Saturday 5 May 2012

Epenthesis or eltse syndrome

A couple of proper linguists have told me that what I've noticed with else is quite common really: apparently we say fentce and dantce much of the time. We put an extra sound in to make articulation easier. Yes, well, I knew that really and about assimilation, where we say things like telephome bill - but not many people notice or would believe you. What I was asking was is (see what I did there?) it getting more frequent with the commonly used word "else"?

Friday 4 May 2012

Pre-warned is fore-armed

My informant in the real world of work has now suggested that pre-warned is no more tautologous than forewarned, which is of some antiquity and unquestioned. But if we've already got the word isn't it funny how another comes into use?

Are you standing for Mayor - I said May-yor?

Mayoral elections in London. In the US, or at least online, there's some controversy about whether it should be may-yor or rhyming with mare. You can appreciate that if you were to use the second pronunciation in, say Texas, it could be quite embarrassing. Over here, except in country areas (Gloucestershire, comes to mind for some reason), you wouldn't think it would be a problem. So you wouldn't expect the May-yor pronunciation to catch on so fast. It seems that it has, though.