IMM wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 21:53:34 UTC, Capitol wrote:


FYI the US spelling is frequently the correct one. The modern English
spellings were a result of the intelligentsia adding a French
flavour(flavor was the original spelling) to the dictionaries of the
19th century.

Yes, US versions of words are often the original (purer) version, or
indeed where they use a different word it is ours that has been
corrupted or changed.


The problem with the UK the power base is in the south east of England.
Southerners generally look more to France than north of Northampton.

Well its closer, and marginally less peculiar.

In the
Times a few years back they had an article about why the south east people
speak with a sort of lisp. The "r's" inserted into words, such as, charnce,
darnce, when they are chance and dance (save the larst darnce for me sounds
odd when sung). In the 1700s a French King had a lisp, so people would copy
his lips to indicate they were well connected.

No. As usual you have got it all wrong.

It was the king of Spain who had a lisp which is why in Mexico thay say
'Chorizo' and in spain, 'Choritho'

Arsitoicrativc english is english spoken with French pronuncuiation,
whereas peasiant english is spoken with celtic, Norse or Germanic
pronuncuation.

Hence Cafe, rather than caff, and 'sharnss' rather than 'channce'



The English aristocracy and rich set, who looked to France rather than to
the rest of their own country, copied the lisp sound too.


********,. The english aristos WERE frenchmnch, and ruled france at some
portion of the period.

The rest of the
country were not impressed

Not ediucated rather.

and never took up the lisp type of "r's" in
words.

Lisps are nothing to do with R's Lisp is the turning of a consonant and
an 's' into a consonant and a 'th' and is typically the result of a
cleft palate. So 'rats' becomes 'raths'

Sorry IMM. Once again you should stick to plastic pipes and not stray
into lingustics, because patently your un snotty uni inculcated you with
prejudice ragther than knowledge.

They also attempted to round all the vowels in an attempt to sound
more French. The working and middle classes in the south east did take up
the lisp sounds, probably as a way of being seen as being connected. The
Americans, then a colony, never took up this lisp sound either. Yet this
lisp sound has been regarded by south easterners as the "correct" way to
pronounce English and have continuously attempted to push this,
unsuccessfully, onto the rest of the country. Before the late 1700s most of
the UK spoke their vowels similar to the Americans which is similar to the
north of England.

A lisp sound is also the case with Spanish in Spain and south America, where
the Spanish also put in lisp sounds, such as Bathalona. the "th" is the
lisp. The south Americans do not speak that way. Spanish when spoken sounds
as it every other words has "th" in it.


Oh dear. The only true statement in a dull and incorrect tirade as usual
against the idealised aristocracy.

Norfolk country gentlemen call a garage a 'garridge'. Not a 'garith'

And I beliebe teh queen calls a spadfe a spade, not an instrument for
the degradation of the Wurking Clarss.