HUM: English is TOUGH stuff!

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

At 11:37 23/01/97 -0500, you wrote:
>>From Basileios D:
>> > Rounded, wounded, grieve and sleeve, 
>> > Friend and fiend, alive and live.
>> 
>> 
>> i always thought that sleeve doesnt rhyme with live...
>> 
>> but then again i am not a native english speaker
>
>I think your right,  Basileios. Which reminds me of something in
>the current GR episodes.
>
>"Turn off that faucet, Dorset" (p.124)
>
>Is "faucet" pronounced FOR-set?  (as indeed it CAN be some places in the U.S.)
>
>Or is "Dorset" pronounced DAW-set? (what about that big hotel near the Marble
>Arch?)
>
>Are there even more possibilities?
>
>British reply requested.
>
>
>				P.
>
>
>I can only offer pronunciation for South-East England of
the middle class variety, so this only applies to about 13
 million persons, about 22.5% of GB's population. 

1) Faucet would be faw-set, except tap is more commonly used.

2) Dorset would be Door-sit, except older residents would
retain the slight regional "Wessex" pronounciation associated
with Hardy novels, rending -"sit" more like "-set", and extending
the "oo" or "aw" sound. My grand-uncle Sid lives in Dorset, 
but he spent his childhood in Hackney and his prime in
Beverly Hills, so he doesn't count as much of a Wessex man.

Although British people seem to be sounding more 
alike, it is still possible to hear real and distinct regional
distinctions and variations by traveling only about ten miles
or so, again especially among the poor and the old. So it
may possible to hear different versions of the sound of 
the word even within the county itself.  
 
>
>
Eric Alan Weinstein
Centre For English Studies
University Of London
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk