Friday, October 31, 2008

Really, Truly---There Is Nothing that Rhymes with "Orange"...

I got an email from my brother this morning stating that my 14-year-old niece insists that "door hinge" rhymes with "orange."

Here's what self-proclaimed word nerd Hope Vestergaard has to say:

That wannabe rhyme is listed on some Internet sites. I actually addressed it in one of the sidebars in Nothing Rhymes with Orange.
Orange is a word that is pronounced different ways regionally.
Some of the common ways to pronounce orange:
  • OR -(un)j,
  • OR-(in)j,
  • ORNJ
  • or, if you're in New Jersey: "R"-(en)j. (no apparent vowels at all!)
The difference between orange and door hinge is that the I in hinge is pronounced, while the vowel in orange's second syllable, no matter where you live, is not pronounced. (Orange doesn't rhyme with grunge, either, for the same reason).

So--it's a near rhyme. Legit only in an emergency or to purposely create dissonance.

So there you have it, Maddie!

2 comments:

Kelly Polark said...

My nine year old son also insists that door hinge and orange rhyme, because, you know, he heard it on tv. On the Nickelodeon show, "Drake and Josh," the songwriter, Drake, makes the claim that the two rhyme!

SCBWI said...

Oh--I wondered where my niece could have come up with that. I should have figured TV had something to do with it.