the ongoing English usage

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Goddlefrood" <gav_fiji at ...> wrote:

Goddlefrood:
 
> OK, cast your mind back (and I appreciate it needs casting further 
> back than many ;-)) 

Geoff:
Oi, watch it. Or you might meet a (virtual) bunch of fives.....


Goddlefrood:
> to how you pronounced the sounds of letters 
> when learning the alphabet. The sound of e is very different from 
> the sound of u, which again is different from the sound of o. I 
> stand by shuh for shire, which is exactly how it sounds to me and 
> the denizens of Cheshire, which accent I retain, albeit adjusted 
> so that Fijians can understand me.
> 
> Are you really trying to say that you pronounce shove as shuve?
 
Geoff:
I would write it fanatically - er phonetically - as shuv. That ought to 
make it clearer I hope.
 
Goddlefrood:
 > A brief look at the Godlefrood biography would show a wide, 
> possibly even wider variety of domiciles with England. Briefly:
> 
> Bristol - until age 8
> Cheshire - sporadically until 28
> Shropshire - at school
> Oxford - ditto
> London - University and after
> 
> Relatives on father's and mother's sides all from Yorkshire and 
> Northumberland. 
> 
> IOW, I've heard just about every accent you might care to think 
> of, and I have to say that sheh is not how I pronounce it, nor is 
> it how people I've heard pronounce it, excepting the south and 
> Liverpool. Your position remains unchanged and I'm not for turning 
> it, but you fully appreciate with your wide experience that there 
> are differing pronunciations throughout the benighted isles, so 
> here I am stating how I pronounce shire and I leave you to say 
> it how you will. Somerset dropped it years ago, I understand,
> possibly due to phonetics being argued in the Saracen's head or
> whereever back in the day.

Geoff:
Well, zur, us be zenzible down yur. It be all the coider we as to drink.
:-)

Seriously, I take your point about a Cheshire accent. Another thing I 
notice about Cheshire - and possibly Derbyshire accents is the strong 
emphasis on a final "g" in a word like "walking".

As I said before, it's also very difficult to bring home nuances of 
pronunciation with ordinary letters. Look at the fun we had with 
Sirius/Serious not so long ago.