> I got similar questions for the French, btw. "Oiseaux"? Really, French?
“Oiseaux” is perfectly regular and involves no exceptions to the baseline rules of French pronunciation, though, AFAIK; if it were pronounced any way other than it is, it would warrant a question...
Of course but that's not GP's point I think. A kid shall wonder why it's not at the very least "oiso" (when there's one) or "oisos" (when there are several). Or even why not "waso" (with "wa" as in "wapiti").
And anyway we all know that there's only one way to write "Mister oiseau" in french and it's "Mr Oizo" (french electro btw):
Well the discussion is about phonics, so I was thinking of how none of the letters in "oiseaux" are pronounced. That was pointed out to me by a French colleague. Although he stopped at "oiseau", strangely. Anyway I thought it was a common joke of sorts.
I guess you could argue that there is an "aah" after the "oo", so the "a" in "-eaux" counts, but the "aah" is not pronounced where the "a" is written in the word.
Btw, I can't make a good French accent on a keyboard but: oo-aah-zoh.
“Oiseaux” is perfectly regular and involves no exceptions to the baseline rules of French pronunciation, though, AFAIK; if it were pronounced any way other than it is, it would warrant a question...