Centinary Post

Well here we are at my 100th post, or rant as they are otherwise known. And my topic today is mispronunciation. I'm not sure if it is purely a Hull thing or if it goes on elsewhere, but it really annoys me when people throw extra vowels into words that don't need them. We have a seaside resort nearby, decayed and past it best, buit that is by the by. It is called Withernsea. With-ern-sea. Right? Easy enough. But Hull folk will insist on calling it Witherensea. We also have another seaside town called Hornsea. (Horn-see) Again easy enough, but outsiders corrupt it to Hornzee. Why? And then tonight listening to local radio I heard the sports announcer referring to a place called Wemberley. I'm not a footballist, so I'm not sure, but could he have meant Wembley? I know that is how it is chanted in football fanatics songs, but when it's spoken it's Wembley surely? Our languauge is being corrupted and influenced by outside sources, one being Australian soap operas, so that our youngsters are now speakng with the rising inflection of our antipodeian cousins, and it sounds like everything they say is a question. This coupled with the annoying trend when spoken to, to respond with "Who? Me?" even when it is obvious it is they who are being addressed causes stress, stress being the result of restraining the most natural disire to kick the living daylights out of someone who most obviously deserves it. Also annoying, and prevalent in out local press is the mistaken use of the word "of" instead of "have." As in, he must of deserved it. No, he must have deserved it. But then, the local rag, the Hull Daily Mail is hardly reknown for it's editorial content. Not only is the accuracy of much of what it reports in question, but the grammatical presentation leaves a lot to be desired. An example (Not a genuine one, but a paralell facsimile) would be their syntax in reporting the theft of a cycle. Their editorial would refer to the theft of a black mans bicycle. Which would cause me to wonder what colour the cycle was, and as to whether this was a racially motivated crime. Of what relevence is the owners ethnic origin I would muse. The confusion arises because they have incorerectly reported the facts, or badly chosen the grammatical layout of the sentence. If they had referred to the theft of a mans black cycle, then all becomes clear. Of course typos and errors will always slip in, and even in writing this blog I am as guilty as the rest on occasions, partly because I suffer mild dyslexia, often becasue I'm drunk, and in part because whilst drunk I spilled a bottle of sticky red wine over the keyboard andnow it doesn't always function properly, so I think I have typed something but haven't. But then, you don't pay to read this drivel. And you are not forced to listen to it on the wireless, or converse with me on a daily basis. Where as I am, at least if I want to hear the shipping forecast, see whats on TV and do my job of work. So let's all make an effort to improve standards, and remember the Queens English. Except of course she isn't, ultimatley she's German, and but for the want of a misplaced comma, that makes perfect sense.