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How can I say you're wrong Barretter, except that my completed grid seems to stand up in my own interpretation of the setter's logic. To me, the whole point of the puzzle was that sequences of letters which couldn't be pronounced as literals stayed as they were. So, for ASKEW, the AS stays as it is, but the KEW gets changed to Q. So whatever precedes 'es' in 47A is just what it is. Once you've converted 'ES' to 'S', you can't have it both ways, you've already used the 'E' : so the first letter of the answer represents a palatalization...

I suspect we have the same entries but the sound at the beginning of "gesticulated" can be approximated as "dzh" (there is a symbol for it in the phonetic alphabet but not on my laptop's keyboard) and it can be represented in English by "g" or "j" (and in French too). It is not palatalized.

It's not exactly the same in French but the G/J similarity still applies. I suppose the logic is: use the original word as far as you can but use sort of phonetic representations where you can't but don't worry about consistency.

You should make these points on the wikipedia page on 'G'...

Started with an mt grid, now dun. I should get my children to check it as this is the way they normally text. As for 47a, the title says literal spelling so, therefore, it should be a J. However 12a refutes this. Bit of an arsey problem. 39a too. I will probably put in both as I've had one incorrect this year so my 100% has already gone. Nice puzzle though, thanks Waterloo.

Surely the point is not how we pronounce the letters, but what the accepted names of the letters are. Luckily there are no Zed/zee moments. Literal - referring to the letters themselves - spelling.

3.55am. Head cold. Can someone parse 2 down for me as my answer matches the second word in the clue, which seems odd. Also could be all the clue after the - but I can't find that definition. Also wondering which words one should pronounce chure instead of ture. Must buy a Chambers......

Oh, I am in the g club for 47a for sure as it just remains unchanged, not sounding like a g or a j.

Re 2d: Swan refers to one of the Bard's theatres in Stratford.

Thanks but I'm none the wiser. I have nfred as the answer. Maybe that's wrong. I thought the swan could be pen, released could be freed, put them together and chop the head off to make that well known bird with a loudly vibrating tongue, the enfreed. Except I don't think that exists. I have even been to both the swan pub and the rsc, but the penny is not dropping here.

Oh, hang on. Are we saying enfreed is one of Wills words and we have

Hen or pen headless
F for loud
Reed for vibrating tongue

? That seems a lot harder than all the other clues!