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Tag Archives: spelling

March 7, 2020
by Graham
0 comments

Coronavirus

This seems an unlikely heading for a post from me – how can this possibly have any interest for pronunciation nerds? Until this week, I have only heard a single pronunciation for this – the ‘obvious’ one: koROHna(virus). (I’m sorry … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: english, family name, place names, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

February 14, 2020
by Graham
3 Comments

Buttigieg

We’re all going to have to get used to this, apparently, odd name in the coming months as Pete Buttigieg tries to become the next president of the US. I think it’s an interesting case, not because the name itself … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: english, family name, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

February 4, 2019
by Graham
6 Comments

Slivers or Slithers

I wrote about the confusion between these two words three years ago (here). From the evidence we appear to be losing the word ‘sliver’ completely. I recently offered a slice of cake to a very well-educated person who wanted to … Continue reading →

Categories: Language | Tags: english, meaning, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

November 7, 2018
by Graham
2 Comments

Bellerophon

Until about two years ago, I had never heard any pronunciation for this Greek name other than that given by all the current English pronunciation dictionaries: /bəˈlerəfɒn/ (with allowances for varying qualities of unstressed vowels). Then I went to a … Continue reading →

Categories: Greek, Language, Names | Tags: english, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

May 9, 2018
by Graham
4 Comments

Ambiguity

We’re all used to the confusion between the words ‘diffuse’ and ‘defuse’ as verbs, caused by the pronunciation of the latter with the KIT vowel rather than the more etymologically correct FLEECE. If we were to introduce a hyphen into … Continue reading →

Categories: Language | Tags: english, journalists, pronunciation, reporters, spelling | Permalink

January 15, 2018
by Graham
1 Comment

Rohingya

I can claim no expertise in either the languages or the peoples of the area of the Bay of Bengal littoral. Today, 15 January 2018, the BBC has been highlighting the plight of the Rohingya people with a series of … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: bbc, place names, pronunciation, radio 4, spelling | Permalink

January 18, 2017
by gpointon
4 Comments

More malapropisms

Following my last post, there seems to have been a spate of malapropisms perpetrated (not perpetuated!) by eminent people on radio and television. The leader of the populist British political party UKIP, Paul Nuttall, described Donald Trump as an anglophobe … Continue reading →

Categories: Language | Tags: bbc, english, meaning, pronunciation, radio 4, spelling | Permalink

June 29, 2016
by gpointon
0 comments

Slithery Slivers

As we know, many English-speaking people use the labiodental /f/ and /v/ in place of intervocalic /θ/ and /ð/. This was at one time claimed to be a feature of Cockney, but it is far more widespread than that. An … Continue reading →

Categories: Language | Tags: english, pronunciation, spelling | Permalink

May 11, 2016
by gpointon
0 comments

A Little Learning

Until the end of the 19th Century, when, in Britain at least, we began to have universal education, most people, however intelligent they were, didn’t have access to as much knowledge as we have today. The ‘educated’ classes tended still … Continue reading →

Categories: Greek, Language, Latin, Names | Tags: english, place names, pronunciation, spelling | Permalink

February 20, 2016
by gpointon
3 Comments

Sloth

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 →

Categories: Language | Tags: bbc, english, pronunciation, radio 4, speech, spelling | Permalink

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  • Radio 3 (2)
    • Graham: Tim – I think that Robin must have recorded the majority of those fillers before my time at the BBC. He...
    • Tim Atkinson: You don’t recall those excellent little “fillers” Robin Holmes recorded, do you?...
  • Richard III – The Reunion (4)
    • Graham: Eric – do mineralogists call themselves minerologists, then, or say that the pronunciation...
    • Phillip Minden: Descriptive linguists can have preferences, just like a professional tea taster. And inside...
    • Eric Armstrong: A quick look on YouGlish reveals that UK speakers are much more likely to pronounce “genealogy” with...
  • Souls and Ghouls (22)
    • Graham: What a mistake to make! Of course I always knew that Birkenhead was in Cheshire, even if the Wirral is now...
    • Dee Congdon: I had to laugh when this article described Patricia Routledge as a Lancastrian. Birkenhead, where she...
  • The Queen’s English – literally (2)
    • Graham: Sidney – I’ve not only just read Fabricius (2007) but also gone back to the Harrington et al...
    • Sidney Wood: Fabricius (2007 in JIPA) found that virtually no-one born after 1945 acquired the old closer TRAP in RP....
  • Accentism (3)
    • Sidney Wood: Graham, that’s a neater way of putting it. No deliberate decisions to change. And which direction...
    • Graham: Sidney – I can’t say that my accent is the same now as it was fifty five years ago, just before I...
    • Sidney Wood: Graham, regarding the last paragraph. In the 1950s as my national (military) service was coming to an...
  • How do you pronounce ‘GH’? (2)
    • Graham: Good point! I wasn’t considering such compounds.
    • Laura Nass: also “stronghold” and “bighearted”
  • Slivers or Slithers (6)
    • Graham: Mink – I’m sure you’re right. Your phrase “phonetic overgeneralisation” is what...

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