Something else that has irritated me for most of my life is the way that women who want to sound posh pronounce the word "book" almost the same as they'd pronounce the word "buck". I've never noticed men doing this.
Why do they do this? Why single out this particular word? They (usually) manage to pronounce "look" correctly, instead of saying "luck", after all.
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And another thing: why have Beeb people taken to pronouncing tourism as tore-ism? Usually you can trace mispronunciations to the influence of California, but I doubt whether that's the explanation here.
As a Northerner I would pronounce "buck" and "book" identically, likewise "luck" and "look".
Scousers tend to do the opposite, though, and say "bewk" for "book".
All part of life's rich tapestry, really.
D, being a Northerner, I have always struggled to pronounce "tour" and "tore" differently, so I can't say I'd noticed, or would mind if I did.
C, good point, but that's a perfectly acceptable regional variation and not in any way irritating. Perhaps that is part of the explanation - if Northerners pronounce "buck" as "book", then people who want to be posh go to the other extreme, but why just the word "book" and why just women?
Q: Why just women? A: Since time began the logical male has been confused by the illogicality of the female - Not so? Example: Bring them an unexpected present and they promptly burst into tears because they are so happy!
It's a good think fook is not a word.
FB... If you're posh you pronounce and spell it "phaque".
WfW, if a woman starts crying, it's because she's just lost an argument.
TFB, good point. If Her Indoors tells the kids to use their fork and knife at the dinner table, that's supposed to be acceptable, but if I tell one of them to use their f***ing knife, it's a different story.
There is a quite plausible (for a change) academic study, called the Norwich study (I think) which tested people's pronunciation when they were having tea and talking amongst themselves and when later they were formally interviewed .Women tended to claim not use local local accents even when they did: men claimed to use all kinds of local pronunciations even when they did n't.
Never noticed book/buck.Heard a Yorkshire woman complain at a coach station,that she'd lost her book when she meant a magazine.
That's how us Northerners talk and I'm no girl Mrs Wadsworth!
What's a book?
Professor Fuchs off to Antarctic.
A favourite of mine.
Fook me - as they say in 'North.
No probs Mark, it's made me giggle again. Ta very much lad.
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