And where is that?
I'm grateful to the colleague who yesterday drew my attention to the official Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú guide to pronunciation. It's part of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's labyrinthine internal website and I had never known that just by typing in "Launceston," for exampe, I could hear a speak-your-weight machine telling me the correct way to say it when reading the news (my query had been prompted by a newsroom discussion over Kabul. Is it Ka-bull, or Kar-bull? The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú says it's Kar-bull.)
The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's recommended pronunciation of Launceston is "Lawn-sun" which came as something of a surprise because I've always called it "Lawn-stun" although I know many locals who call it "Lan-sun."
I once followed the Mayor of Launceston to Launceston in Tasmania for a story about local car parking (regional media had bigger budgets in those days) and was amused to discover that our cousins Down Under call it something else - "Lawn-cess-ton." I wonder if Cornish settlements around the world actually now have more authentic pronunciation of our towns and villages than we do?
I now look forward to hours of harmless fun typing in words to the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's pronunciation guide. Suggestions please.
I'm Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio Devon’s Graham Smith, blogging on news, views and some fresh insights into West Country life, particularly the way government works locally and nationally.
Comment number 1.
At 13th Oct 2010, Peter Tregantle wrote:The media invests more time in not trying to offend people creating a society seeking offence at every turn, add to this the freaks on social network sites trying to run the world from their bedrooms giving us a Molotov cocktail just waiting to explode
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Comment number 2.
At 13th Oct 2010, P_Trembath wrote:Any chance of that guide being made available to all?
I'm sure we could all do with a laugh.
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