That reminds me of an old episode of the game show Password. Tom Selleck was the celebrity guest and the word he had to try to convey by hints to his partner - a Southern black woman - was "friend". Selleck gave the hint "Foe". The woman replied "Fahv". Selleck near burst a gut laughing.
ROFL!!!
(Tom Selleck - he is one attractive man.)
I remember when one if my older cousins had started first grade (no kindergarten then) and she was playing teacher and another cousin and I were students. (We were only five years old and very impressed that she was going to school.)
On the little blackboard she wrote “thing” and helped us to sound it out phonetically.
After we finished learning the word “thing” I asked her, “But how do you spell “thang”?
So, on the board she spelled it out phonetically: “t-h-a-n-g”.
:-)