'The word pedants' top 10 | It's specific, not Pacific...' blog discussion.

etruscanshades

Barter wrote: »

I thought due to = caused by; owing to = because of, but I may be mistaken.

Not good enough I'm afraid!

Raksha

Speaking of pronunciations, there's a village in Bedfordshire called Arlesey, which news reporters continually call Arl-esley, the correct pronunciation is Arl-sey

etruscanshades

samizdat wrote: »

Gower says:

"Owing to long ago established itself as a prepositional phrase. But the orthodox still keep up the fight against the attempt of due to to do the same: they maintain that due is an adjective and should not be used otherwise. That means that it must always have a noun to agree with. You may say: "Floods due to a breach in the river bank covered a thousand acres of land". But you mujst not say: "Due to a breach in the river bank, a thousand acres of land were flooded". In the first due to agrees properly with floods, which were in fact due to the breach. In the second it can only agree with a thousand acres of land, which were not due to the breach, or to anything else except the Creation."

He goes on a bit more, but that is the essence of it.

Gower obviously has it correctly described, but a bit long-winded! I'm not sure that it is a clear and concise enough demonstration for everyone to understand.

spandit

Raksha wrote: »

Speaking of pronunciations, there's a village in Bedfordshire called Arlesey, which news reporters continually call Arl-esley, the correct pronunciation is Arl-sey

Shrewsbury - it's (the taming of the) "Shrew" not "Shrow".

rapido

Raksha wrote: »

Speaking of pronunciations, there's a village in Bedfordshire called Arlesey, which news reporters continually call Arl-esley, the correct pronunciation is Arl-sey

It seems not a unique mistake to make across the country, extra syllables.

I've heard Haddenham (Bucks) as "Had-den-'m" rather than "Had-n'm" and Hoddesdon (Herts) as "Hod-diz-d'n" instead of "Hodz-d'n".

It makes my teeth curl!

etruscanshades

samizdat wrote: »

Are you putting your better foot forward?

YES! Unless you're Jeg the Peg (with his extra leg)

etruscanshades

rapido wrote: »

It seems not a unique mistake to make across the country, extra syllables.

I've heard Haddenham (Bucks) as "Had-den-'m" rather than "Had-n'm" and Hoddesdon (Herts) as "Hod-diz-d'n" instead of "Hodz-d'n".

It makes my teeth curl!

Our local village of Ebrington is pronounced by all that know as "Yubbertn"

Yokels eh?

And don't forget that Chomondley is pronounced "Chumley" and Fotheringay is pronounced "Fungay" and Featheringstone-Haugh is pronounced "Fanshaw" and Belvoir is pronounced "Beaver" and Dalziel is pronounced "De Ell"

Toffs eh?

Oh and "The Mouse Trap" was pronounced "Success"!

etruscanshades

I really really hate:-

:j:beer::mad::p;):D:o:cool::eek::rotfl::T:A:):(

firstinflight

etruscanshades wrote: »

But I do love "To boldly go where no-one has gone before" (sister says this is NOT incorrect - it's a seventeenth century affectation trying to copy the latin where an infinitive cannot be split).

Bill Bryson's excellent Mother Tongue has the following to say on split infinitives:

I can think of two very good reasons for not splitting an infinitive:

1. Because you feel that the rules of English ought to conform to the grammatical precepts of a language that died a thousand years ago.
2. Because you wish to cling to a pointless affectation of usage that is without the support of any recognized authority of the last 200 years, even at the cost of composing sentences that are ambiguous, inelegant, and patently contorted.

etruscanshades

rapido wrote: »

The last posting about Westminster brings me to another amusing thing.

Spelling pronunciation of place names by non-locals, where the actual pronunciation is different.

Cirencester is pronounced /Siren-ster/ or /Siss-iss-ster/, or even /Siss-itt-ter/ (this last one is a bit rare these days). But in the past few years, I have increasingly heard /Siren-ses-ster/.

Ses-ster? Seriously? What the hell is that? Where does the extra syllable come from? "-cester" is always pronounced "ster". Or do they just think of "cess pit" when they think of anywhere outside the Home Counties?

It was always "Cister" in the olden days when I was alive.

Warwickshire always sounds quaint when Americans pronounce all the syllables.

And I remember a Jonny Morris anecdote where he was asked by a German the way to Wimble Eden (for the tennis)