Pronunciation watch

[vinteuil]

I think you'll find that people in northern England generally pronounce it "skon".

... and so do we here dahn sarf...

[scottycelt]

I maybe should have mentioned 'Tooneeja' here and not on the other thread devoted to English speech phobias.

Another great favourite of mine is the sound of 'bin' instead of 'been' ... now, where did that come from, I wonder?

[Don Petter]

Since we are on asides, I have often felt that the opening of ‘Out of Town’ (shades of dear old Jack Hargreaves) is capable of slightly different interpretations, depending on the punctuation, which I have never actually checked on the page.

Either:

‘Say what you will, the countryside is still the only place where I could settle down.’

Or:

‘Say what you will. The countryside is still. (The only place where I could settle down.)’


I suspect the former is correct, but the scansion and emphasis in the song always suggests the latter to my devious crossword mind.

[mangerton]

I think you'll find that people in northern England generally pronounce it "skon".

EA, I am delighted to hear from you and vinteuil that you pronounce "scone" correctly. My apologies.

I was basing my remarks on my Chambers dictionary, and on my personal experience, much of it gleaned from BBC radio!

[vinteuil]

EA, I am delighted to hear from you and vinteuil that you pronounce "scone" correctly. My apologies.

I was basing my remarks on my Chambers dictionary, and on my personal experience, much of it gleaned from BBC radio!

mangerton - I suspect that the "skoan" pronunciation is that adopted by those of the Hyacinth Bucket-pronounced-Bookay persuasion who somehow think it's fraightfully genteel...

[Don Petter]

mangerton - I suspect that the "skoan" pronunciation is that adopted by those of the Hyacinth Bucket-pronounced-Bookay persuasion who somehow think it's fraightfully genteel...

Oo-ar Yes! None of your fancy 'skoans' in 'Ampshire or Sussex in my experience (except maybe in Hove, actually).

[Mary Chambers]

I've always said 'scon', and I don't think I've ever heard anyone in real life say 'scoan'.

John Betjeman's poem How to Get On in Society puts it in a nutshell. The last verse is:

Milk and then just as it comes, dear?
I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones.
Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys
With afternoon tea cake and scones.

Snobbish, but nice

[mercia]

what about that thing we Englanders call the Coronation Stone?

[Don Petter]

what about that thing we Englanders call the Coronation Stone?

I thought someone had stolen that, so we don't have to talk about it any more?

[mercia]

stolen or not, how do we pronounce Stone of Scone?

[Don Petter]

stolen or not, how do we pronounce Stone of Scone?

As mangerton has pointed out, we should be calling it the 'Stoon of Skoon'.

[mercia]

As mangerton has pointed out

oh sorry, am I repeating a previous discussion?

[french frank]

And talking of scons: was anyone else brought up with pikelets for tea? You bought them loose at the bakers so could ask for (as it was in our house) 12 or 15 or 18 &c. I deeply resent having to buy a prepacked packet of 6 "crumpets". I'd heard of crumpets when I was a child but didn't realise that they were what people from elsewhere, like London, called pikelets. In fact, I think oop no'th 'pikelets' are/were slightly bigger and thinner than ours, and that might be the technical distinction. We called them pikelets anyroad, and so did everyone else.

[mercia]

pikelets

In England, there is something similar to a crumpet called a pikelet. It is usually made from the same batter as a crumpet, but the way in which it differs from a crumpet varies from place to place. In some parts of England (for example in the Midlands, around Wolverhampton) a pikelet is simply a crumpet without holes. In other parts (for example, Lancashire) it has holes, but is wider, thinner and more irregular than a crumpet because it is made without being restrained by a mould, and so spreads in the pan (or griddle) while cooking.

In other areas, particularly Wales, Australia and New Zealand, a 'pikelet' is very different from a crumpet - the word describes something very similar to what in Scotland is called a pancake and in most parts of England is called a Scotch pancake.

(Wiki)

[vinteuil]

The nomenclature distinguishing pikelets from crumpets and muffins is labyrinthine. Selon Davidson [Oxf: Companion to Food] -
"Pikelet - nowadays, in England, a yeasted pancake (qv) with a holey surface, like a thin crumpet (qv) cooked without a containing ring. This has probably been the main use of the word; but in some parts of England, it is applied to other yeast-raised, griddle-baked products (including muffins(qv)).
The name pikelet, which only appears in print at the end of the 18th century, is thought to come from a W Midlands corruption of the Welsh term bara pysgyd, 'pitchy bread', breadcakes formed from a leavened batter of flour and milk and baked on the griddle (qv). In Australia and New Zealand, pikelet means drop scone (qv)."

late correction: bara pysgyd should read bara pyglyd - see #172 below.