I am very fond of Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s books which provide delightful rhymes for the children and plenty of pictorial interest for the parents who end up reading and re-reading.
One of their books is “The Cops and the Robbers”. The following lines appear “there are toys going missing galore/what they need’s the strong arm of the law”. Under no circumstances in Irish English do galore and law rhyme. Then one of the robbers gets thrown “whoosh/into a bush”. Irish people pronounce the h in whoosh/who/which and so on. For us whoosh and bush do not rhyme.
That is all.
I see ‘galore’ and ‘law’ don’t rhyme in a rhotic variety of English, but does it matter how the first consonant of ‘whoosh’ is pronounced so long as the vowel and final consonant are the same? Are the vowels different as you say them?
its hard to be a poet. Rhyming dictionaries help but still.
I think you’re right Dot – it’s the o which is different rather than the wh – yes bush and whoosh sound quite different when I say them. Wonder about the Americans.
Do rhotic speakers read poetry?
Well I think all these darned colonials should learn to speak the Queen’s English. Bring back RP!
😉 fetching coat.
Praxis, if you are not careful, I will send you some of my poetry, then you’ll be sorry. Same goes for you, J.
Whoosh and bush don’t rhyme in some British dialects either – but many speakers could pronounce “whoosh” either with the vowel of “too” OR with the vowel of “put” – I know I could. The former would be more for dramatic effect.
(and, some Scottish speakers might well pronounce “bush” and “too” with the same vowel…)
Whoosh and bush do not rhyme in American English either. Especially since half of all Americans pronounce “bush” in a way that rhymes with “boron”.