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Post by Verbivore on Sept 15, 2022 22:45:37 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 16, 2022 0:00:01 GMT
Thank you, Vv. An interesting article which I will read again when I have more leisure. Some preliminary thoughts, however.
I imagine that many of the Queen speeches, particularly the Christmas Day speech, were probably rehearsed and may not have been entirely her own writing. Most public figures have speech writers if only because of limited available time. It would be interesting to understand how that might have affected her accent. Incidentally, I don’t think the Christmas Day speeches were delivered live on Christmas day but had been recorded a few days earlier. More generally, I think one’s accent may change as one ages because in earlier days one might be striving to impress more than in later life when we have matured and are more confident of ourselves, so reverting to our more natural style.
An interesting article which deserves a more academic presentation.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 17, 2022 1:17:51 GMT
I'd almost given up posting "grammar nazi" comments on poorly written / spelled news items, but this one had two errata that I felt compelled to point out to Aunty ABC. Re the article Snow in the NT? 17/09/2022: "… thousands of dollars' worth of exposed bails" – Bails are sheds where cows are milked. Cotton is packed into BALES. "The cash is essentially the bowl and the seed …" The fluffy head of cotton is a BOLL, not a bowl. No, the sky's unlikely to fall, but …
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 17, 2022 23:52:48 GMT
The sky may not fall, Vv, but it looks as if your “Aunty ABC” does take note because it appears that the article has been corrected.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 18, 2022 1:06:03 GMT
The sky may not fall, Vv, but it looks as if your “Aunty ABC” does take note because it appears that the article has been corrected. Well, I can't say that little win made my day (I have bigger fish to fry), but it's encouraging to know that someone, occasionally, gives a damn. The ABC's language consultant – an old acquaintance of mine, with whom I've had many an argument – remains stubbornly on the side of "it will do if it's understood; pedantry is pointless". Trouble is, some typos do negatively affect ( not impact!) a story and mislead readers. One that comes to mind was published a few years ago (but details are long since lost to my records): an article described an aspiring politician as liberal, whereas he was running for office under the Liberal Party banner. The Liberal Party is our major conservative party, far from small-l liberal. It's the left-of-centre parties in AU that are 'liberal'. PS: Why was a conservative political party named Liberal? Because it had a policy whereby it wasn't mandatory for members (particularly elected representatives or senators) to always toe the party line on an issue: there was a degree of liberality there. OTOH, other major parties here (e.g. Labor – yes, with that foreign spelling! – which is left of the Liberal and National parties) are more doctrinaire and usually require party-line toeing, so are less 'liberal'. Thanks for the notice of change! :-)
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 18, 2022 1:30:27 GMT
Encourage by my last little 'win', I've again contacted the ABC about the misuse of a word: epicentre. I know that popular (mis)usage extends the meaning of epicentre to realms beyond shaking ground, but this was an example of outright and undebatable error. Let's see if this gets a response: Dear Aunty ABC:
In the ABC News Online article Melbourne shaken by magnitude-2.4 earthquake in Port Phillip Bay (18 Sept '22), the closing sentence contains a error of fact and vocabulary:
"The epicentre of the earthquake occurred at a depth of about 6 kilometres".
No, no, and triple No!
The epicentre of a quake is the place AT GROUND LEVEL immediately above the centre of the quake.
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Post by Twoddle on Sept 18, 2022 9:25:56 GMT
More power to your elbow, Verbivore! "Epicentre" is one of my bêtes noires, and especially so since the commencement of the Covid pandemic when every new outbreak of the disease has started at an "epicentre", according to news reporters. However, your example's the first time I've seen the word used in relation to an earthquake but in the wrong location.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 19, 2022 8:59:16 GMT
It seems I missed out this time Twod: the sentence has not been emended. Win some, lose some, I suppose.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 19, 2022 9:33:02 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Sept 20, 2022 18:57:45 GMT
I am afraid that the battle over the use of the word “epicentre“ has long been lost. I think we have to try to pretend that it is a metaphor when used to describe the centre of an outbreak of Covid. Like Twoddle. I don’t think I have ever heard it used wrongly in the context of geological phenomena. Have I previously asked anyone to explain why Covid requires a capital letter whereas influenza, diphtheria, malaria and so on do not? In passing, my voice recognition software was very unhappy with the word diphtheria. Obviously the medical world progresses if such a once common illness is no longer recognised in the modern world.
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 20, 2022 20:55:00 GMT
I am afraid that the battle over the use of the word “epicentre“ has long been lost. I think we have to try to pretend that it is a metaphor when used to describe the centre of an outbreak of Covid. Like Twoddle. I don’t think I have ever heard it used wrongly in the context of geological phenomena. Have I previously asked anyone to explain why Covid requires a capital letter whereas influenza, diphtheria, malaria and so on do not? In passing, my voice recognition software was very unhappy with the word diphtheria. Obviously the medical world progresses if such a once common illness is no longer recognised in the modern world. 1. Epicentre: the battle may be lost, but some warriors keep fighting long after a war has ended – if for no other reason than something to be grumpy about (yours truly). However, when it's misused so egregiously as in that news article, one must continue to bitch. 2. COVID: I think that's become a matter of house style manuals. In Oz, it's mostly given an initial capital or full caps – in AU we tend to fully capitalise acronyms and initialisms, rarely no caps. The Guardian, however, has a style of initial cap only on those items, and to me that looks weird (e.g. Aids rather than AIDS). 3. Diphtheria: Do Brits generally pronounce the ph as f or p? Most Aussies that I hear speaking that word (and ophthalmologist) opt for diPtheria and oPthalmologist. Perhaps those sound combinations are difficult for some – probably the same 'some' who don't / won't / can't correctly pronounce vulnerable (vu'n'rable)?
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 20, 2022 23:08:54 GMT
Are you saying, Vv, that the correct pronunciation is vu’n’rable?
If so, I am one of those who don’t accept it!
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 21, 2022 2:10:33 GMT
Are you saying, Vv, that the correct pronunciation is vu’n’rable? If so, I am one of those who don’t accept it! Quite the opposite, Dave; just my observation that many folk, at least in AU – including the educated – say vu’n’rable. Some claim that the sound combination l + n is difficult or 'impossible' for them to say.
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Post by Dave Miller on Sept 21, 2022 2:40:42 GMT
Goodness. How do they manage ulna, fullness, dullness, bullnose, all-night, will never and so on?
In passing, I’ll mention one of my favourite queries (which I will surely have mentioned here before): if so many people are vulnerable, why do we never hear of one actually being vulnered?
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Post by Verbivore on Sept 21, 2022 3:51:18 GMT
Goodness. How do they manage ulna, fullness, dullness, bullnose, all-night, will never and so on? In passing, I’ll mention one of my favourite queries (which I will surely have mentioned here before): if so many people are vulnerable, why do we never hear of one actually being vulnered? Ha! Thanks, Dave. Next time someone tells me that they can't correctly pronounce vulnerable I'll challenge them with those examples of yours. Perhaps such an act might be one of vulnering?
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