O.T. : What Have We Done ... ?

[PeterC]

It'd give you a nasty turn.

[geoff]

It's a consequence of their diet ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its not 'accent'. Its correct and clear enunciation and pronunciation.

I've no objection to 'Gie's a wee dram' instead of 'Might I have a small scotch'

But not on national radio, or TV, when the aim is to reach the largest number of people.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not talking about accent. Dav was, it seems. Its correct pronunciation and grammar, that's all.

[The Natural Philosopher]

whereas in scotland, its whales and wheels... ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

I always thought that meant 'don't shag the sheep'

[The Natural Philosopher]

'ighly traditional, that.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Gardenrs question time always cracks me up

"...and the producer was joking"

[Steve Firth]

A decade or two ago I was working around Germany. I got used to memorising street names, particularly the name of the street that the hotel was on so that if I got lost I could hop in a Taxi and get back to the right hotel - I'd found in the past that some cities have three or four hotels from the same chain (Holiday Inn etc).

And in Wiesbaden it happened, got lost on the far side of the Kurhaus from the hotel. I stopped someone and asked for directions - where to? - "Holiday Inn, Einbahnstraße."

[Clive George]

What's the "correct" pronunciation of Castle, Grass, etc then? The old BBC RP would only have it one way, whereas there's at least two valid ways of saying those words. Accent is very pertinent to pronunciation.

[Mike Barnes]

In Holland I was surprised never to see a sign announcing my arrival at Doorgang Verkeer, despite following lots of signs pointing the way to it.

[John Rumm]

Such is the way language evolves - there will come a time where their way is "correct" and the right way is archaic.

[John Rumm]

And why do so many builders refer to length, width, and highth?

[John Rumm]

and be called French ;-)

[John Rumm]

or using "itch" in place of "scratch"

[John Rumm]

or

[Dave]

Like John Thaw in Morse. I could listen to him talking for quite a long time.

Like Kevin Whately, again in Morse. One has no accent, the other has a North East accent, but both enunciate very well.

So why do we have to put up with Johnathon Woss and that other Lancashire accented announcer on one of those police chase programms?

Woss can't be arsed to use the letter R and the other persistently uses the glottal stop instead of the letter T.

Dave

[Dave]

Not too far North though. I used to work with someone from that area and that was when I realised how good and clear they spoke. It was somewhere just above Edinburgh.

Dave

[Doctor Drivel]

What standards are those?

Wow, such a sycophant. This one will make a good case study.

[Doctor Drivel]

What are these standards and who makes them? Is it a BS?