What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Yes, and Ypres is "wipers".

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Don't forget Don Quicksot. Charming.

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McTag wrote:

But I do love the voices of notable women on the BBC, RP or not, people like Sarah Montague, Sue McGregor, and Jean Metcalfe in her day.

Dear sirs,

It is noticeable in English national radio stations that the females are permitted to speak in «RP». The males however are required to speak in strange accents.

I have hope yet of a career in British broadcasting.

Kind regards, Smile

Goldmund

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Janet Street-Porter?

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Is it not a worldwide phenomenon that women are more conscious of and therefore prone to change an accent considered less likely to succeed with target men?

Re placenames, how can a man with Des Moines, Illinois, Arkansas and Poughkeepsie in his chosen nation point the nostril of scorn at British pronunciations?! I rest my valise.

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Clary wrote:

Is it not a worldwide phenomenon that women are more conscious of and therefore prone to change an accent considered less likely to succeed with target men?

I'm not sure. In Germany, I'd say that accent plays a marginal role in attracting target partners. But it does play a moderate role in landing prestigious jobs. After my father, fresh out of college, interviewed for a chief of marketing position in a small company, his interviewer made a list of plusses and minuses about each applicant. The only "minus" in my father's evaluation was "schwäbelt sehr" (speaks with a strong swabian accent -- swabian is a dialect spoken in the South West of Germany.) My father got the job -- but still, his accent was a negative factor.

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Interesting - probably true here too, but I have no actual knowledge of it. People say that a posh accent militates against you in many circles, and that SCOTS is the accent preferred - seen as reliable, honest and men of the people! Little do they know.....

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Maybe you mentioned it earlier, Clary -- but what is "SCOTS" an acronym for?

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Splendid, Competent, Obviously Trustworthy, Superlative in every way.

Should be Scotsiew really. Smile

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Clary wrote:

Interesting - probably true here too, but I have no actual knowledge of it. People say that a posh accent militates against you in many circles, and that SCOTS is the accent preferred - seen as reliable, honest and men of the people! Little do they know.....

I'm surprised this seems to come as a surprise. :wink:

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Clary wrote:

Re placenames, how can a man with Des Moines, Illinois, Arkansas and Poughkeepsie in his chosen nation point the nostril of scorn at British pronunciations?! I rest my valise.

I did not choose this nation, but i would choose no other. The denizens of Des Moines, Illinois, Arkansas and Poughkeepsie pronounce those names correctly, with the exception of the first, which comes very close to the original French pronunciation. Illinois and Arkansas are French corruptions of Indian names, and once again, the local inhabitants correctly pronounce names for the spelling of which neither they nor any other English speaker can be blamed. Poughkeepsie is a Dutch name, upon noting which, i rest my portmanteau.

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And Vlissengen is Flushing.

I found out that Mystic, Connecticut, gets its name from missituk, being a wide tidal estuary.

Very economical language, evidently.

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Ah, but some of us Yanks have been corrupted by you Brits. We still call Gloucester 'Gloster' and Worcester 'Wooster.' Why, I dunno, but we do. However -- in Boston, at least -- Berkeley is pronounced correctly, not 'Barklay'.

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I heard on the BBC series "Coast" last night that there used to be a lot of wailing at Dundee.

They apparently sailed their ships down to the Antarctic after them thar wails.

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/755/dsc00177qg.th.jpg

(not narcissistic, (well, that much is obvious with a fizzog like that) am experimenting with thumbnails)

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You wanna pronounce it right, you should spell it hwale not whale.

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You are right. In Norwegian, it's hval.

Come to think of it, probably similar in Latvian too, I'm guessing?

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Well, the Old High German "hwal" became 'wal' as well ...

(But "Hentlare" didn't become 'Entlare', though, but 'Hinteler' :wink: )

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McT, in Latvian it's vallis. The Latvian alphabet doesn't have the letter w. And the Vs are 'hard' as in English or as the W s pronounced in German. But there's no hint of an 'h' sound there. Latvian has virtually no guttural sounds that would come from the throat unless they're Latvianized foreign words. But, then, [i[vallis[/i] has no homophone or near homphone in the language.

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This isn't so much a peeve as a bit of hilarity. Just now heard it and didn't know where else to share it.

I was listening this morning to the BBC Overseas service. Their man in Africa was talking about a former rebel leader in Burundi who is now running for office (or 'standing', as you Brits prefer). And this posh-speaking BBC reporter actually said, "He has survived death many times." Now, apart from the widely reported resurrection of Jesus, this must be a medical first!

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We all do it
He has escaped death, he has cheated death

There was a letter in the paper yesterday from a pathologist, referring to an earlier medical article, in which was written "...he collected female wombs from the bodies..."

His comment was "The wimp, the male ones represent far more of a challenge"

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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