From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
Subject: Re: Litre, liter (was Re: OT Marx Brothers)
> But the first time I ran across "gaol" - in a British novel
> I read in college - I had absolutely no idea what it was.
> Even after reading enough context to determine that it referred
> to some sort of prison, it just never occurred to me that it could
> be an alternate spelling of "jail". I mean, it so clearly must be
> pronounced "gay-ole", or perhaps "gowl" (rhyming with "fowl"). I
> just assumed it was some sort of foreign borrowing akin to "gulag".
It's not /g&ul/??? How's it pronounced?