The chaos

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Chaos ( Chaos ) is an English poem , which shows the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation.

history

The poem was written by the Dutch language teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870-1946) and appeared for the first time as an appendix to his textbook " Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen ". At that time it comprised 146 lines of verse, but by 1992/93 (that is, decades after his death) the Spelling Society expanded the poem to 274 lines of verse, bringing a total of 800 problematic cases in the English language.

content

The poem begins with the following stanzas:

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.
It ends with the resigned conclusion
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough ??
Hiccough has the sound of cup ...
My advice is: GIVE IT UP!
The first three stanzas in phonetic transcription
dɪəɹɪst ˈkɹiːʧəɹ ɪn kɹɪ.ˈeɪʃn̩
ˌStʌdɪ.ɪŋ ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ pɹəˌnʌnsɪ.ˈeɪʃn̩
ˌAɪ wɪl ˈtiːʧ jʊ ɪn maɪ ˈvɜːs
ˈSaʊndz laɪk ˈkɔːps ˈkɔː ˈhɔːs ənd ˈwɜːs
ˌAɪ wɪl ˈkiːp jʊ ˈsuːzɪ ˈbɪzɪ
ˌMeɪk jə ˈhɛd wɪð ˈhiːt ɡɹəʊ ˈdɪzɪ
ˈTɪəɹ ɪn ˌaɪ jə ˈdɹɛs wɪl ˈtɛə
ˈKwɪə ˌfɛə ˈsɪə ˈhɪə maɪ ˈpɹɛə
ˈPɹeɪ kənˈsəʊl jə ˈlʌvɪŋ ˈpəʊ.ɪt
ˈMeɪk maɪ ˈkəʊt ˌlʊk ˈnjuː ˌdɪə ˈsəʊ ɪt
ˌʤʌst kəmˈpɛə ˈhɑːt ˈhɪəɹ ənd ˈhɜːd
ˈDaɪz ənd ˈdaɪ.ət ˈlɔːd ənd ˈwɜːd

dedication

Said in the opening verse " most expensive creature of creation " ( "dearest creature in creation") seems to have been the Frenchwoman Susanne Delacruix from Paris, of an older copy of this poem is dedicated and Susy is addressed in the fifth line of verse directly.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The Chaos" ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Web links