March 21, 2015
by gpointon
9 Comments
This may seem heretical for a phonetician, but I’ve often thought that it is possible to learn a foreign language too well. When I was a post-graduate student, there was another person around whose first language was not English, but … Continue reading
February 25, 2015
by gpointon
22 Comments
Every one of the current pronunciation dictionaries agrees that the stress in the word inexorable is on the second syllable. On Monday this week, in the Radio 4 programme charting the history of Britain in numbers, Professor Jane Humphries, Professor … Continue reading
February 6, 2015
by gpointon
4 Comments
The ‘Today’ programme on BBC Radio 4 is a rich seam for unusual usages. Yesterday threw up two, of which one could be a new word (unless someone can find a previous example?) The eminent economist Jim O’Neill, best known … Continue reading
December 18, 2014
by gpointon
4 Comments
When did the name Aaron start to be pronounced /ˈarÉ™n/? John Wells has included it as a pronunciation for the modern personal name since the first edition of the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (1990), and the 15th edition of the English … Continue reading
December 10, 2014
by gpointon
0 comments
I’ve just come across this website: http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/ It contains an amazing amount of information about Britain, its history, geography, etc, including the way in which the Union flag was developed, stage by stage, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen … Continue reading
November 14, 2014
by gpointon
14 Comments
This sign is no doubt gracing every one of Costa’s 1755 coffee shops in the UK. I’ve shown this picture to quite a few of my friends and relatives, and a minority so far have spotted the reason I took … Continue reading
October 24, 2014
by gpointon
5 Comments
Martin Ball writes: “Did anyone hear Jonathan (I think rather than David) Dimbleby pronounce ebola as /ˈɛbÉ™lÉ™/ on Radio 4 the other day? Is this pronunciation somehow nearer to that of West African languages?” I didn’t hear Jonathan Dimbleby say … Continue reading
August 11, 2014
by gpointon
1 Comment
In this centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War, it seems incredible that a Memorial should be in danger of destruction, but that is what is happening in Stoke on Trent, where one of the six historic … Continue reading
July 19, 2014
by gpointon
2 Comments
I don’t usually watch or listen to the First Night of the Proms, but as yesterday evening’s concert was Elgar’s “The Kingdom”, an oratorio I have never heard, I decided to make an exception. Part way through, when the disciples … Continue reading
June 18, 2014
by gpointon
2 Comments
There was a time when, if you wanted to buy a complete set of some publication which came in its own slip-case, it was known as a “boxed set”. The OED records this from as early as 1895 (Chicago Tribune, … Continue reading