In a study by the British Library, interim results suggest a third of Britons taking part now adopt the American-style “skedule” over the traditional pronunciation, which has a softer “sh” sound.
Other US pronunciations taking root, according to researchers, are “pay-triotic”, in place of “pat-riotic”, and “advertISEment”, instead of “adVERTisement”.
Initial findings of the research have indicated that Britons are also creating a new way of saying controversy which hasn’t traditionally been used in Britain or the US. Three quarters of Britons taking part say “conTROversy”, with the emphasis on the middle syllable, rather than the previously conventional “CONtroversy”.
As well as "controversy" and "schedule", the other words being studied are:
- “garage”, which Britons are more likely to pronounce as “garridge”, over “garaarge”, which is universal in the US.
- “attitude”, where there is no sign of the British adopting the US “attitood” over “atti-chewed”.
– “neither” – despite the impression given in the George Gershwin song “Let’s call the whole thing off”, there is no clear divide between Britons and Americans, with “nee-ther” and “ny-ther” used on both sides of the Atlantic.
– “scone” – which Americans all rhyme with "bone", but which many British rhyme with “gone”. This is thought to be down to social and regional differences in the UK, which are still being analysed.
I could bang on about this for days but won't (see archives if you can be bothered) but suffice to say there are indeed two distinct languages (surely no one takes Australian seriously?) American English and British English. The latter is not only the original and best, it is quite simply far superior.
From TTel.
Initial findings of the research have indicated that Britons are also creating a new way of saying controversy which hasn’t traditionally been used in Britain or the US. Three quarters of Britons taking part say “conTROversy”, with the emphasis on the middle syllable, rather than the previously conventional “CONtroversy”.
As well as "controversy" and "schedule", the other words being studied are:
- “garage”, which Britons are more likely to pronounce as “garridge”, over “garaarge”, which is universal in the US.
- “attitude”, where there is no sign of the British adopting the US “attitood” over “atti-chewed”.
– “neither” – despite the impression given in the George Gershwin song “Let’s call the whole thing off”, there is no clear divide between Britons and Americans, with “nee-ther” and “ny-ther” used on both sides of the Atlantic.
– “scone” – which Americans all rhyme with "bone", but which many British rhyme with “gone”. This is thought to be down to social and regional differences in the UK, which are still being analysed.
I could bang on about this for days but won't (see archives if you can be bothered) but suffice to say there are indeed two distinct languages (surely no one takes Australian seriously?) American English and British English. The latter is not only the original and best, it is quite simply far superior.
From TTel.
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