On Mar 3, 4:40*pm, Taylor Kingston
wrote:
On Mar 3, 6:48*am, Offramp wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNS9Pz3VTIA
He believes that the words threat and three begin in the letter f.
How can an intelligent man who has obviously been right through the
education system end up talking like a Tooting cauliflower salesman
who has farted in his space suit and crashed his gyrocopter?

* Yes, he definitely tends to pronounce "th" like "f' — another
example I heard on the video was "fought" for "thought." Is this just
some regional English oddity, rather than defect in his speech or
education? After all, in various parts of England one may hear "Oy"
for "I," "air" for "hair," "in'it" for "isn't it," "flares" for
"flowers" etc. In certain parts of the USA you'll hear "yall" for "you
all," "heah" for "here," and "ahmunna" or "ahmo" for "I'm going to."


That's because what became Standard Received English was a late 14th
century amalgam of Eastern London region dialect (Essex? Wessex? I
forget now) and Manchester english from the north, which oddly enough
became adopted by the south as more of the northerners moved into
London up to and including the reign of Henry the 8th. English also
lost its case endings and pronouns/ gender at that time.

RL