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Wikimedia Commons: booklet from the
University of Reading |
Sometimes the Atlantic Ocean can be such a nuisance. If only we could take a quick T ride across the pond to check out the British Library exhibit,
Evolving English: One Language, Many Voices, we could witness the origins of the English language as they are represented in texts such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dialect recordings, and even "The Riot Act." Dr. K pointed this out to me, and in checking our the exhibition, I also discovered the site's
blog, which is definitely worth checking out. Apparently, they have been posting the results of an ongoing
"Map Your Voice" project, which encourages readers to record their voices onto a worldwide and interactive map of English. A recent blog post lists a number of interesting pronunciation of words that differ from those recorded in the OED such as "controversy," "garage," "neither," "scone" (I've always wondered about this one!), "schedule," and "attitude." "Schedule" is one of those words that I've always thought offered a clear distinction between U.S. (skedule) and U.K. (shedule) English, but apparently the U.S. pronunciation is beginning to gain some ground on the U.K. one. Here's the explanation the blog offers:
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The OED distinguishes between 'shed' as a British English pronunciation and 'sked' as American English. Not surprisingly, then, all the North American voices use 'sked'. However, 25 out of 60 British and Irish speakers agree, while 35 out of 60 prefer 'shed'. We might, therefore, interpret this as evidence of recent influence from US English, but there could be other factors, e.g. the subconscious spelling association with similar words likescheme, school etc. which are clearly 'sk' for all speakers. It’s certainly plausible to imagine that schedule is first encountered in its written form rather than as a spoken form (I don’t imagine it’s a very high frequency word for young children), but perhaps there is indeed American influence at play, too."
Do we Americans have to take over everything, even people's schedules? I would encourage all of us to check this out and contribute if we have a moment.
A very interesting observation, especially as I have a few relatives across the pond who are very attached to their "shed" pronunciation. I have not registered for the "Map Your Voice" program yet, but I'm curious as to whether they collect any data about the participants that might shed some light on the cause of the frequency of "sked" among British english speakers. For example, if they have seen an increase in the frequency of uses since the project began or if their is a correlation between the age of the participants and their preferred pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteGreat questions, Lauren. I must admit I've not signed up yet either, but it appears that we must do so before it ends on April 3rd. They seem to be most interested in where the participants come from, but your point about age is an interesting one. Even if children first encounter "schedule" as a written word, as the blogger suggests, isn't it often in school with their teachers? And if it is an "age thing" then I would guess the children would follow their teachers' pronunciations, which would lead them to believe that "shed" is correct. If that is the case, it would seem that the American influence may be the more convincing factor. Or maybe I'm just giving teachers authority they don't really have!
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