Frazz by Jef Mallett for July 26, 2016

I think July-ed about that. ;-)

Surely like the Patchouli comment, still have a small bottle of it.

Rhyme time with Frazz!

Well, the -ly of “duly” is originally from the word “like”, though far back enough that it would have used something similar to the vowel it uses now.

July comes from the Latin name Iulius, same FLEECE vowel. Here’s what etymonline ( http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=July ) has to say about July:

‘July ; seventh month, c. 1050, Iulius, from Anglo-French julie […] Accented on the first syllable in English until 18c.; “the modern Eng. pronunciation is abnormal and unexplained” [OED].’

So, it did rhyme with duly until the 1700s, and nobody knows why it changed, but we do know that the difference isn’t for any historical reason.

This may be an appropriate time to remind that verbiage is pronounced in the same way as is foliage and in a different way than is garbage.

I’m jest worried them homonyms gonna git more rights than I got!

Yeah, and you’d think “rely” might rhyme with “really,” “mealy” and “wheelie” …but some “y” endings inexplicably fall into the “my, try, fly” mold.

I mean “why” do we automatically know not to use the pronunciation of “try” in the words “pantry” or “country” …or “fry” in “belfry?”

Because English is a patchwork language… borrowed and bent, amalgamated and glued…with Germanic roots and Romance borrowings and no clear lineage…

We learn it by hearing it at a very impressionable age..eventually picking up the separate pronunciations of “cough” and “through” and “though”…We somehow know by osmosis that a “sewer” sews and a “sewer” flows…through the “slough” …. we can “slough” off the confusion….even if it IS “abnormal and unexplained.”

But English as a second language…wow, it’s hard.

Trying to explain it to an adult Spanish speaker, whose native language has simple rules and few exceptions…. is an uphill battle.

So I try to be understanding of those who have trouble with it…and I even try not to laugh at the American tourists in San Francisco, when they make a cockeyed stab at asking for directions to Gough street.

By leaving the EU, England relinquishes further responsibility for a language that has been … borrowed and bent, amalgamated and glued… Other countries are required to recognise that they speak a separate language i.e. american, Australian etc The Dutch take over responsibility for the English language, when it’s realised they speak it better than the natives :)

Reminds me of that Dr. Seuss book, “The tough coughs as he ploughs the dough”

This is what my English as a second language students are up against. That have my sympathy….

Hah! I like the guy with the Grateful Dead t-shirt! Perfectly drawn, age appropriate, etc! Very, very creative. He should come back as a semi-regular character. The Puli is also quite cutely drawn!!! Today’s comic, featuring grammar and pronunciation conundrums was very fun and creative. My favorite “Frazz” in quite a while!

I was sitting on a rough bough, eating some cookie dough, thinking things through, when I heard a hiccough.

I can’t count the times that my name has been written as July and they pronounce it as Julie. Judie/Judy, Jimmie/Jimmy, Beckie, Becky, Cathie/Cathy… I guess they see the “y” and see it as the “e” sound.

Makes me think of “door” and “poor” or “bough” and “cough” that my dad had to endure when he was learning English.

Made me think of the poem “The Chaos” (1922) by Dutch literary Gerard Nost Trenité (aka Charivarius). It’s a poem that introduces students of the English language to 800 examples of English words that are difficult to pronounce because of how they are written. (just Google: Dearest creature in creation).

You people take all of this WAAAAY too seriously. ITʻs a COMIC STRIP for heavens sake. Just laugh and move along. Nothing to see here. Holy COW!

FlyerTomHow is this (obviously fictitious) programme going to deal with the preservation of historic churches? Go Scots Celtic (oops, Keltik)?.Bill MartinIf you can’t discuss comics as a serious subject, what can you do here except reduce postings to a phonetic reproduction of laughter and groans, plus the occasional insult to those who want to use their brains?

This is with rhyme, but not reason.

FlyerTom….Do you know who wrote that piece?Not long ago, I wanted to post it someplace…but, though I like it, I couldn’t remember enough of it verbatim to Google it.

I Googled it from your version, and found it…but unattributed, and I like to acknowledge my sources.

Nos Nevets…. you get three typos a year free.Or maybe 17, I can’t remember.And BTW, please don’t rely on that particular opinion of American schools.I went to lots of them, in various places, being an Air Force brat…and I think I got a solid education.

The written English language and vowels…a match made in hell!

Actually, around 300 years ago, “July” did rhyme with “newly” and “truly”.

I wish that more of the kids would be recurring characters. I love Caulfield, but I would like to get to know his friends better

It hardly wrapped up coulee in the east, as here I hear the heat’s been a beastly feat, roasting up the feet.