Pronunciation watch

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh dear...hypercorrection raises its head again:

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid viii. vii. 105 The mychty God of fyr..als tyte, And no slawer,..Furth of his bed startis.

1600 Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream i. i. 3 But oh, me thinks, how slow This old Moone waues.

1645 Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 40, I hear the far-off Curfeu sound,..Swinging slow with sullen roar.

1680 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. xii. 209 In large and heavy Work the Tread comes slow and heavily down.

1812 Byron Childe Harold ii. xli, As the stately vessel glided slow Beneath the shadow.

1848 Thackeray Vanity Fair viii. 66 We drove very slow for the last two stages on the road.

Now you're just showing off.

[jean]

I wonder whether the use of ‘slow’ as an adverb is a bit marginal or circumscribed in standard English.

If it was good enough for Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Thackeray...

[french frank]

Almost certainly apocryphal, and pulled out of the cupboard whenever it would be easier to give in.
I am heartened by the number of young people I meet who really care about the English language.
Similarly, I was impressed by a chance meeting with a French teacher of French in SE France. She was passionate about her language and worried about the effect English was having on French. She had some very convincing arguments.

I regard the (to me) over strict appliance of artificial rules of grammar as similar to those who consult the 'rules of etiquette' in accordance with the handbook. People learn them by heart when they are afraid of committing social solecisms and being looked down upon by others: they would do better to stick to robust common sense and their own instincts.

I mean, who ever would stick their little finger up when drinking a cup of tea these days?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It isn't really the same. Language is a form of communication. Etiquette is less rational and is confused with manners. I would say that the use of language is more like manners than etiquette.

[kernelbogey]

It isn't really the same. Language is a form of communication. Etiquette is less rational and is confused with manners. I would say that the use of language is more like manners than etiquette.

I've enjoyed reading this thread.

I wonder whether the 'rules' referred to passim above are, like etiquette, social. I have a hunch that they may often derive from some venerated written authority - a textbook, perhaps, or a 'How to...' type - and these 'rules' were regarded, in a century of great social mobility, as indicators of education, and therefore of social refinement.

I've no evidence for this except the example of my father, from a humble rural background, who became a teacher, and was very rigid in his adherence to rules and to inflicting them on pupils and colleagues.

[mangerton]

[QUOTE=french frank;250796Punctuation is partly personal: a friend commented on my use of colons and semicolons recently. I tend to litter my writing with them because I know what they are intended to convey and I enjoy their subtleties: they probably escape most people . [/QUOTE]

Dare I say, not me, ff? My late father instructed me at an early age in their correct use.

[french frank]

It isn't really the same. Language is a form of communication. Etiquette is less rational and is confused with manners. I would say that the use of language is more like manners than etiquette.

Analogies aren't exact: I merely meant reliance on learned rules can simply be a defence against being thought to be "wrong".

In answer to kb, I'll offer a theory:

I think many of these rules go back no further than the Victorians, deciding arbitrarily on the basis of Victorian 'good writing' what was right and what was wrong.

Mangers - of course not you

[JFLL]

If it was good enough for Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Thackeray...

Not quite clear what a 'good' word is, unless it's the right word in the right context, context including the date.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I know I'm as guilty as anyone here for going off-topic, but we seem to have forgotten the thread is about pronunciation.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't think that's quite how I would look at it Where I d' come from, it were:
I be, you be, he be, she be, we be, you be, they be.

and similarly I d' sit, you d' sit, he d'sit &c. (past tense: I did sit, you did sit &c)

Where's thee bin to?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

How do people pronounce "suit"?
Is it "soot", or "syoot"?

[french frank]

Soot non syoot.

[cloughie]

How do people pronounce "suit"?
Is it "soot", or "syoot"?

Depends if it's a black one!

How do you pronounce "soot", "soot" or "sutt"?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Depends if it's a black one!

I really don't thing you are taking me very seriously.

[cloughie]

Where's thee bin to?

Surely it's where's tha bin?