Assume v. Presume

EEPhil said:
But you have a point, the original "offender" might not see the post.
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I left a link for anyone interested in following it, and anyone not interested can't be educated anyway. It would be like sending back a letter with corrections to correct in-thread, unless clarification is needed. But it is also good to nudge people in the right direction.

EEPhil said:
when you've eaten it it's a scone
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Don't you mean "when you've eaten it it'scone"?

I despise those who insist (residents of Frome I mean you!) a word is not pronounced the way the rules of pronunciation suggest it should be from the spelling. The E after the single N (or M in the case of Frome) indicates the O is stressed. If the O should be unstressed, then the word should be spelled with no E. Simples.

The other side of the coin is that there have always been regional variations in pronunciation (and even entire words), but only the Home Counties version made it into the dictionary and grammar books. So I don't object that someone might pronounce a word differently than it is spelt, or even use a different pronunciation myself, but my point is don't complain when somebody uses the written word as a guide to pronunciation!

Once a habit has been established, it is very difficult to shake off. There are many words (including 'Frome') I first came across in print, so I pronounce them as they are spelt (the locals say Frome is Froom... so I say spell it Froom!).
 
Black Hole said:
Don't you mean "when you've eaten it it'scone"?
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Of course I did. Think my fingers were working independently of my brain!
I still think it's scone (stone)!
Think we've been here before, but even the locals can't make their minds up about Southwell. Is it south well or suthull (sort of)? At least we're agreed that Gotham isn't pronounced as though Batman lives there.
Pronounce places like wot they are written. :roflmao: Leicester, Loughborough, Reading...
 
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Maybe pronunciation has drifted away from when it got recorded? So the written form could be archaeology.
 
I can follow most British place names, but how
Featherstonhaugh = Fanshaw
has always eluded my understanding.
 
Laziness, mainly.

Then there's snobbishness. Diana's idiot brother insists Althorp is "Altrop", and the Hyacinth Buckets of Ugley Green (near Stanstead) prefer it to be pronounced "y-ouge-ley" (-ouge- as in louge) when its derivation is Ugg's Ley.
 
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Black Hole said:
Diana's idiot brother insists Althorp is "Altrop"
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There are many people who have problems pronouncing "th". Most of them use "f" or "v" as a substitute - which annoys me! Especially when said by BBC and ITV announcers. But "t", and moving the "r" about. He's not even saying all the right letters never mind in the right order. What a wazzerk!
 
Another one to consider is Salford being pronounced Safford ... by the true locals of the Bedfordshire village - the post-war London overspill population who moved to the area don't know any better.
 
Black Hole said:
Diana's idiot brother insists Althorp is "Altrop",
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I believe he has succumbed to 'the inevitable' some time ago after people kept 'mispronouncing' it after Dianas death.

Still, the Americans are as bad, try asking them why they don't rhyme Arkansas with Kansas, and insist on pronouncing 'solder' as sodder' ...
 
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