BBC English? Oh dear, haha!

The beginning of the end of BBC English was when they employed a northerner to read the news during WW2.

It’s all BBC Regional Accents now.

“Gowl force winds” and “Network Rowl” … what’s that, Cornish?

1 Like

Oh I love regional accents. I actually used to hate the idea that people should all speak like the Queen. Our country is rich in regional accents and dialects, which should be heard, especially in the regional TV areas, for heaven’s sake! It was totally unrealistic for children, e.g. in Bradford or Newcastle to have RP forced down their throats, when they’re still learning to talk. How confusing must that have been?

I’m not sure where gowl force winds and Network Rowl come from - estuary English maybe? Or probably just ‘lazyish’ - I don’t think it’s actually an accent at all :lol:

Having recently ploughed my way through George Eliot’s Middlemarch, thank God we don’t speak like that anymore!!!

2 Likes

Haha, yes I had a similar reaction when I re-read Wuthering Heights a few years ago. Funnily enough, I don’t recall having that response when I first read it in my teens! Though I have to say, I do really enjoy reading books from that era - the speech is measured and calming, almost poetic compared to the frenzied dialogue of some more modern books.

Yes, I have seen a plethora of them. I’m not immune from them myself but that’s usually typographical errors. A tale I have told before:

I was preparing a quotation for a water company. I was using Microsoft Word but it is not exactly fail safe. I had intended to type “Borehole Pumpset”. Instead it replaced it with “Brothel Dumpsite” !

I was seriously tempted to leave it…

5 Likes

Haha, Besoeker, that really is hilarious! It reminds me of many a typo I’ve made in my career in office work. The letter that was to go out with a wine merchant’s mailshot, which read: “Thank you for your interest in our advertisement in the pubic press”. Then there was the students’ union campaign against paying full fees; we prepared a standard letter which could be handed out to students, who could then sign it and deliver it to the Vice Chancellor’s office. It was SO vital that it contained no errors whatsoever, and I carefully read it and re-read it several times before committing it to the duplicator. Only after 200 copies had come off the printer, with several already handed out, was it spotted that the salutation read, not ‘Dear Dr xyz’, but ’ Dead Dr xyz’ :see_no_evil: :see_no_evil: :see_no_evil:

1 Like

I suppose that as they didn’t have distractions such as TV and Radio, they had nothing else to do other than construct devilishly long and convoluted sentences to waste a few more minutes between waking up and going back to bed!!

:043: :043: :043:

Aw, don’t feel like that . Like everyone’s said, nobody reads to pick you up, and I’ve never seen anything wrong in your posts anyway, you’d need a magnifying glass :smiley:

3 Likes

Yes and I do know what you mean, some things just get on your nerves

Lisa Mandy’s slight lisp drives me nuts. How mean of me is that?

She can’t help it and it doesn’t alter the content of what she’s saying. It’s cruel but I can’t help it

1 Like

I was using google translate for an important letter to our New Bank and had reason to tell them about the Fraud we had suffered…I said in so many words that we were really fed up with it… wish I could remember exactly how I worded it because it translated and then I checked back in English and the fed up had changed to Psed off…
I had learnt this before with a document and so I always when sending out official mail check it out…Was a shock and funny at the same time…

3 Likes

Equus was my handle on CB radio. The truckers etc couldn’t understand it so used to call me Egg whisk. :grinning:

Never watched the film, the clip I saw of Daniel Radcliffe in the stage show put me off it.

2 Likes

If we are giving our pet hates, may I also add the misuse of ‘his’ and ‘he’s’.

2 Likes

I have a struggle to sometimes, I must have a word blindness to now and know and new and knew.
The number of times I mix these up is ridiculous. The harder I try to think about it the worse it gets. :joy:

5 Likes

No one speaks the Queens English ,even the Queen doesn’t speak like the Queen any more .

2 Likes

Crumbs I should of had you as my English teacher … I’m not too good at grammar.

Some little piglets are just unteachable. x

1 Like

I know its pernickity of me, but I do get distracted when I see misuse of written spellings and/or grammar. I would never be so unkind as to point it out to anyone, but if its done by a journalist who is paid to know the correct usage and spelling, I get a bit annoyed.
In speech, I don’t even notice it.

2 Likes

Again, another tale I have I have posted before.

I was in the first year of secondary school. .I was aged eleven at the time. Each week we had to write an essay for homework and hand it in on Monday morning for marking by the teacher. My first essay had four spellings wrong. I got the belt (strap) for that. Once. That’s all it needed. Nowadays, such corporal punishment would not be permitted.

3 Likes

See, a lot of these types of errors don’t really bother me on social media, because I honestly think they’re mainly down to that very annoying tool called ‘autocorrect’. I mean, how many times have you typed in well, only to have it ‘corrected’ to we’ll? Or were ‘corrected’ to we’re? When my phone does that, it really drives me nuts, and if I notice it I change it, but I think a lot of people just miss the correction and it gets left in.

2 Likes