I don't know how much of this has to do with forgetting so much as attaching significance. One thing I realized I was able to do for much of my life (perhaps not quite as well as I used to) is keep the concept of sound and word separate. Of course we can do this for sound effects. I've been able to maintain this for most word sounds. This was very apparent when learning foreign languages, reproducing the sounds was the easy part--just make the noise you hear.