Perhaps it’s appropriate that laugh is a funny word. Not funny ha ha at least, but certainly funny peculiar. Take a moment to put the word out of your mind, to forget about it, and particularly how it sounds. Now imagine seeing it for the first time, without any context, and try to think how you might pronounce it. I certainly wouldn’t be obvious that it’s pronounced /læf/ or /lɑ:f/. While -gh can often sound like f, it’s not always obvious. Thankfully, if we don’t want to use the word laugh, we can find alternatives. Continue reading →