Thanks AndrewF
The "great vowel shift" interests me; i shall have to start using that
in conversation with the right people ... I might even try to discover
what it means!
I am still young and mean enough for those around me not to threaten me
with death on mentioning things like "reticent" meaning something
different from "reluctant"', or when I advise them to use
"procrastinate" not "prevaricate". I can even berate my students for
using "lay" when they mean "lie", but I know that it's not their fault;
they watch too much US television ("Simpsons" and "Friends"), and the
English education system stopped teaching vocabulary and grammar in the
70s. Even English teachers now don't know the parts of a language.
Mind you, I should love the opportunity to visit Tasmania; I would
promise to keep my mouth firmly shut on the subject of pronunciation.
I would also take an OM or 3!
Chris
On 2 Dec 2004, at 9:14, Andrew Fildes wrote:
>
> Tasmanians, poor deluded souls, insist on Lawn-cess-tun (yeah, like I
> was raised in Lei-ces-ter?) while it should be Lornestun with the
> emphasis on the first of the two syllables. They do, however, insist on
> Freycinet with a silent terminal 't' because it's French.
> Albany is a long 'a' as in 'all' - and as in Albury, Victoria! Derby
> should be pronounced 'darby' - these are holdovers from before the
> great vowel shift of the 14-15th century when most of the vowels moved
> one position in the mouth, except for New Zealanders who moved them two
> positions or more.
> I am threatened with death on occasion for pointing this out to the
> ignorant around me, much to my surprise.
> AndrewF
>
>
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
http://www.threeshoes.co.uk
http://homepage.mac.com/zuiko
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