Formal Speech

Posted in Language,Puzzles by Greg Ross on November 28th, 2009

A puzzle by Isaac Asimov:

What word in the English language changes its pronunciation when it is capitalized?

	Select Click for Answer
Asimov was thinking of polish, but there are many others: august, herb, job, lima, natal, nice, rainier, reading, rodeo, tangier … … and the delightful Mousehole, a village in Cornwall whose name is pronounced mau-zill — and which presumably contains mouseholes. Thanks to Wade and Dominic for the long list.

Futility Closet