# Phonetic palindromes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443 "2009-09-01T03:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/1 "2009-09-01T03:45:14Z")
The traditional palindrome is orthographically symmetrical, i.e., **spells** the same way backwards as forwards. But, spelling and orthography being rather irregular in English, that does not necessarily translate into phonetic symmetry. E.g., “Madam, I’m Adam” is a phonetic palindrome. “Do geese see God?” is not, because the two “o”'s in the phrase represent different phonemes. What phonetic palindromes can you think of? They need not be orthographic palindromes, so long as they are phonetic palindromes. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/2 "2009-09-01T04:00:24Z")
“Madam, I’m Adam” isn’t a great phonetic palindrome either; in both “Madam” and “Adam”, the first vowel is that of “cat” while the second is a schwa; thus, the former doesn’t really line up with the reverse of the latter. “Madam, I’m a dam” would be better (not that I can think of a natural circumstance in which anyone would say that). “Goddamn mad dog!” works well both orthographically and phonetically, if you use the same vowel in “God” and “dog”… ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/3 "2009-09-01T20:01:26Z")
A fellow is introducing his mother to a guy named Robert: “Mom, Bob. Bob, Mom.” I suck at palindromes. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/4 "2009-09-01T21:05:39Z")
A Man, A Plan, A Canal - Panama ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/5 "2009-09-01T21:09:26Z")
“A man, a plan, a canal - Panama” has the same problem with schwas vs. “cat” vowels as “Madam, I’m Adam”. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/6 "2009-09-01T23:20:36Z")
Just for giggles, here’s [a “Weird Al” Yankovic song in the style of Bob Dylan.](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/bob.html) ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/7 "2009-09-02T00:43:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Just for giggles, here’s [a “Weird Al” Yankovic song in the style of Bob Dylan.](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/weirdalyankovic/bob.html) [Video here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg). ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/8 "2009-09-08T00:24:58Z")
Enough funny. And I’m out. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/9 "2009-09-08T00:44:59Z")
I think this becomes difficult. Even at the simplest level, the name “Otto” is not a phoentic palindrome (if I’m understanding this) because the first O is aw and the second O is oh. However, it is an orthographic palindrome. Yes? However, something like “Oh, no!” would be a phonetic palindrome but not an orthographic one? ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/10 "2009-09-08T00:55:12Z")
C K Dexter Haven, I’m reasonably sure that’s the point. Like if you wanted to invent the palindrome but before someone figured out hwo to write things down. Or, if you’d like, the phrase would be a palindrome if you wrote it in the International Phonetic Alphabet, like my (kind of example), inʌf fʌni (leaving out stress marks and vowel lengtheners, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/11 "2009-09-08T03:07:39Z")
But your example made no sense to me until I saw the IPA spelling. To me the _e_ in _enough_ is a schwa, while the _y_ in _funny_ is a “long e” sound. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/12 "2009-09-10T05:57:59Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > But your example made no sense to me until I saw the IPA spelling. To me the _e_ in _enough_ is a schwa, while the _y_ in _funny_ is a “long e” sound. Well, it’s not that great an example, but it does have the advantage that you _can_ pronounce _enough_ with a ful ‘ee’ sound, even if it’s rare. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2009, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phonetic-palindromes/508443/13 "2009-09-10T09:05:59Z")
Two I remember hearing years ago: Ominous cinema (obviously the ‘a’ in cinema requires a slightly - more British? - pronunciation) We revere you Seems to me any audio recording software would be a good tool for testing things like this out.