Father Ignatius    647003 Mon, 22 Oct 07 05:39 PM "To my ears, 'gone' has a longer vowel sound than ... to rhyme with 'stone'. I've never heard it pronounced scoon." "I seem to remember that "scoon" is the proper pronunciation of the Scottish place-name "Scone". The bun is "scon" for me now, but the "stone" version was what I heard as a child." From some time in the 1950s: How to Get On in Society John Betjeman Phone for the fish-knives, Norman As Cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. Are the requisites all in the toilet? The frills round the cutlets can wait Till the girl has replenished the cruets And switched on the logs in the grate. It's ever so close in the lounge, dear, But the vestibule's comfy for tea And Howard is out riding on horseback So do come and take some with me. Now here is a fork for your pastries And do use the couch for your feet; I know what I wanted to ask you Is trifle sufficient for sweet? Milk and then just as it comes dear? I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones; Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys With afternoon tea-cakes and scones. Father Ignatius Pronunciation, Vowels, Speaking

	John Briggs    647012 Mon, 22 Oct 07 07:56 PM "No, "twitchell" is there, "twitten" is not. I know both, since my father came from the twitchell-speaking part of England. ... were brought up in a house which had a twitten/twitchell close by, so it was a term in common use." There is a famous booklet on the snickelways of York - snickelway being a portmanteau word for snicket, ginnel and alleyway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickelways of York John Briggs John Briggs Speaking, Chat, Friendships, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain

	Frances Kemmish    647016 Mon, 22 Oct 07 09:29 PM "Dear linguists and other lovers of the English language: My new online survey of world English varieties is now available online at http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/survey/." "In was prepared to participate in this test but was unable to do so because of a major fault with ... can see they are rare to non-existent in the West Indies, another area where native English speakers are not unknown." I didn't participate in the survey as I was not able to enter some of the mandatory information. The opening form has a check box for "My parents are native speakers of English" but doesn't allow for my situation: my father was a native speaker, but my mother was not. Fran Frances Kemmish Mistakes, Online, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Languages

	Ildhund    647030 Mon, 22 Oct 07 09:46 PM "I didn't participate in the survey as I was not able to enter some of the mandatory information." My initial attempt was rejected because I had failed to submit an answer to Q15 ('blah'). None of the preprogrammed responses applied, as I wrote in a comment. Noel Ildhund

	Ildhund    647033 Mon, 22 Oct 07 09:51 PM ""Does your pronunciation of 'scone' (a variety of bun) rhyme with 'gone' or 'stone' or 'boon'?"" "To my ears, 'gone' has a longer vowel sound than the similar pronunciation of 'scone', which I would liken more to 'con'." As in "'E been 'n' gawn 'n' dunnit"? Sorry, bad choice of possible rhyme on my part. Noel Ildhund Pronunciation, Vowels, Speaking, Apologies

	Ildhund    647042 Mon, 22 Oct 07 09:56 PM "How to Get On in Society John Betjeman Phone for the fish-knives, Norman As Cook is a little unnerved; You ... comes dear? I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones; Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys With afternoon tea-cakes and scones." Ah, yes, I remember it well. This sounds just like my mother, who even looked like Hyacinth Bucket. Noel Ildhund

	Einde O'Callaghan    647045 Mon, 22 Oct 07 10:24 PM Tony Mountifield schrieb: ""Does your pronunciation of 'scone' (a variety of bun) rhyme with 'gone' or 'stone' or 'boon'?"" "To my ears, 'gone' has a longer vowel sound than the similar pronunciation of 'scone', which I would liken more to 'con'. Having said that, I say 'scone' to rhyme with 'stone'. I've never heard it pronounced scoon." I always thought this was only the pronunciation of the stone under the coronation chair/throne. Regards, Einde O'Callaghan Einde O'Callaghan Regards, Pronunciation, Vowels, Speaking

	Martin Crossley    647056 Mon, 22 Oct 07 10:46 PM "I didn't participate in the survey as I was not able to enter some of the mandatory information." "My initial attempt was rejected because I had failed to submit an answer to Q15 ('blah'). None of the preprogrammed responses applied, as I wrote in a comment." Same problem with Q15 for me. Also couldn't set country to England and State to United Kingdom, only vice versa! Martin Crossley Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain

	Odysseus    647116 Tue, 23 Oct 07 10:30 AM "Dear linguists and other lovers of the English language: My new online survey of world English varieties is now available online at http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/survey/." "Does anyone call a traffic circle a jug handle? Even though both are common in New Jersey, they're very different." I had the same thought (mutatis mutandis) about "cloverleaf" on that question. I'd never seen "jug handle" in such a context before, though: is that something like one quarter of a cloverleaf? Odysseus Odysseus Context, Online, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, United States, Languages