Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 23:15:53 EST

From: Bapopik Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Queen's English



I got on a plane to Toronto, bought a Toronto Star at the airport, and

flew back just to post this item!! It's from the Toronto Star, 30 December

1997, editorials, pg. A18, col. 1:



Queen's English



The Royals have always had a tendency to torture the English language.

Queen Elizabeth has a fondness for strange declarations, like: _Set the tay

dane, m'deah_, when she requires a cuppa. But Prince Charles, the future King

of Canada, appears to be an even bigger fan of the linguistic rack. Or so the

venerable Sunday Times (London? Anyone see the article?--ed.) reports.

Charles not only pronounces _off_ as _orf_, and _horse_ as _'orse_, but

drops the "g" in words like _mornin'_, mangles _mouse_ so that it becomes

_mace_, twists _man_ into _mayn_, and may even be starting to swallow the "t"

in words like _foo-ball_.

We can just imagine Chuck at the next Canadian affair of state, belting

out a special regal rendition of the national anthem.

_O Caynada, are 'ame an na-ive laynd_

_True pa-riot luv, in awl thy sons commaynd!_

God help us when he gets to the French bits.



(POSTING NOTE: If we actually had an AMERICAN POPULAR SPEECH ONLINE, this

would be reprinted in the "news" section. When I suggested regular "regional"

columns, I meant Canada, England, and Australia as well as the U.S. If those

societies are also interested in the project, the title can easily be changed

to ENGLISH ONLINE--or something similar--and we'd have even more "hits.")