英語單詞的讀音有沒有確定的規律？

01-01

比如E結尾的單詞中，原音大多讀本身字母音，如A讀ei。但很多時候也有例外。去過把這些規律弄熟了，是不是可以達到看到陌生單詞也能讀

英文單詞的正拼寫(orthography)跟讀音之間，是有對應的規則。但，是不甚確定的對應規則。

不只因為有太多的規則，多到不可能短時間一下子就能硬記起來→ English orthography

要命的是，規則當中，又往往多有例外。英文可說是在拼音語文當中，於這方面最明顯混亂者。

文末有詩為證。

因此，請千萬莫寄望，不只歷經一千多年的演變，還經歷不同語文拼寫的雜揉、夾有早年(外籍)印刷工人的簡省或舛誤積而成習未祛者、參雜有仍持續直接向外文借用語詞不調整拼寫法、更在中間還有歷經語音大變化的英語，而且要用僅僅26個拉丁字母來拼寫其語言內約40種左右的語音，它的語文的拼寫跟讀音之間，能夠跟比如距今才半個多世紀前所設計的1958拉丁「漢語拼音」，僅藉由記憶相對很少數的規則，便都可看到拼寫就知詞音，或知單詞音便能正拼寫。請千萬莫寄望能如此。

而由於英文的拼寫跟單詞音之間對應的混亂，

想要見拼寫而知單詞音，或者，知單詞音要作正拼寫，

即便是對英語母語人，自然會講英語的人來說，也是問題；

他們小時候要學認生詞音以及要將會講的語詞化作正拼寫無誤，

也是一件苦惱的問題。而且，跟我們一樣，不是只有小時候才會碰上這種問題。

因而建議，

先瀏覽上面第一段所提供的連結當中所列的表 (千萬莫想一次就全記起來，那會是浪費

時間跟精力)，有了一些概念之後；在閱讀英文時，看到不會唸的生詞，就查辭典，且或同時

跟該表對照；如此，便可以較為輕鬆自然的知道那些規則，但是仍要提防有例外的規則。

這對於反過來要記住某個會唸的單詞如何正拼寫，也會有幫助。然而，之後碰到生詞，

還是請務必要查辭典來得知其詞音，以防有例外，用以避免跟我們碰上漢字生字詞時，

「有邊讀邊、沒邊讀中間」，而讀錯字詞音的狀況。

這是方法。

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最後，關於第一段所提到的「有詩為證」，如下。

這是主張英文拼寫改革/文字改革的英語母語人團體或個人，經常部份或全部引用的一篇韻文，

用以支撐其主張。那是他們的語文，就讓他們繼續奮鬥，一年比一年更難達成目標的奮鬥。

而要不當母語文盲且使用正拼寫的英語人，以及要學他們的語文的我們，

還是要面對英文的拼寫跟讀音之間，會有難對應、多有例外的問題。

這篇韻文體的文當中，所彙集的相關詞，約800個，幾乎都為常用詞，數量不少 (但非例外的全部)，剛好可以用來得知英語英文這方面的頗多例外，用以做為檢索，以及做為注意英文拼寫和讀音的例外的不完整的彙整清單。原作者，Gerard Nolst Trenité, 在最後面做了小調侃，是供莞爾，可千萬莫就照字面做。

這篇韻文的原文，於相關詞是習慣以斜體字呈現，

我在此再逐一加粗黑體，使在螢幕上更醒目。

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THE CHAOS

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;

Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,

Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!

Just compare heart, hear 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: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via

Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;

Woven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:

Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,

Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,

Missiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing,

Same, examining, but mining,

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far.

From "desire": desirable-admirable from "admire",

Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier,

Topsham, brougham, renown, but known,

Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.

Gertrude, German, wind and wind,

Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,

Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,

Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.

This phonetic labyrinth

Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.

Have you ever yet endeavoured

To pronounce revered and severed,

Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,

Peter, petrol andpatrol?

Billet does not end like ballet;

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Banquet is not nearly parquet,

Which exactly rhymes with khaki.

Discount, viscount, load andbroad,

Toward, toforward, toreward,

Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?

Right! Your pronunciation"s OK.

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Is your r correct in higher?

Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.

Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,

Buoyant, minute, but minute.

Say abscission with precision,

Now: position and transition;

Would it tally with my rhyme

If I mentioned paradigm?

Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,

Butcease, crease, grease and greasy?

Cornice, nice, valise, revise,

Rabies, butlullabies.

Of such puzzling words as nauseous,

Rhyming well with cautious, tortious,

You"ll envelop lists, I hope,

In a linen envelope.

Would you like some more? You"ll have it!

Affidavit, David, davit.

To abjure, to perjure. Sheik

Does not sound like Czech but ache.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,

People, leopard, towed but vowed.

Mark the difference, moreover,

Between mover, plover, Dover.

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice, but police and lice,

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, penal, and canal,

Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,

Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit

Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it",

But it is not hard to tell

Why it"s pall, mall, but PallMall.

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,

Timber, climber, bullion, lion,

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

Senator, spectator, mayor,

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

Has the a of drachm and hammer.

Pussy, hussy and possess,

Desert, but desert, address.

