Of Specific Rural Isthmuses
Surrounded by Anemones
Overrun by Squirrels
or . . .
Hard to Pronounce
English Words!

I guarantee you that sentence will never be found using Google! And the reason being … it is made up of some of the words that are considered THE hardest to pronounce in the English language!

Full Disclosure: That is the weirdest sentence I could think of. Don’t make me write another one! I am saving other weird sentences for a future post about using …. Google Translate!

A previous post looked at “Unpronounceable Words or . . . I Didn’t Quite . . . Catch That . . .” about hard to pronounce words in the World! This time, let’s just look at English! Last time, I included ‘Worcestershire’ and … it is still difficult to pronounce, even in other languages!

So why are some English words so hard to say, even if you are a native speaker? There are those that simply say, “My mouth just doesn’t work that way!” and that actually might be true for some speakers!

Other words throw a curve by including a sound, that does NOT have the corresponding, and logical, letter within the word! For example, Colonel!

But it turns out, there is a rationale for it:

The key is phonology – the science of sounds within the language. Hebrew has five or six vowel sounds and more than 20 consonant sounds. In contrast, English has five written vowels, but 20 vocalic sounds. A written ‘a’ will have numerous different sounds depending on what letters are couched around it.

And to throw yet another curve at you, try this extract from a famous pronunciation poem circa the turn of the century!

Enjoy!

(And a really tough poem is here!)

The Chaos

by G. Nolst Trenite a.k.a. “Charivarius” 1870 – 1946

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye your dress you’ll tear,
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer,
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via,
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles.
Exiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing.