June 29, 2009
by Graham
5 Comments
With this word in the news almost every day at the moment, we are hearing two pronunciations from British broadcasters: /ıˈreınıən/ and /ıˈrɑːnıən/. The first of these is, I think, the majority pronunciation, but the second is heard from many … Continue reading
June 23, 2009
by Graham
1 Comment
Interviewed on this morning’s BBC Radio4 ‘Today’ programme about the election of John Bercow as the new Speaker of the House of Commons, the MP Nadine Dorries (Conservative, Mid Bedfordshire) claimed that this was a vindictive act on behalf of … Continue reading
June 18, 2009
by Graham
1 Comment
John Wells has been talking (here and here) about the loss of weak forms from English. Two more that have disappeared for an understandable reason are the weak forms of penny and pence. Before decimalization of the British currency in … Continue reading
June 11, 2009
by Graham
5 Comments
T Morris, in a comment to this post, asks why there are no English ‘translations’ of French place names, such as there are in other languages (Parigi in Italian) or as there are for English names in other languages (Rome … Continue reading
June 5, 2009
by Graham
2 Comments
Throughout the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and for some years afterwards, the Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace was frequently mentioned in the news. Then at the time of the student democracy protests in 1989, with no explanation that I … Continue reading
May 26, 2009
by Graham
3 Comments
In a comment on my post Gender in French, Pat Franczyk shows the danger of confusing the meanings of these two words. It has often been said that “language has gender, but animals and plants have sex”. The ambiguity of … Continue reading
May 13, 2009
by Graham
2 Comments
This BBC programme about Henry Purcell is available on line for the next couple of weeks. In it Charles Hazlewood claims that we know so little about the composer that we are not even sure how to pronounce his name. … Continue reading
May 9, 2009
by Graham
3 Comments
Colombia is a country in the extreme north of South America, pronounced with the second syllable like the surname of the actor Herbert Lom. British Columbia is a province of Canada, and the District of Columbia is where the US … Continue reading
May 2, 2009
by Graham
0 comments
I’ve recently come across two words I’d never seen before. The immediate reaction is to think that the writer has either mis-remembered another word, or simply made it up on the hoof: “To cut this delay, the control unit briefly … Continue reading
April 24, 2009
by Graham
4 Comments
Mark Easton, the BBC’s Home Editor, reported on the employment situation in this constituency on Wednesday, 22 April, Budget Day here in Britain. However, he did not do his homework properly, for he made the classic mistake of non-Welsh speakers … Continue reading