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Well, Chrise, you've been mixing with anybody from upper (middle) class to aristocracy and even royalty. Prince Charles no doubt would call Highgrove 'quite a nice hice'.

I can't remember the exact words of Professor Higgins' song in 'My Fair Lady'. Something like 'The way an Englishman talks absolutely classifies him; the moment he speaks he makes some other Englishman despise him.'

I don't despise any accent unless it is 'put on'. Worst of all are people like Tony Blair and George Osborne who drop their t's for fear of sounding too posh.

You've put your finger on one of my pet hates, paulH - dropping the final consonant off words.

It sort of reminds me of the question "How many Ls are there in Millwall"?

Answer - none - the locals pronunce as MiWah

Hope you`re all staying safe and wearing your marrrrsk !

The only Marske I know relates to several place names in the North Riding.

Book and buck don't rhyme as far as I'm concerned. I don't mind people pronouncing buck as book but I don't like it when they pronounce book as buck. Look and luck are different too. The same goes for words like good and should.

I heard a programme on Radio 4 a few years ago about good books and it sounded as though they were talking about gad baks.

Hi Orson

What about wood and food?

I wonder if other languages have so many anomalies - probably not!

I was once ridiculed by an aquaintance for pronouncing "tooth" as "tuth" (as I do). I asked him if he pronounced "book" as "boo-k" rather than "buk".

Chrise

Yet we pronounce `truth` as `trooth` - it`s all weird but we all seem to think our version is the correct one!

too true, tyke!

PaulH@1911. I agree about posh people 'talking down' but many accents seem to be 'put on' to me. They seem like regional affectations. I have flattened vowels and say bath, castle and cubs in a particular way...as they are spelled, not baarth, caarssew and cabs. So Bath Buns often provokes hilarity in the estuary english. Similarly my Newcastle raised eyebrows among the Northern tribes who think it's Nucassl. If bath was baarth and Newcastle was either Noocarssul or Nucassl or Noocarsuw then the words would have been written like that. Don't get me started on Birmingham etc bloimey.

Hi granama1
I think the distinction in the pronunciation of Newcastle is mostly about where the stress is - those in the know stress the second syllable.