I pronounce it "sow" as in the female pig.
Over here in the USA Soughs are drainage channels like manmade canals and pronounced "sows".
--- On Sun, 1/25/09, Fiona Cross <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Fiona Cross <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Pronunciation of 'sough' and the Ludlow Massacre
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, January 25, 2009, 8:53 AM
I will shortly have to give a talk which will include the word 'sough'.
To my embarrassment I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce it, given
English's lavish way with the construction 'ough'. My late
grandmother's 'Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary' (publ.
1901, repr. 1931) suggests 'suf', but is there a consensus among those
who know that this is correct rather than 'sof', 'sow' and
'soo' (probably not as no preceding 'r'?), all of which are
possible? Thanks - a minor thing but I don't wish to destroy my credibility
by a mispronunciation.....
Could I also draw the attention of the forum to a lengthy review in the 19/1/09
issue of 'New Yorker' magazine of the recently published 'Killing
for Coal' by Thomas G. Andrews. It is an account of a bloody (75 killed in
all) strike by coal miners against the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co. in 1914. The
article also mentions a couple of other books on the strike, one of them
published in the early '70s by George McGovern who was of course running for
President at the time. Interesting article, I thought, which includes quite a
lot of general background on the coalfield and its work practices and employee
conditions.
David Cross.
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