PHONICS - why does gown say ow, but own says oh?

[Shamisen]

Is there ANY regularity in pronounciation and spelling?

How the heck can we teach this stuff?
Think about it.

core and soar but float blood brood
bore roar boat flood mood
lore oar roam food

[Otaku]

I'm going to try and explain this by building a foundation and going from there, but please remember that I am not a professional because like another user (Tengu) posted, people aren't really whatever their job titles are unless they have certification to prove so. All sarcasm aside, let's move on.

The first thing you need to remember is that phonics only works between 60-75% of the time. The reason this is is because the English language is made up from languages all over the world and has slowly morphed over time. That being said, I'll take those percentages over Japan's status quo of rote memorization any day. Before I start, I would probably suggest that you don't explain the following to your students but rather use it for your own teaching resource. Now, onto your questions...

OWN vs. GOWN
You remember when you were a kid and learned the vowels? Then, right when you thought you knew them, your teacher hit you with "Sometimes Y and W are vowels." Well, this would be the case between these two words. Before I explain anymore, you need to be aware of three phonics rules: SHORT VOWEL, CONSONANT BLENDS, and VOWEL BLENDS.
--The SHORT VOWEL says that the vowel sound usually make the same sound in words with the following pattern: Consonant+Vowel+Consonant (cab, cat, bat, ban, bag, etc.)
--CONSONANT BLENDS are exactly what the definition sounds like. They are the sounds consonants make when two consonants are blended together: pl, bl, sp, str, br, st, tr, etc.
--VOWEL BLENDS, likewise, are the sounds vowels make when two of them are blended together: oa, ee, ea, ai, etc. Now, let's go back to the own and gown examples.

In OWN, while it might look very similar to GOWN, the W in OWN is actually being used as a vowel. So, OWN's pattern looks like this: Vowel+Vowel+Consonant. This pattern follows the Vowel Blend rule. It's probably best to show you what I'm talking about by just listing examples: pair, soar, roar, float, bait, pain, boat, coat, plain, etc. Do you see the pattern? When these vowels are slammed together, the first vowel says the name of its letter while the second remains quiet. You might know this rule as "Polite Vowels"? And, you've probably heard the following phrase before: "When two vowels go awalkin', the first one does the talkin' while the second does the walkin.'" So, going back to our original word, OWN, since the W is being used as a vowel, the O says its own name and the W is silent. Other examples include: glow, tow, low, bow, bowl, etc.

Now, let's look at the word GOWN. The W in goWn is being used a consonant. So, the pattern of this word is as follows: C+V+C+C. Or, if you look at this word a different way, you see that it's simply a SHORT VOWEL pattern and the last two vowels are basically one consonant utilizing the CONSONANT BLEND rule: G+O+WN. Other examples include: town, brown, crown, drown, cow, pow, etc.

As for the words you brought into question, they all fall into phonics rules:
1. POLITE VOWEL words: soar, float, roar, boat, oar, roam
2. SILENT E words: core, bore, lore
3. 'OO' VOWEL BLEND words: brood, mood, food
4. As for 'blood' and 'flood', I'll get back to you on those. My mind is pulling a blank right now.

Does all this make sense or have I confused you even more?

[jessen100]

R and L change vowels sounds often. its their fault.

W is never a vowel btw (the way I was taught). It sometimes makes vowels sounds, but its never actually a vowel. just a poser.

i guess if you wanna say its a vowel or not, in "own" compared to "gown", thats fine, but it makes the same sound in both of them.
if you need an easy way to distinguish whether or not to make a long or short vowels sound, i think a straight line over long sounds and a curved line over short vowels works well, thats what i try to use. (by try, i mean none of my JTEs actually give me the opportunity to teach it after they agree that its a good idea in consultation) thouhg i think the new ichi nensei this year are get it.

[Otaku]

Jessen, I was trying to keep this as simple as possible but if you wanna get technical, W is classified as a "semi-vowel". HERE --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Semivowel


Finally, just to thoroughly confuse people:

Our Strange Language
When the English tongue we speak
Why is "break" not rhymed with "freak?"
Will you tell me why its true
We say "sew" but likewise "few,"
And the maker of a verse
Cannot rhyme "horse" with "worse?"
"Beard" sounds not the same as "heard,"
"Cord" is very different from "word."
Cow is "cow" but low is "low,"
"Shoe" is never rhymed with "foe."
Think of "hose" and "dose" and "lose;"
And think of "goose" and yet of "choose."
Think of "comb" and "home" and "some,"
And since "pay" is rhymed with "say,"
Why not "paid" and "said" I pray?
We have "blood" and "food" and "good,"
But "mould" is never pronounced like "could."
Wherefore "done" but "gone" and "lone?"
Is there any reason known?
And so in short it seems to me,
That sounds and letters disagree!

-Anonymous

[TENGU]

look at the etymology for the answer

GOWN

1300–50; ME goune < OF < LL gunna fur or leather garment


OWN

bef. 900; (adj.) ME owen, OE āgen (c. G eigen, ON eigenn), orig. ptp. of āgan to possess (see owe ); (v.) ME ownen, OE āgnian, āhnian, deriv. of āgen

I'd say the pronunciation comes from mimicking the language from which it was borrowed, there might be some rule somewhere that tries to explain it after the fact but it would serve no purpose teaching it to students.

[Shamisen]

I think there should be a spelling revolution in English. Lets add more letters to the alphabet!

[Otaku]

I think my students have beaten you to the punch. They write all kinds of letters I don't have the foggiest clue to them.

Some of their bad habits I think come from math class and alegbra.

[jessen100]

yea. algebra, wthatinthehell are those things that they think they call x there? the ones ive seen literally look like )( except they are connected.

[Otaku]

Let's not forget the lowercase A's that look like すwithout the horizontal line and at a 45 degree left slant...

[TENGU]

this is how I was taught to write, with a real pen too.

[jessen100]

thats how i have ended up writing, but im prettysure nobody every taught me to write like that. i just remember my 4th grade teacher always yelling at me because i wouldnt write in cursive, and the print letters we practiced in second grade turned to this apparently.