When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. Arguably one of the most annoying things my grade-school teachers would chant, but it served its purpose mnemonically. It was supposed to help us remember that when a word has two vowels, or when a word has a vowel-consonant-vowel combination, the first vowel is pronounced long. Thusly:
Pronunciation: mee-maw
"Papaw"
Pronunciation: pay-paw
"Memmaw"
Pronunciation: mem-maw
"Pappaw"
Pronunciation: pap-paw
The bane of the English language is that all of its rules have exceptions, but I'd love to avoid them whenever possible.
