December 9, 2011
by Graham
4 Comments
John Wells’ blog post yesterday deals with ejectives in English. He’s kind enough to mention my own post on this subject some time ago, but I’m surprised he believes that I think it’s a recent phenomenon. I wrote then “I … 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
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
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
January 23, 2011
by Graham
3 Comments
There was some discussion on John Wells’ blog a couple of months ago (here) about traditionally SBE BATH words now being increasingly reported with TRAP. John said “The fact that more younger people than older report a preference for /ɒ/ … Continue reading
January 6, 2011
by Graham
3 Comments
The current stand off between the two factions in Ivory Coast has brought the former capital Abidjan into the news again. The French-derived spelling tells us that the nearest English pronunciation of this name should be /æbiˈʤɑːn/, and yet I … Continue reading
December 10, 2010
by Graham
5 Comments
We’re all used to the phenomenon of nouns becoming differentiated from their homographic verbs by stress movement: dis’pute becoming ‘dispute for instance, and that this is happening despite the best efforts of the Queen’s English Society and its supporters. Now … Continue reading