When and why did Boadicea become Boudicca? I find this rewriting of historical names most irritating. "Boadicea" is what the Romans called her. "Boudicca" is thought by scholars to be closer to what she called herself. I

The only pronunciation I've ever heard for Bodega Bay, California, is "bo DAY ga", though sometimes the first vowel drops out completely. This is also how Paul Simon sings it in "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes", which

No; Boo-deeger, like bodega, only not. No, not at all: bodega is surely bod-ayger. The only pronunciation I've ever heard for Bodega Bay, California, is "bo DAY ga", though sometimes the first vowel drops out completely. Michael West

I started a new thread, because my question is not quite the same as what is under discussion in the ... a sound that, to us non-Americans, seems closer to 'a', so I started thinking about the letters 'a, o, u'. It's been

(snip) I see it as a pronunciation spelling for those who pronounce the word as (drO:) and that includes rhotic AmE speakers in my experience (it may be a Midland phenomenon). MWCD11 includes (drO) as a dialectal pronunciation of

I have no luck in vowel discussions. All I can ... put in such a word. I'd call theirs a diphthong, Chances are yours is also a diphthong, though it may be a different diphthong from that which most BrE speakers ... seems to me to be

A spelling tip: words like table and noble have what the Americans call a long vowel (tay, noh). Isn't it diphtongs? Spelling tip number two... Diphthongs has more Hs than you'd expect. Maybe you could visualize some "different

"father" vowel) I remember going, when I liked organized religion, to the C of E St Barnabas in Oxford just for the smell and the routines! I remember talking to the Catholic priest in Dulverton, Devon, way back when, and him saying what

Depends on how many people from Plaistow went on the grand tour. Didn'tlook like many last time I saw it, but that may have changed now. I'm not convinced, Steve: Italian has 'Messa', Spanish 'Misa', German ... one could

High Church Anglicans sometimes used to say "Cahth-lick" (the "father" vowel) But some of them used to say "plahstic" too. And I have heard some Catholics talk of going to "Mahss". Me, too; I've always