July 7, 2011
by Graham
10 Comments
I’ve just come across this, entitled “Learning Pronunciation with Dictionary IPA” and was appalled. Macquarie University is quite rightly acclaimed as the home of the standard Dictionary for Australian English, which you would think would entitle users of the language … Continue reading
July 3, 2011
by Graham
0 comments
The addition of a comprehensive pronunciation history to all the entries in a dictionary would be wonderful – and comments to my last post confirm my opinion. However, there are just a few slight problems. Jack Windsor Lewis has pointed … Continue reading
June 29, 2011
by Graham
6 Comments
I’ve been thinking about the way in which pronunciation is shown in general dictionaries, and have come to the conclusion that really, editors are uncertain what to do about it. There is a famous exchange between Boswell and Johnson given … Continue reading
June 12, 2011
by Graham
1 Comment
“Citoyens, le dix-neuvième siècle est grand, mais le vingtième siècle sera heureux. Alors plus rien de semblable à la vieille histoire; on n’aura plus à craindre, comme aujourd’hui, une conquête, une invasion, une usurpation, une rivalité de nations à main … Continue reading
April 26, 2011
by Graham
6 Comments
On the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster it seems appropriate to discuss the way the name is pronounced in English. In 1986, the main question was whether the stress should be placed on the first or second syllable: … Continue reading
April 10, 2011
by Graham
9 Comments
Robert Bridges (1844-1930) became the Poet Laureate (largely an honorary position under the Crown) in 1913. I think that his poetry is mostly forgotten nowadays, and arguably his greatest claim to poetic fame is his championing of Gerard Manley Hopkins. … Continue reading
April 6, 2011
by Graham
5 Comments
I was taken aback to hear Anthony Horowitz, scriptwriter for many TV programmes, including Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, and Poirot as well as many children’s books, use the pronunciation /ˈleɪpəl/ in an interview Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4’s Saturday morning … Continue reading
March 12, 2011
by Graham
5 Comments
This word has caused more trouble than most when trying to decide on a pronunciation. The BBC’s pre-war Advisory Committee on Spoken English managed to change its mind twice in the course of ten years before giving up on a … Continue reading
March 2, 2011
by Graham
1 Comment
I suspect I’m not the only person who had never heard of this place in Libya until yesterday. My suspicion is more-or-less confirmed by the inability of the BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John SImpson, to make his mind up over … Continue reading
February 21, 2011
by Graham
3 Comments
Eric Hayman has commented that BBC newsreaders and journalists are vacillating between /bɑːˈhreɪn/ (where /h/ may represent either a glottal fricative or a velar fricative) and /bɑːˈreɪn/, leaving the orthographic ‘h’ unpronounced. I cannot believe that the Pronunciation Unit has … Continue reading