Pedants' Paradise

[Serial_Apologist]

... I know. Many people do this.

They are, of course, wrong.


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By putting the emphasis on the first syllable, a second emphasis is needed on the third for it to "flow". My dad would always explode whenever he heard "controversy - Dad was never wrong about anything - however I now see that his contemporary version of the Oxford Dictionary gives the two options as equally acceptable.

[Keraulophone]

We live in a society where virtually anything is permissible

If so, controversiality could run riot!

[John Locke]

[QUOTE=vinteuil;755167] I have to tell him, again and again, that that may be what some people say - but he and they are WRONG.


Younger people speaking differently from their elders maybe?

[vinteuil]

I have to tell him, again and again, that that may be what some people say - but he and they are WRONG.

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Younger people speaking differently from their elders maybe?

... undoubtedly. It comes about when people learn to read, and start pronouncing things as they is spelled. Or spelt.

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[Joseph K]

Are we descriptive or prescriptive linguists?

[vinteuil]

Are we descriptive or prescriptive linguists?

... o, I were brung up as a descriptive linguistician.

But sometimes it do do me good to be judgmental. Or judgemental.

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[Serial_Apologist]

... o, I were brung up as a descriptive linguistician.

But sometimes it do do me good to be judgmental. Or judgemental.

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Does that mean the world is your lobster?

[LMcD]

... I know. Many people do this.

They are, of course, wrong.


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It occurs to me that I may not have made myself entirely clear: the pronunciation in question is more like contrOHversy.

[verismissimo]

... well of course it's cuventry! as in cuvent garden.

I have a friend who hails from Coventry who maintains that now-a-days it is co ventry. I have to tell him, again and again, that that may be what some people say - but he and they are WRONG.




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I believe that Harold Macmillan was the only person to refer to his own constituency as Brumley.

[vinteuil]

I believe that Harold Macmillan was the only person to refer to his own constituency as Brumley.

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[ardcarp]

...and you can spot the Devon huntin', shootin' and fishin' set by the pronunciation of Huniton.

Mind you, vowels are funny things around here. Cullompton is pronounced Collumpton by everybody, high and low, rich and poor......

[Keraulophone]

...and going even further west we arrive at LAN-sun (Launceston), ROW-ter (Rough Tor), Snozzle (St Austell), Druth (Redruth) and MOW-zle (Mousehole).

Hyns diogel!

[cloughie]

...and going even further west we arrive at LAN-sun (Launceston), ROW-ter (Rough Tor), Snozzle (St Austell), Druth (Redruth) and MOW-zle (Mousehole).

Hyns diogel!

Trurer, Camburn, Pnzarnce, Snerth ‘n’ Snives.

[ardcarp]

...and back to Devon, Woolfardisworthy. Mind you, I'm not surprised it's known as Woolsery.
One of my fave Cornish village names is Veryan, which is a contraction of the obscure Celtic Saint Symphorian (to whom the local church is dedicated).

[vinteuil]

... Snozzle (St Austell)

... aha! Gloucestershire has a snozzle too -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowshill

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