These words do not rhyme and I object to them pretending to.

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

Laugh and Scarf
Roar and Paw

every flipping night i read stories to DS that contain these words and get mightily pissed off.

yes, I know there are difference dialects and accents and people pronounce words differently but FGS if you are going to write a rhyming poem or story you have to realize that not everyone speaks like you.

I only flinch if Z is rhymed with tea rather than bed.

YouCantTeuchThis - THANK YOU! that's EXACTLY how i pronounce them.

(see I'm NOT a freak!)

my dd is off school sick
she is on the loo

you could say she is a paw (pooer)

digby do you say HOO-er instead of Whore too?

What does your paw rhyme with?

whore I would warrant

whore and paw rhyme for me too
but in a different way

CD - Hoo-er?? please!! it's Ho'
as in she's a Ho' fo' SHo'
(i say Hore)

paw/saw/claw/straw

like pawn without the n.

And I take it you live above 110th St?

what's with that link? "pah!"

SirDigby, FWIW I'm with you on the 'rhymes should rhyme for everyone' thing. There's too much assuming that everyone has a southern English accent. Dictionaries, pronunciation guides are as bad - I teach phonetics to students in Huddersfield and they are mystified by transcriptions that say English pronounces 'book' and 'buck' differently.

i know people who pronounce poor poo-er but paw is still pore.

Message withdrawn

book and buck are the same for me

although some people at dd1's school say boooooook and coooooooker for cooker

[recoils holding ears]

We need a MN focus group consisting of carefully selected representatives of all regional accents who could vet prospective children's books before publication...

Either that or have separate sections in Waterstone's for different accents... or cover stickers on books? Buy one get one half price, and stay away from this one if you're from north of Nottingham...

Message withdrawn

PMSL at this thread! DP is from Down South and says 'giraarrffe' as though it has an extra R in, and now that's how DS says it and I find it difficult to understand what he's going on about. On the other hand DS does say 'boooook' and 'loooook' so he is northern at heart!

I still don't understand why paw and roar don't rhyme

paw and roar?

No way!

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

This has troubled me for years. Can someone explain the rhyme to me, please?

but Blake was insane

and off his head

rhymes were the least of his worries

Language change... Either 'eye' used to be pronounced 'ee' or 'symmetry' used to be pronounced 'symmetr-eye'. I should probably know which it is but I don't