October 21, 2013
by Graham
3 Comments
In the 1970s a series of books (well, they were more like pamphlets really) were published that illustrated local English dialects by making fun of them, not in a nasty way, but affectionately, by people who wanted to record local … Continue reading
September 28, 2013
by Graham
5 Comments
Following from Ed’s comment about the occurrence of rhoticity in English dialects as reported by Ellis, Joseph Wright, and the Survey of English Dialects, it seems to me that Ellis was having great trouble identifying exactly what sounds he (and … Continue reading
September 20, 2013
by Graham
6 Comments
Ed’s comment to my last post allows me to widen the discussion from the specific question of th > f in modern English, and its history, to that of how much linguists/dialectologists/orthoepists – call them/us what you will – have … Continue reading
July 8, 2013
by Graham
2 Comments
Matthew Phillips has commented that his step-uncle complained about the change in pronunciation of this word in about 1990, blaming the BBC for the change. I thought it might be useful to look at the pronunciations given in a range … Continue reading
May 7, 2013
by Graham
1 Comment
Once again, Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4’s morning programme, has displayed linguistic ignorance, whether by accident or design. Last week’s programme (4 May) interviewed the ‘caller’ (British English ‘commentator’) for the Kentucky Derby (surprisingly the current caller is British). Twice, … Continue reading
April 28, 2013
by Graham
6 Comments
I’ve been watching Lucy Worsley’s latest TV series on the monarchy – “Fit to Rule”. Dr Worsley is the Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, and this is not the first series she has presented. They all seem well researched, … Continue reading
April 23, 2013
by Graham
0 comments
Radio 4’s “Saturday Live” programme, broadcast on Saturday mornings at 9 am, this week included a contribution from Nevile Gwynne. We were told that Mr Gwynne (and throughout the programme he was called “Mr Gwynne” rather than “Neville”) retired as … Continue reading
April 15, 2013
by Graham
1 Comment
Melvyn Bragg trailed this week’s In Our Time (on the Amazons) on Radio 4 this morning (Thursday 11 April) at 8.30 pronouncing these two words as /penθəˈsiËlɪə/ and /ˈsætaɪəz/. I was interested to learn what he was going to say … Continue reading
April 3, 2013
by Graham
2 Comments
Just a couple of pronunciations I’ve come across recently that I’d never encountered before: 1) /ˈdiËtrɪtÉ™s/ (Harold Evans, former editor of the Sunday Times, on Broadcasting House, Radio 4, Sunday 31 March 2013) I’ve heard /ˈdetrɪtÉ™s/ quite often, but never … Continue reading
February 12, 2013
by Graham
3 Comments
We’ve all come across words that when read quickly can appear to have one pronunciation, but in fact have a totally different one, because the wrong one shows that the structure of the word has been misread. Two famous such … Continue reading