Comments on: Why don’t ‘gain’ and ‘again’ rhyme?

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:03:06 +0000

JC Wells’ 1988 survey has “again” rhyming with “gain” for 20% of UK respondents and 3% of US.

In 1998 he found 16% of UK “says” with the diphthong. I presume this is a spelling pronunciation, since it doesn’t seem to affect “said”.

By: Scott Belyea

Scott Belyea — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:49:50 +0000

“They do in Canada.”

Some times, some places. Not universally.

By: Smart E Pantz

Smart E Pantz — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:54:07 +0000

They do in Canada.

By: Scott Belyea

Scott Belyea — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:14:22 +0000

Intriguing as always. I’ve been interested to learn how much of the “common knowledge” about language (much published various places as fact) is folk etymology (in its popular sense) or some related process.

And as a modest exception to “again” not rhyming with “gain” (or “Spain” or “train”), I offer the following:

There was a young lady of Spain
Who was sick as she rode on a train.
Not just once, but again
And again and again
And again and again and again.