Comments on: Uttoxeter http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter Language in a word Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:06:06 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Ed http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-24803 Ed Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:25:31 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-24803 Thanks, Graham. That's interesting. Thanks, Graham. That’s interesting.

]]> By: Graham http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-24786 Graham Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:21:36 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-24786 Ed - In Stoke on Trent, <em>foot</em> rhymes with <em>but</em>. <em>Book</em> rhymes with <em>Luke</em> (which is identical to <em>look</em>). Ed -
In Stoke on Trent, foot rhymes with but. Book rhymes with Luke (which is identical to look).

]]> By: Ed http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-24779 Ed Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:03:42 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-24779 Thanks for the link, Graham. I missed that blog post. I'm intrigued by the green dot in north Lancashire. The Irish system seems to have established a colony on the Lancs coast. Do people in your area of Staffordshire say "foot" with /u:/. Is there any modern survey on geographical distribution of pronouncing book, cook, look, etc. with /u:/? I would be interested to see this. "Look" was included in the SED, but there were a lot more variant pronunciations back then. Thanks for the link, Graham. I missed that blog post. I’m intrigued by the green dot in north Lancashire. The Irish system seems to have established a colony on the Lancs coast. Do people in your area of Staffordshire say “foot” with /u:/.

Is there any modern survey on geographical distribution of pronouncing book, cook, look, etc. with /u:/? I would be interested to see this. “Look” was included in the SED, but there were a lot more variant pronunciations back then.

]]> By: Graham http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-24690 Graham Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:35:08 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-24690 Ed - There was a lot of discussion of the FOOT - STRUT - GOOSE complex on John Wells' blog here: http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/gut-foot-hoot.html. Not just the post itself, but all the comments that followed. Ed – There was a lot of discussion of the FOOT – STRUT – GOOSE complex on John Wells’ blog here: http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/gut-foot-hoot.html. Not just the post itself, but all the comments that followed.

]]> By: Ed http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-24679 Ed Sun, 14 Nov 2010 01:53:35 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-24679 One strange thing about the area you're from is how many people still use /u:k/ for words such as book, cook, look, etc. which have the FOOT vowel in most accents of English. The /u:k/ pronunciation was once common across the north and can still be heard from older people, but it seems to be only in the Potteries (the Midlands after all) that you can find a majority that uses /u:k/. One strange thing about the area you’re from is how many people still use /u:k/ for words such as book, cook, look, etc. which have the FOOT vowel in most accents of English. The /u:k/ pronunciation was once common across the north and can still be heard from older people, but it seems to be only in the Potteries (the Midlands after all) that you can find a majority that uses /u:k/.

]]> By: Alec Bamford http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-22530 Alec Bamford Wed, 18 Aug 2010 02:56:11 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-22530 So one day I was pleasantly surprised to find a packet of Elkes Custard Creams on the shelves of a Bangkok supermarket. In accordance with Thai law, the importer had affixed a sticker listing basic information (ingredients, sell-by date, etc.) in Thai. This included the name and address of the manufacturer. Some baffled translator had decided that the place was pronounced 'Autocheater', or possibly 'Otto Cheater', and had transliterated it into Thai that way. So I bought a packet, pulled off the label and sent it, with an explanation, to Elkes. Got 6 free packets by return. Just in time for Christmas. Smashing. Isn't phonetics profitable at times? So one day I was pleasantly surprised to find a packet of Elkes Custard Creams on the shelves of a Bangkok supermarket. In accordance with Thai law, the importer had affixed a sticker listing basic information (ingredients, sell-by date, etc.) in Thai. This included the name and address of the manufacturer. Some baffled translator had decided that the place was pronounced ‘Autocheater’, or possibly ‘Otto Cheater’, and had transliterated it into Thai that way.
So I bought a packet, pulled off the label and sent it, with an explanation, to Elkes. Got 6 free packets by return. Just in time for Christmas. Smashing. Isn’t phonetics profitable at times?

]]> By: John Maidment http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-18324 John Maidment Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:19:00 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-18324 Little did Wuttoc (aka Wittoc) know what consternation he would cause when he built his house upon that heath. Little did Wuttoc (aka Wittoc) know what consternation he would cause when he built his house upon that heath.

]]> By: Graham http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-18059 Graham Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:42:37 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-18059 Eric - Yes it does match the other pairs, because although "full" is FOOT, in this dialect, there is no opposition between FOOT and STRUT, so the minimal pair is still between the short undifferentiated vowel and the long vowel of "fall". Eric – Yes it does match the other pairs, because although “full” is FOOT, in this dialect, there is no opposition between FOOT and STRUT, so the minimal pair is still between the short undifferentiated vowel and the long vowel of “fall”.

]]> By: Eric Armstrong http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-18054 Eric Armstrong Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:55:07 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-18054 Graham said: "This means that there are minimal pairs between but and bought, pun and pawn, full and fall" --- am I missing something, or are you falling into your "fatigued" state here too: "full" isn't STRUT, it's FOOT, so it doesn't match your other pairs, does it? However, I'm perhaps a bit in the dark as a Canadian who has really had almost no real-life experience with Midlands speech, apart from one year in London in the 80's. Graham said:
“This means that there are minimal pairs between but and bought, pun and pawn, full and fall” — am I missing something, or are you falling into your “fatigued” state here too: “full” isn’t STRUT, it’s FOOT, so it doesn’t match your other pairs, does it? However, I’m perhaps a bit in the dark as a Canadian who has really had almost no real-life experience with Midlands speech, apart from one year in London in the 80’s.

]]> By: Graham http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/uttoxeter/comment-page-1#comment-18052 Graham Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:36:22 +0000 http://www.linguism.co.uk/?p=600#comment-18052 Michael - the full entry for Uttoxeter in the 1983 PDBN (the one I edited) has juːˈtɒksɪtə first, then ʌˈtɒksɪtə, followed by ˈʌksɪtə and the note "There are other less common variants". I tried to place the different pronunciations for any place name in order of frequency heard, or else that considered 'correct' by most local people. I suspect that the frequency of the variants may well vary through time, just as <em>Coulsdon</em> (in 1983 in Greater London) has varied between /ˈkəʊlzdən/ and /ˈkuːlzdən/. Sometimes more people tell you one thing, sometimes the other. A bit like Shrewsbury as well. It's a bit like the story of the economists: ask two what they think about the current state of affairs, and you get at least three opinions. If you want perversity in pronunciation, what about Happisburgh in Norfolk (pronounced /ˈheɪzbərə/)? Michael – the full entry for Uttoxeter in the 1983 PDBN (the one I edited) has juːˈtɒksɪtə first, then ʌˈtɒksɪtə, followed by ˈʌksɪtə and the note “There are other less common variants”. I tried to place the different pronunciations for any place name in order of frequency heard, or else that considered ‘correct’ by most local people. I suspect that the frequency of the variants may well vary through time, just as Coulsdon (in 1983 in Greater London) has varied between /ˈkəʊlzdən/ and /ˈkuːlzdən/. Sometimes more people tell you one thing, sometimes the other. A bit like Shrewsbury as well. It’s a bit like the story of the economists: ask two what they think about the current state of affairs, and you get at least three opinions. If you want perversity in pronunciation, what about Happisburgh in Norfolk (pronounced /ˈheɪzbərə/)?

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