ough the cough

[A. Vine]

"Prof. Roly Sussex" wrote:
>
> The following sentence is repeated hundreds of times on the Web
> - it purports to give 9 pronunciations of ough:
>
> "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of
> Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
>
> How many do native American speakers find? I need hough = hock to
> make 9 in Australian English. Or lough = loch ...
>

Hmm, I have 2 pronunciations for slough.  As the verb I pronounce and write it
as "sluff".  As the noun referring to a marsh, I pronounce it /slau/ to rhyme
with "plough"  (which I would write as "plow", but that's another matter).

Having said that, the latter pronunciation may be due to my English husband's
influence.  I really never had occasion to read or say "slough" until recently.
Back in Texas, we just said "Louisiana".

Andrea
(who has no idea what they call them in CT)