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants

Hoist in lieu of flags leftpennants.

Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,

Cow, but Cowper,some and home.

"Solder, soldier! Blood isthicker",

Quoth he, "than liqueur orliquor",

Making, it is sad buttrue,

In bravado, much ado.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand andgrant.

Arsenic, specific, scenic,

Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.

Gooseberry, goose, andclose, butclose,

Paradise, rise, rose, anddose.

Sayinveigh, neigh, butinveigle,

Make the latter rhyme witheagle.

Mind! Meandering but mean,

Valentine andmagazine.

And I bet you, dear, apenny,

You saymani-(fold) likemany,

Which is wrong. Sayrapier, pier,

Tier (one who ties), buttier.

Arch, archangel; pray, doeserring

Rhyme with herring or withstirring?

Prison, bison, treasuretrove,

Treason, hover, cover, cove,

Perseverance, severance. Ribald

Rhymes (but piebald doesn"t) withnibbled.

Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,

Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.

Don"t be down, myown, but rough it,

And distinguishbuffet, buffet;

Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,

Worcester, Boleyn, toimpugn.

Say in sounds correct andsterling

Hearse, hear, hearken, year andyearling.

Evil, devil, mezzotint,

Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention

To such sounds as I don"t mention,

Sounds likepores, pause, pours andpaws,

Rhyming with the pronounyours;

Nor are proper namesincluded,

Though I often heard, asyou did,

Funny rhymes to unicorn,

Yes, you know them, Vaughan andStrachan.

No, my maiden, coy and comely,

I don"t want to speak ofCholmondeley.

No. Yet Froude compared withproud

Is no better than McLeod.

But mind trivial and vial,

Tripod, menial, denial,

Troll and trolley, realm andream,

Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely

May be made to rhyme withRaleigh,

But you"re not supposed to say

Piquet rhymes withsobriquet.

Had this invalid invalid

Worthless documents? Howpallid,

How uncouth he, couchant, looked,

When for PortsmouthI had booked!

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,

Paramour, enamoured, flighty,

Episodes, antipodes,

Acquiesce, andobsequies.

Please don"t monkey with the geyser,

Don"t peel "taters with my razor,

Rather say in accents pure:

Nature, stature and mature.

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,

Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,

Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,

Wan, sedan and artisan.

The th will surely trouble you

More than r, ch or w.

Say then these phonetic gems:

Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.

Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,

There are more but I forget "em-

Wait! I"ve got it: Anthony,

Lighten your anxiety.

The archaic word albeit

Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;

With and forthwith, one has voice,

One has not, you make your choice.

Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger;

Then say: singer, ginger, linger.

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,

Hero, heron, query, very,

Parry, tarry, fury, bury,

Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,

Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.

Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,

Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners

Holm you know, but noes, canoes,

Puisne, truism, use, to use?

Though the difference seems little,

We say actual, but victual,

Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,

Put, nut, granite, and unite.

Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,

Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,

Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.

Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific;

Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,

Next omit, which differs from it

Bona fide, alibi

Gyrate, dowry and awry.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien withItalian,

Dandelion withbattalion,

Rally withally; yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!

Say aver, butever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.

Never guess-it is notsafe,

We say calves, valves, half, butRalf.

Starry, granary, canary,

Crevice, but device, and eyrie,

Face, but preface, then grimace,

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;

Ear, but earn; and ere and tear

Do not rhyme with here but heir.

Mind the o of off and often

Which may be pronounced as orphan,

With the sound of saw and sauce;

Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.

Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?

Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.

Respite, spite, consent, resent.

Liable, but Parliament.

Sevenis right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,

Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.

A of valour, vapid, vapour,

S of news (compare newspaper),

G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,

I of antichrist and grist,

Differ like diverse and divers,

Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.

Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,

Polish, Polish, poll and poll.

Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-

Is a paling, stout and spiky.

Won"t it make you lose your wits

Writing groats and saying "grits"?

It"s a dark abyss or tunnel

Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,

Islington, and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Don"t you think so, reader, rather,

Saying lather, bather, father?

Finally, which rhymes with enough,

Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??

Hiccough has the sound ofsup...

My advice is: GIVE IT UP!

-- Gerard Nolst Trenité (Charivarius) -

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* No, you are wrong. This is the plural of "doe".

在網路上找到有母語人唸這篇韻文的一個視頻，

我也將它附在這裡→ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw

如果英語在演變過程中噼里啪啦往下掉字母時，能像法雞那樣添上點兒符號，告訴你這裡曾經有人住過，那他旳表音率可能會更髙些……

一個完全放棄了正寫改革的語文，怎麼可能會有確定的規律？

你不會說話的時候，不識字的時候

給你看漢子，你一樣不會讀

要先學好聽，再模仿，像你1-3歲。會簡單交流以後，再把漢字，和聲音，及聲音表達的意思，對應起來，之後看見漢字，才會讀

所以，你應該先聽，再模仿。解決簡單聽說以後，再對應單詞，你開始就攻克單詞的讀法，而很少在口語表達中，運用到那個單詞的話，基本上，記那個單詞也白記，一定會忘記的，知道單詞讀的規律，也意義不大