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

[Doctor Drivel]

It isn't it is an accent. Typical of snotty uni people to say that.

You mean teach them a snotty uni accent.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Everyone has an accent.

That's dialect.

So you want all dramas played by actors using your favourite accent?

[Frank Erskine]

That would be 'dit dah dah dah dah dah dah dit dit dit dit dah dit dah dit dit dit dit dit dah dit dah dah

HTH -

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Accent and pronunciation go together.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

So you consider a cockney and geordie accent the same?

[Doctor Drivel]

English does not derive from French. Duh!

[Dave]

I would think that would depend a lot on which part of England you live in.

The 'a' in both words would be pronounced as long soft ones in the South. Up here, in the North, we use the harder short way.

Grass, in the South would come over as 'graaass, where as in Lancashire it would come over as 'grass' the 'a' would sound more like the a in has.

What I can't understand is why the South has not got to grips with the term 'bacon butty'? " granddaughters live in Portsmouth and everytime they visit we have to stop them saying a bacon sandwhich and get them to call it a bacon butty.

Look on the internet and it is a common term when describing 2 pieces of bread, buttered and served with bacon between. I was on a web site this afternoon promoting bacon and even they called it a butty.

Dave

[Doctor Drivel]

Maxie, I never knew you were so broke! If I saw you in the street I would give you a fiver Maxie. I would give it to you. If all I had in the world was two pies I would give you one. Did the bailiffs take your pies?

Maxie, my heart goes out to you. How do you feel Maxie? How do you feel. Of course, next is the gutter.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Much further north than that - Buchan. Peterhead area.

[Stephen Howard]

Ah, but what standards? Was a time when starting a sentence with a conjunction would have marked you down as an illiterate oaf ( the irony here being that my spellchecker corrected my spelling of illiterate ). That's the rub really, how d'you define a standard for something so fluid - and what happens when the standard-bearers are flying the wrong flag?

As with most discussions about language/grammar it's as well to take a gun and shoot yourself in the foot before you enter the debate - it saves time ( see above ).

I feel the current ethos seems to be to 'celebrate' the mundane, and as such that becomes part of the 'public consciousness' - so in that respect I suppose the statement stands.

On the flip side it works both ways. I was browsing in a charity shop recently and my attention was caught by a rather vociferous child who was rooting through a box of toys. I'd say he was around six or seven years old, and as he pulled out a certain toy he exclaimed in a painfully cultured accent "Oh, this is broken - this will never do!". He wittered on at some length along the same lines, and I couldn't help but feel that he was old before his time. The innocence of childhood is such a fragile thing - and whether your weapon of choice is a baseball bat or a rod of steel makes little difference in the long run.

I guess there's a natural balance - one we've perhaps lost touch with in recent years - but then again it's perhaps always been that way. The Pythons with their philosophising washerwomen spring to mind.

Regards,

[geoff]

In message , Doctor Drivel writes

NURSE - drivel's colostomy bag needs changing, along with his meds

[Stephen Howard]

Strangely enough you're more likely to hear 'bacon sarnie' ( or sarny ) down here in the south - but I doubt you'll ever hear 'chip sandwich' or 'chip sarnie'...it's always been 'chip butty'.

I did once hear a reference to a bacon stotty in Southampton.

Regards,

[The Medway Handyman]

Whoosh...

[Stephen Howard]

Tell that to the Queen....

[geoff]

In message , Stephen Howard writes

Does she do french ?

[john]

A TV reporter has turned up recently with the unbelievably marvellous (to me!) name of 'Damien Grammaticus'?. First time I heard him report I instantly knew his educational background, his university, his parents, his wealth, his 'class'. Quick Google and yep I was correct. My big problem is that as a working class oik, dragged up within a strong socialist environment and tutored to regard his class as 'the enemy', I find I greatly prefer his type of standard diction, as compared to that of 'estuary english', or nearly unintelligable Irish accents that are turning up on the telly rather too often.

[Stephen Howard]

She didn't in the past, but she certainly does now...

Regards,

[Arfa Daily]

Happening already, methinks ... Both my girls used to come home from their secondary school telling tales of other girls in the year being or acting "facety". It took me a long time to get to the bottom of this one. Turned out it was a complete mis-pronunciation of the word 'feisty', that had just passed that way into their vocabulary. I rather suspect that it was actually one of the teachers that helped it on its way there, too ...

Arfa

[Stephen Howard]

I rather like that Neil Nunes chap that popped up on Radio 4 - somehow the news and weather always seem much brighter when it's announced by his rich, Caribbean basso.

Makes a nice change from the squeaky ladies that just seem to make me want to go 'Neep neep neep' ( I don't know why, that's just the way it is ).

Regards,

[Arfa Daily]

You're not the guy who wrote a complaint letter to Branson, and got it published in the Sun are you ? That's exactly the dreadful style which that was written in ...

"Would you like it Richard ? Would you ? I don't think you would Richard. Really, Richard, I don't think you would ..."

Arfa