This was a new animal to the explorers and, alongside the tribal name Quiyoughcohannock, shows that the ''ough'' combination was still being used to coin new words in early colonial America. Another placename is Youghiogheny, which begins with .

Already varyingly formal

In the UK, the word ''dough'' can also be pronounced , a pronunciation remembered in the spelling of the word ''duffpudding''. Likewise, the word ''enough'' can be pronounced or and the spelling ''enow'' is an acceptable dialect or poetic spelling (e.g. " And Wilderness is Paradise enow.").

The following spellings are generally considered unacceptable in other areas, but are standard in the United States:
*''naught'' instead of ''nought'' (standard in the United States, although the word is only used in phrases such as "all for naught") – some archaic uses of ''nought'' have been replaced with ''not''
*''plow'' instead of ''plough'' (standard in the United States and Canada, with ''plough'' being occasionally used to refer to the horsedrawn variety)
*''slew'' or ''sluff'' instead of the two corresponding pronunciations of ''slough'' (the former is very common in the United States, the latter much less so, with ''slough'' being retained in most cases)
*''donut'' instead of ''doughnut''

Common informal

*''thru'' instead of ''through'': it is a common abbreviated spelling in the US and standard on road signs, where it conserves space and is quicker to read: e.g., "drive thru" for drive-through and "thru traffic" for "through traffic"
*''tho'' and ''altho'' instead of ''though'' and ''although'' (sometimes contracted as '' tho''' and '' altho''')
*'''nuff'' instead of ''enough''
However, all of these are considered unacceptable in written British English and formal American English, except in the most casual and informal forms of textual conversation.

Rare informal

*''coff'' instead of ''cough'' – Koffing
*''laff'' instead of ''laugh'' (British comic variant ''larf'') – Laffy Taffy
*''enuff'' or ''enuf'' instead of ''enough'' – Tuff Enuff
*''tuff'' instead of ''tough'' – Tuff Enuff, Tuff Shed
*''ruff'' instead of ''rough'' (seldom used because it often refers to an onomatopoeia for a dog's bark)

Comparable combinations

is orthographically rather similar to , but admits much less pronunciation variation:
* as in ''caught'', ''daughter'', ''fraught'', ''slaughter''
* as in ''draught'' (US ''draft''), ''laugh'', ''laughter''

The similar yields at least four standard pronunciations, although one is only found in a word derived from a proper name:
* as in ''bow'' (stoop), ''bowdlerize'' (derived from Thomas Bowdler, also ), ''cow'', ''glower'' (glare), ''now'', ''owl'', ''row'' (fight), ''sow'' (pig), ''town'', etc.
* as in ''bow'' (weapon), ''bowl'', ''crow'', ''know'', ''lower'' (let down), ''own'', ''row'' (bank), ''sow'' (plant), etc.
* as in ''acknowledge'' , ''knowledge''
* as in ''bowie knife'' (named after Jim Bowie)

Dialectal forms also render pronunciations such as ''fella'' , ''tomorra'' for ''fellow'' , ''tomorrow'' , and ''winder'' , ''yeller'' for ''window'' , ''yellow'' .

A comparable group is , which differs however in that, unlike , it does not ever represent a single phoneme. can be pronounced in at least five ways:
* as in ''bomb'' (rhymes with ''Tom'')
* as in ''clomb'' , ''comb'' (rhymes with ''home'')
* as in ''tomb'' , ''womb'' (rhymes with ''gloom'')
* as in ''aplomb'' (rhymes with ''gum'', also )
* as in ''buncombe'' , ''coxcombry''

When a syllable is added after the , the is often (but not always) pronounced, resulting in a total of at least eight pronunciations of :
* as in ''combat'' , ''rhombus'' , ''somber'' (UK ''sombre'') , ''wombat'' , ''zombie'' , etc.
* as in ''Colombia''
* as in ''combine'' (verb)
—but not, for example, in ''bomber'', ''comber'', ''entombing'', etc.

The group also has a wide variety of pronunciations, in part because of the two phonemes ( and ) represented by English . Here are seven different pronunciations:
* as in ''both'', ''loth'', ''lothario'', ''quoth'', ''sloth'' (UK), ''troth''
* as in ''apothecary'', ''broth'', ''brothel'', ''cloth'', ''froth'', ''Goth'', ''hypothesis'', ''moth'', ''sloth'' (US)
* as in ''nothing''
* as in ''behemoth'', ''mammoth''
* as in ''betroth''
* as in ''bother''
* as in ''another'', ''brother'', ''mother'', ''other'', ''smother''

The group has at least nine pronunciations, though unlike with or , context often suggests the correct pronunciation:
* as in ''long'', ''prong'', ''song'', ''strong'', ''thong'', ''tong'', ''wrong''
* as in ''congress'', ''longer'', ''Mongol''
* as in ''congee'', ''longevity'', ''longitude'', ''pongee''
* as in ''among'', ''tongue''
* as in ''humongous'', ''monger'', ''mongrel''
* as in ''allonge'', ''sponge''
* as in ''congratulate''
* as in ''congeal'', ''congest''
* as in ''mongoose'', ''ongoing'' (some pronunciations)

Curiosities

Among the smaller villages and hamlets in Milton Keynes (England) are three Broughton, Loughton and Woughton on the Green that are of note in that their names each use a different pronunciation of the 'ough' letter sequence.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ough (Orthography)
Latin-script tetragraphs
English orthography