If you really want to hear something screwy ask a Brit why they drop the middle syllable of so many words. Battery comes out as bat-try, medicine is med-cine, territory is ter-a-tre, the list is endless. The other odd thing about Brit-speak is the way they pronounce their Rs and especially a BR combination as in brake. Many say it out of the corner of their mouth with a sort of puff sound. As an American I spent many years in, around, and working with Brits. I got an endless stream of criticisms about the way "Yanks" (a name of which most of us are not) butchered English and yet many Brits nearly kill themselves trying to pronounce 'territorial terrorism'.
Thank you for enriching my life by sharing this YT-Channel. I really like Jody Joddle's lovely style of presenting, though I'm not entirely sure if she speaks slowly to accommodate her audience or to pick her phrasing carefully in a rather unnatural and self-conscious way. Seems like a case of "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." The channel is even introduced like that, which make it even more charming. Either way, from the few episodes I binged, it's well worth it. And good stuff is just getting ever harder to find. And these fragments seem to be carefully sourced and researched.
In summary: In English, what you write is not necessarily what you say.
ReplyDeleteAnd it gets worse once you start comparing the different versions of English as spoken on different continents.
Sure, and how do they pronounce all of those in a different part of the country? I think the UK wins the award for most accents per square kilometer.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to hear something screwy ask a Brit why they drop the middle syllable of so many words. Battery comes out as bat-try, medicine is med-cine, territory is ter-a-tre, the list is endless. The other odd thing about Brit-speak is the way they pronounce their Rs and especially a BR combination as in brake. Many say it out of the corner of their mouth with a sort of puff sound. As an American I spent many years in, around, and working with Brits. I got an endless stream of criticisms about the way "Yanks" (a name of which most of us are not) butchered English and yet many Brits nearly kill themselves trying to pronounce 'territorial terrorism'.
ReplyDeleteThank you for enriching my life by sharing this YT-Channel. I really like Jody Joddle's lovely style of presenting, though I'm not entirely sure if she speaks slowly to accommodate her audience or to pick her phrasing carefully in a rather unnatural and self-conscious way. Seems like a case of "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." The channel is even introduced like that, which make it even more charming. Either way, from the few episodes I binged, it's well worth it. And good stuff is just getting ever harder to find. And these fragments seem to be carefully sourced and researched.
ReplyDeleteWait until you get to Wymondham, Mousehole, Flitwick!! (Wind-hum, Mowzul, Fit-ick)
ReplyDelete