Re: YAEPT:Re: Phonological musings (was: Announcement: New auxlang "Choton")

On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 22:19:33 +0100, Michael Poxon <m.poxon@...> wrote:

>It's true that "were" in most varieities of Modern English rhymes with "fur"
>but you only have to listen to some of those old BBC recordings from the
>fifties and before to hear how posh folks spoke. I have a video with some of
>the "Watch with Mother" episodes on, and in The Flowerpot Men the narrator
>says, in every episode "There they all were, lying quietly in the warm
>sunshine" with a definite ultra-RP /e/ as above! Bear in mind that the
>originals of LOTR appeared round about that time and bob's your uncle.
Additionally, I guess that at that time, this kind of RP was considered the
standard pronunciation of English.

I'd say that a truly modern redaction of the Lord of the Rings should point
out that the intended pronunciation of _were_ was rather the one heard in
_where_.

gry@s:
j. 'mach' wust

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