The Chaos

Have you heard of The Chaos?

It is a poem illustrating the complexities of English pronunciation and spelling, written by a Dutchman Gerard Nolst Trenité pen name Charivarius. It first appeared in an appendix to the author’s 1920 textbook Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen. (English pronunciation exercises).

I would defy any native English speaker to read it first time correctly!

Here is a link to the poem and another to a video of a reading of the poem. Hope you enjoy it!

http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edPxKqiptw