ABOUT-WORDS-L Archives

From: Roger Hill <>
Subject: They don't talk like that anymore...
Date: Sat, 03 Aug 2002 13:18:38 -0500

An eccentric in a 1930s British movie spoke
with squashed vowels:
"...benkers" for "bankers".
[benk'z] [baenk'z]

Other characters' vowels were closer the 'straight' speech
of those times.

But if the antique "benkers" was a hold-over from C19, it
gives some idea of where the so-called flat vowels of the
southern hemisphere came from.

Roger

This thread:

• They don't talk like that anymore... by Roger Hill <>