what changes the sound of vowels

[drea100]

ie the first h in though if you remove it you get tough - what is this called?

[geofbob]

With respect, I don't think you're looking at this the right way. It's not a question of removing the "h"; it's just that "t" and "th" are pronounced differently, as though they were different letters. In fact, "th" has two pronunciations - soft, as in "though"; and hard, as in "think". The pronunciation is, of course, notoriously difficult and illogical - the "gh" combinations has about 5 or 6 different sounds.

[geofbob]

Sorry, the start of the last sentence above should read "The pronunciation of English is..."

[babthrower]

It think it is called 'a sign that it is about time we started spelling phonetically'. Kids have to spend years learning the 'correct' pronunciation of words spelled in obsolete ways. The 'ough' in your sample words was probably pronounced as a distinct sound in Johnson's time: by that I mean that 'though' rhymed with 'tough', and the 'gh' represented a gutteral from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, sort of like the Scottish 'loch'. But the pronunciation has long since wandered into 'oo' or 'u' or other sounds. It's about time the spelling was modernized.

[smorodina]

I couldn't agree more! There are a ludicrous number of different ways to pronounce the group of letters 'ough' - thought, cough, bough, enough, through, although, thorough, hiccough to name just the ones I can think of now - and all of these could be replaced by easier and more logical alternatives. Surely the main point of a written language, apart from recording ideas, is to give you some idea of how to speak it? Many other languages have a closer relationship between the written and spoken language, but written English is absurd. The Americans made a half-baked attempt at reform, but didn't go nearly far enough. Have to say, though, that English grammar is easier than some.