Is there a doctor in the hoose?

[peterbirks]

And so the forthcoming merger between the Russian National Team (bankroller, Roman Abramaovich) and Chelsea (bankroller, Roman Abramovich) looks to be coming a step closer with Gus Hiddink likely to manage both teams, at least until the end of the season. "Gus", as you may be aware, is pronounced "hoose" (or, more accurately, "hüs"). I hope that we don't get any pseudy football commentators trying to pretend they are intellectuals by pronouncing it this way. Gus is, apparently, quite happy with Gus.

Mr Young mentioned the "ironing" word. The Polish have trouble with this, feeling that it should be i-roning. And, as you may have noticed, quite a few Polish people in London are employed in the domestic cleaning sector, meaning that they do a lot of i-roning. As such, it has taken on a life of its own within the English-as-a-third-language Polish community.

I love language when it plays about like this. Indeed, I love the new "text" English, although I get annoyed when ambiguities are allowed to creep in. The important thing is to retain clarity, not to abide by artificial rules. The problem is that idiots often think that they have retained clarity, when they have not.

+++++++

I have a skip in the front garden. Truly I have entered the world of the middle-class gentrifiers! People will walk by and say "ahh, the house is being gutted. Area is on the up!" I can stroll out of the house and nod to neighbours saying "ah, yes, the skip. Just doing up the kitchen a bit, y'know".

The skip is the urban equivalent of the Land Rover, the horse and the Barbour jacket. Having one in thr front garden (preferably filled with your own stuff rather than other people's) marks you out as "just a cut above".

Well, probably not. But I'll admit to hints of that kind of feeling when I came home last night to discover that the builder had brought one in....

+++++++++++++

Comments

Text-speak

[geoffchall.livejournal.com]

It's not my metier so I'm afraid I text in full with (shockingly), punctuation. The full horror of the textspeak I see via my daughters is just so ugly. 'gr8 cya 2moz' might be quicker than "that's great, I will see you tomorrow', but regardless of clarity, it's aesthetically displeasing with its collision of numbers and letters. I'm afraid I have become an Old Git in this area, preaching about how language can and should be beautiful.

Some of the acronymns I can accept, imho, pov, but only within a community which appreciates such things as words in their own right. I wouldn't use lmfao to my white-haired Mum.

Nicki tells me that most European languages have their own text-speak abbreviations, French being pre-eminent. But it takes time - so a culture takes a while to adopt such things. So Albanian text-speak isn't that well-developed right now.

[jaybee66.livejournal.com]

I have a Blackberry specifically so I can type a proper SMS text in full English.

Has anyone else noticed that more and more people seem to be pronouncing "eveything" and "anything" etc. as "everythink" and "anythink", not forgetting "nuffink". Whilst watching television, a day does not pass without half a dozen "inks" from the "oiks".

I am at an Orwellian crossroads and won't be able to understand a word of New Speak in a few years time.

Standards

[(Anonymous)]

Frankly given the open season on the BBC I am mystified that there hasn't been a Daily Mail/Evening Standard/Mooing Majority outcry at the rapidly spreading pronunciation of "BBC" as bee-bur-see on the network. Even Harriet Cass does it FFS. It's a slippery slope.

[(Anonymous)]

And my favourite - SHtupid.

Titmus

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Heard this morning in Radio 4's Today programme, by presenter.

"XXX, author of "Wider Buses Come In Threes", joins us in the studio".


PJ