Your Letters
18:06 UK time, Tuesday, 3 October 2006
After yesterday's "acronym watch" about Pamela, I note that while the Conservatives have poked much fun at the Tony Blair's cosy relationship with the president of the US, the party's urbane new leader is credited with bringing the GWB fruit smoothie bar to this year's conference. GWB? General Well Being, we're told. So nothing then to do with George Walker Bush.
Derek St John, Epsom
Title watch: While Pamela has two identities in two ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ News articles, Kenneth Stevenson has three in only one article. In he is referred to as; the Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop Stevenson and Dr Stevenson.
DS, Bromley, England
I must disagree with Ed S of London, about the pronunciation of "ny" in manual Thanks to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Pronunciation Unit I can now pronounce "Ferenc Gyurcsány" perfectly. My Hungarian friends are very impressed. Oddly, though, nobody now understands me when I try to say "manual", which is a bit of a nuisance as I'm a car salesman.
David Dee, Maputo Mozambique
Ed, it's very easy. Say 'manual', go on. Does not your tongue naturally curve to the 'y' place in your mouth? It's what's called a palatal approximant, and in some languages (Spanish for example) there would be a curvy line called a tilde over an 'n' to indicate this sound, as in mañana ('manyana', not to rhyme with banana). I could go on...
Carol, Portugal
Re Grammarian's "One in eight schoolchildren HAS..." comment. Unless there are only eight children in primary schools in England then it's clear that we're talking about multiple children having English as a second language, hence 'HAVE'. Once again, if you're going to be pedantic, it helps to be right.
Chris, Paris, France
Re Ubuntu (10 things): "I am because you are". Is that the same philosophy children use, only that's normally called "But (s)he started it"?
Ed, Clacton, UK
Is there a flexicon term for Katie Melua singing "We’re high on the wire" (Nine Million Bikes) while at the ? The Goons would have been proud of the girl...
Jel, Swansea
On reflection, perhaps it would be better if we didn't see Keith from Guildford's letter on both Friday and Monday?
Paul Greggor, London
Re: - so it's okay for the journalist to actually call George Osborne "faintly autistic", but not for George to deflect this by mentioning Gordon Brown - he never even mentions autism. Am I missing something?
Richard Peers, Croydon, Surrey
Hypothetically speaking, if I do not apply for a job because I consider myself too old, under the new legislation, am I guilty of discrimination due to ageism?
Nenya, Brighton
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