CNW400,
Believe it or not, there is a Standard American English which speech-language pathologists are taught in college in the US. The International Phonetic Alphabet was established in the late 1880s. It was first concerned with phonetics as applied to teaching English, but as more countries became involved, the alphabet became truly international and has survived to this day with very few changes.

As you know, the same letters can have entirely different sounds. For instance, the "c" in city makes the "s" sound and the "c" in cage makes the "k" sound. The IPA has a symbol for each sound in our language. Although we use only 26 letters in English, there are (dredging up very old memory) 44 symbols that represent the different sounds or phonemes in Am. English. The different dialects we hear are simply variations on a theme that have been established regionally. They occur because of changes in voice quality, vowel distortions or prolongations, omissions or additions of sounds, inflections, and the influences of other languages, among other things. The phonetic alphabet has modifying symbols to show these variations.

Oh, for pity's sake, I sound like one of my professors. Sorry! Class dismissed!

Jeremy Brett was also my favorite Sherlock Holmes. Holmes' speech should be that of an educated Victorian Londoner. Anything else would be jarring.

Lady K.

hër hër ... as they broadcast from the House of Commons.
(Apologies to LadyKestrel if my phonemes are a bit phony!

Has got to be a British well spoken London accent as this is how Conan Doyle wrote him. I agree that subtitles should be included.

By all means, give us those quaint British words like chips and trunk call and Wensleydale. Put as many in as many words as possible with letters that are never pronounced. There should be at least two characters whose names begin with double L. And somebody whose name begins with St. pronounced "sin".

a Llewellyn then?? The double ll is a Welsh spelling.. St.John as I recall is the only one which gives the 'sinjun' sound..

Tig

How about a puzzle with names such as Cholmondeley? Give points for those who can pronounce them <teehee>

OK, a real verbal conundrum.. say Slaithwaite properly!!

Tig

CHUM-LEE (CHUM as in "Dumb" ... or a more obvious one --- but may be considered a bit rude ).

And what about one of my favorite sauces ... WORCESTER !

St.John (Sinjun) - wasn't that Roger Moore's fake name in A View To A Kill?

British, of course. We're talking Sherlock Holmes.

You could have a spelling puzzle where you hear the word pronounced and then you have to guess the number of unpronounced letters in it.

Or you see the word and you have to type in the phonetic representation.

Let's see Tig -- how about Sletweh.

not a bad try Becky!!

Its actually pronounced Slawit

What is a Sletweh? As an Aussie, I would pronounce it slet-wear!

Isn't the English language amazing?

Hey Tig, three correct phonemes out of six ain't bad!

Rainbow -- I love the English language, particularly because I haven't any talent at learning other languages. I admire the multi-linguists on this board very much.

As for what a sletweh is. Hmmm. Let's see. Maybe that's the device Holmes uses to prop up his violin when he doesn't bother putting it back in it's case?

"Watson, do you mind bringing me my violin? It's in the sletweh by the fireplace."

British Gentleman would be my vote.

Karen

British, absolutely!