August 9, 2016
by gpointon
5 Comments
With the Olympics taking place in Rio, we are hearing the words athlete, athletic(s) and to a lesser extent athleticism all around us. This group of words seems to be unusual among those containing the sequence /θl/ in that it … Continue reading
June 17, 2016
by gpointon
4 Comments
Two statements heard on television recently: “If not kept under control, large numbers of moths can desecrate crops.” “Medieval knights would go on crusade in order to reduce the amount of time they would have to spend in perjury.”
May 21, 2016
by gpointon
5 Comments
It’s not only the pronunciation of Classical names and words that has changed as a result of the pseudo-knowledge of Latin and Greek by British people. Grammatical forms have also been affected. As ‘every skuleboy no’, Latin nouns that end … Continue reading
February 20, 2016
by gpointon
6 Comments
Whether it is the cardinal sin, or the (cuddly?) slow-moving animal, there is a question mark over its pronunciation. On this morning’s edition of Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4, the well-known ‘sloth-woman’, Lucy Cooke, was interviewed. She always says … Continue reading
January 22, 2016
by gpointon
0 comments
Back in 2007, I wrote about the confusion of the words inter and intern, in the context of going to a funeral. This week, the confusion has surfaced again, but this time the other way round. In her BBC series … Continue reading
January 3, 2016
by gpointon
6 Comments
My friend and co-author Stewart Clark has drawn my attention to this BBC blog, which discusses the ‘correct’ pronunciation of the dinosaur’s name. Apparently the Natural History Museum, which is moving its model, stresses the third syllable: /ËŒdɪpləʊˈdÉ’kÉ™s/ on the … Continue reading
November 14, 2015
by gpointon
3 Comments
As every British seven year old knows, the answer is “a stick”. We can add -y to almost any word to make it mean something like ‘like a …’ or ‘quite …’, rather like -ish. Generally we add just the … Continue reading
October 19, 2015
by gpointon
0 comments
Alec Bamford uses this term in his comment on my last post. He first mentions it as a description of his own pronunciation of decade, by which I assumed he meant that his pronunciation one way or the other was … Continue reading
September 21, 2015
by gpointon
4 Comments
I think we can safely say that the ‘battle’ for second syllable stress on contribute and distribute is now lost. Almost all age groups now appear to me, with no valid statistical evidence whatever, to be putting the stress on … Continue reading
September 4, 2015
by gpointon
6 Comments
Yesterday I had to go to the Royal Free Hospital in London for a routine annual check up, and afterwards was sent for a blood test. In the “blood room”, you take a ticket as you might at a butcher’s … Continue reading