And what about "cough"? 
(I happen to live on Gough Street in San Francisco.)

Noel Kirshenbaum

In a message dated 1/26/09 2:57:54 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

> The problem this addresses arises from the fact that "gh" is no longer
> sounded in English.  It was once a hard version of the "ch" in the Scottish
> "loch".  Its disappearance has meant that the pronunciation of words using
> it varies widely:
> enough - enuff
> Though - tho
> through - throo
> Thorough - thoru in English but (I think) thorow in American English
> ought - ort
> This is presumably a change since Samuel Johnson codified the orthography of
> English.  It is thus hardly surprising that the English should say suff and
> the Americans sow: both are correct in their own lands.
> 
> The origins of the sough are considerably earlier than the first (or first
> identified one) in Derbyshire: see John Hatcher's book on coalmining
> identifies a few medieval examples.  My article on Black Country Mining in
> Mining History 16(6) identifies an example there from 1564.
> 
> Peter King
> 49, Stourbridge Road,
> Hagley,
> Stourbridge
> West Midlands
> DY9 0QS
> 01562-720368
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
> sougher
> Sent: 25 January 2009 20:54
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Sough
> 
> 
> Most definately in Derbyshire pronounced "suff".   The earliest one at
> Cromford being driven from 1631 and 1651 by Sir Cornelius Vermuyden to the
> Gang mines, and the last large one, Magpie sough being driven from
> 1873-1881, lock gates were installed and a boat was used in it, it
> discharges into the river Wye upstream from Ashford-in-the-Water.   The tail
> became blocked by a fall in spring 1963 and a back up of water built up
> which resulted in 1966 with the "tail" blowing out which caused a landslip
> and almost blocked the river Wye.  Peak District Mines Historical Society in
> 1973 reopened the sough by constructing a new sough tail.   The longest one
> was Hillcarr sough, approximately four and a half miles long, driven from
> 1766 it took twenty one years in construction and cost around £32,000.  The
> sough tail (a beautiful gritstone arch) on is on the west bank of the river
> Derwent at Darley Dale and the sough was driven westwards beneath Stanton
> Moor to Guy Vein at Alport, the furthest mine it dewaters is the Mawstone
> Mine at Youlgreave.   There are now problems in the area caused by blockages
> in the sough.
> 
> Briefly, most people must be aware that soughs are drainage levels or adits
> driven from the lowest point of a valley, horizontal into a hillside to
> dewater mines often discharging into a stream or river, sometimes they were
> used as pumpways.    The driving of soughs greatly changed the water table
> in the Peak District.  Nellie Kirkham in her book "Derbyshire Lead Mining
> Through the Centuries" (1968) worked out that the gradient of the "sole" ie.
> the floor, of the sough was about ten feet in a mile.  The partners of the
> Company that paid for the cost of the work were mainly composed of the lead
> merchants and smelters of the lead field who were in turn called
> "Adventurers", the men who drove the soughs were called "soughers".   Much
> money could be made or lost during the construction of a sough and monies
> were paid to the company driving the sough by all the mines which received
> water easement from it (see "Lead and Lead Mining in Derbyshire by Arthur H.
> Stokes), therefore, if no mines were encountered whilst driving a sough no
> monies were paid and a loss was incurred.   In my youth living back in Derby
> if people gambled their money away it was said that "they'd thrown their
> money down a sough!", it was a very common expression.    At grammar school
> we had an English teacher (from the south) who said that all Derbyshire
> people were born with a "plum" in their mouths, i.e. spoke with a broad "u",
> and it was her mission in life to iron this broad (i.e. northern) sound from
> our speech.  I think she succeeded with some of us.
> 
> Margaret Howard
> 




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