pronunciation | The Qwiet Muse

Word Wise

While in line at the supermarket, totally not eavesdropping mind you; some people are just loud talkers, I overheard a woman lamenting about her ability, or rather lack of ability in the area of sewing. She sighed, “Sewing is just not my forte.” People say it all the time, the problem is, they are saying it incorrectly, if you want to nit-pic about it and I sometimes do.

I have an almost unnatural affinity for words, I take care to use them as properly as I possibly can. I will unashamedly admit I used to say it wrong as well. Most of us do. I guess you could say words are my forte and you would be pronouncing it, or at least I would be pronouncing it as fōrt. One simple syllable, fort. This pronunciation defines the subject as a persons strong point, or something they are extremely capable of.

The oft used two-syllable pronunciation of forte, fōr′tā, is technically a musical term meaning loud and forceful, pertaining to a section of a musical score.

Now for the most part, the arguably finer sounding of the two words is widely accepted when explaining your particular prowess in an area of achievement. I understand, everyone knows what you mean when you announce something is your fortay. You are likely to get strange looks if you tell someone your fort is cooking, they may envision your kitchen chairs and couch cushions with blazing sheets draped over them.

I concede, I prefer the sound of forte with two lovely syllables, it flows nicely and sounds proper, whereas the shorter version is an unexpectedly abrupt and juvenile conversation enhancer. Still, I can’t stop my mind from mentally correcting someone each time I hear it.

There is one more lesser known definition to the word you may not have heard of unless you happen to be a swordsman or fencing enthusiast. Forte, again pronounced fort, is a strong section of a blade between the hilt and the middle of the object.

I feel purged, this has been swirling around in my mind for two days. Holding onto random, meaningless thoughts must be yet another forte of mine, pronounce how you wish . . .

Crystal R. Cook

The Chaos by G. Nolst Trenité

They say if you can properly pronounce each word with proficiency, you’ve mastered our marvelous language with honors . . . Read it aloud and see how well you do!

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

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.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough —
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!