"Alang" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:13:58 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Yup. The clearest pronunciation of all in the UK comes with an accent
from the NE of Scotland. Not to be confused with the dialect from
there, obviously. 'BBC perceived pronunciation' is actually quite
poor. Too many words with different meanings sounding the same. Wales
and whales being the obvious one.

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

So you consider a cockney and geordie accent the same?

I hope he doesn't.
My mother was raised on Tyneside and spoke very clearly and distinctly
in a local accent. Never lost it and was understood anywhere she went
except by cockneys.

Now if you had said cockney and glaswegian...

And why do some people not pronounce the 'H' in herb and hotel?
Apart from those raised in France.

For the first because they are merkins, for the second because it's
"correct" not to pronounce it, which is why it's "an hotel" not "a hotel".
Mind you it's a long time since I heard the "correct" pronunciation of
Coventry as "Cuventry" on the tv.

A note at work yesterday refers to "fora" as the plural of forum. References
are fairly united that, although "fora" is the plural of the Latin word, the
accepted plural is "forums" with "fora" as an alternative. Which is
"correct" today?

"Correct" English is, do the dismay of the
ultra-conservative-with-a-small-c-(and-probably-a-big-C-as-well), a moving
target. There would be few, if any, now, who would regard "Coventry" as the
incorrect pronunciation, or, indeed, an aspirated "hotel" as incorrect or
who would not find the use of "Cuventry", "'otel", "fora" etc not correct
but merely perverse.

Regioanl accents and vocabulary OTOH are one of the things that make the
nation interesting. Vive la difference! (as the continentals might say... or
is it "le"?).


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

This is a good thing. As with a business, if it's not growing, it's dying.