Help settle an argument: Do "Golem" and "Solemn" rhyme to you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m not talking about a close rhyme or rhyming at the last few letters, I’m talking about “Do the whole, entire words rhyme?”, like…everything sounds the exact same, save for the first letter.
My friend says they do. I say they don’t.

I’ve always pronounced Golem as “GO lem”, not “Gaw lem”. And Solemn has always “Saw lem/Saul lem”, not “SEW/SO lem”

Have I been pronouncing one of these words wrong all my life?

To me, they don’t rhyme. Golem has a long O and Solemn doesn’t. That doesn’t consist as a rhyme to me. A close one, yeah, but not an exact rhyme.

2

Yep, they rhyme.

3

no, do not rhyme.

4

Do not rhyme. Your pronunciation of solemn seems odd though.

5

Golem and Solemn rhyme to me. However, Solemn does not sound like “Saul lem” to me: but rather with “Sah-lem”: in IPA-speak, Solemn to me has a “ä” whereas Saul lem has a “ɔ”.

6

You’re right, and that is how I say it too, I was just at odds trying to come up with a good pronunciation word. :stuck_out_tongue:

But even as that: “Sah” and “Go” don’t rhyme for me.

7

I’ve heard both pronunciations of “golem”. In my mind, I vaguely associate the “Gaw lem” pronunciation with the D&D monster manual and the character from the Lord of the Rings with a similar name, while I associate “GO lem” with Jewish mythology.

8

No. I pronounce golem go-lemm and solemn sah-lemn. Not quite as hard an a as “sah,” though - more like “soal” or something.

9

No, they don’t rhyme (unless I’m writing a song and I need them to rhyme, then they’re close enough for me to use them and not care that they don’t actually rhyme).

10

They rhyme for me, but I’m not actually sure how to pronounce ‘golem’. Playing D&D, we said it with a short ‘o’ but that may not be the correct pronunciation.

11

They totally rhyme to me, but I just looked up “golem” and am seeing that it’s standard pronunciation includes a long “o” sound, so my D&D roots have led me astray yet again.

12

They rhyme to me too. Just don’t ask me what colors they are.

13

Yes, they rhyme.

14

They rhyme. No doubt.

15

Yes.

golem: /ˈgɒləm/

solemn: /ˈsɒləm/

16

No, Go-lemm, soll-um

17

How does “Go” rhyme with “Sah/saw”, for those of you saying they rhyme?

I’m not talking about Gollum, the character in LOTR. That name does rhyme with “Solemn” as it’s a “gawwwww lem” sound.

But “golem” (one “L”) starts with a “gooooooo” sound. Long O. Golem has a long O and solemn has a short O. That’s not an exact match unless someone is pronouncing one of the words wrong.

18

By the definition being used, no, they do not rhyme. golɛm vs sɑlɛm. gɑləm doesn’t rhyme with sɑlɛm, either.

19

It was always prnounced gol-um (short o) to me (long before I knew who gollum was). With that pronunciation, it rhymes. If we can’t pronounce it that way and instead use the long o, it doesn’t.

20

No, they don’t rhyme, any more than “go” rhymes with “saw.”