Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. This website says It's the result of the same process that is, erroneous pronunciation whereby "learn" becomes "larn" in some very nonstandard American dialects.
Wells, Accents of English So a more general sound change that took "er" to "ar" was present in some lower-class British accents when Henry Fielding wrote Tom Jones ca. The pronunciation now persists in only a handful of words: Berkeley, clerk, derby, Hertfordshire, sergeant, varsity.
Improve this answer. Peter Shor Peter Shor The rest is certainly fascinating. I've never heard sergeant with "er" rather than "ar", either. I assume this pronunciation died out somewhere between and now. This is a very interesting piece which you provide. However it seems paradoxical that in Britain today, the literal pronunciation i. Der-bee, rather than Dar-bee and similarly with the other words is retained as part of unsophisticated regional speech - whilst the more elite pronunciation is the less literal.
If that be the case the position over a century has turned full circle. It is the first time I have ever heard this, and it seems quite astonishing if it is true. Another explanation I have heard for some eccentric pronunciations, and odd-sounding exclamations of the British elite class is that they were originally deliberate impersonations of George I who spoke little English by sycophants.
Expressions such as "What ho" and "Hey what" are included. WS Gilbert puts some "ar" pronunciations in the mouth of the sailor Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore I've never been sure whether this was supposed to represent his Cornish upbringing, or his ten years at sea. John Walker - has the following remark in his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary London, : There is a remarkable exception to the common sound of this letter [e] in the words clerk , serjeant , and a few others, where we find the e pronounced like the a in dark and margin.
But this exception was, I imagine, till within these few years, the general rule of sounding this letter before r , followed by another consonant. Thirty years ago everyone pronounced the first syllable of merchant like the monosyllable march , and as it was anciently written marchant.
Service and servant are still heard among the lower order of speakers, as if written sarvice and sarvant : and even among the better sort, we sometimes hear, Sir, your sarvant ; though this pronunciation of the word singly would be looked upon as a mark of the lowest vulgarity.
The proper names Derby and Berkeley still retain the old sound as if written Darby and Barkeley : but even these, in polite usage, are getting into the common sound, nearly as if written Durby and Burkeley. As this modern pronunciation of the e has a tendency to simplify the language by lessening the number of exceptions, it ought certainly to be indulged. In the eighteenth century the novelist Fielding put the pronunication 'sarvis, sartain, parson' into the speech or writing of characters we are intended to consider vulgar.
The last-mentioned form, though obsolescent or obsolete now in the sense 'person', has nevertheless lived on in the doublet word parson 'clergyman'; the two words are etymologically identical.
We still have varmin t as a rustic variant of vermin. In American English, derby is pronounced dur-bee. Unfortunately, more often than not, I hear Americans — including a number of folks at The18 — pronounce derby as dar-bee. Is it soccer or football?
Which is preferable? There is no issue that sticks in my craw like British grammar pluralizing collective nouns. In American English, those collective nouns are singular. Despite this being a well-understood concept in the U. We here at The18 will do our best to always use proper U.
English when referring to soccer teams. After all, the U. The vowel shift was evident in New England in the 18th Century. For instance "varmint" from "vermin" and "varsity" from " uni versity". Travis: Many thanks for your comments - well said. Just one thing - it's Worcester and Worcestershire! No "h" after the "c"! Your pronuncialtion is spot on with "Wooster" and "Woostershire" or Woostersheer in England. Same applies to Gloucester and Gloucestershire.
Endings of English place names such as "-cester" "-caster" "-chester" etc means that the places were originally founded around Roman fortifications during the Roman occupation of Britain - 54BC to AD. There are such sites all over the place, especially in England and Southern Scotland The Romans never went further into Scotland beyond the Antonine wall which more or less stretched from Glasgow to Edinburgh -roughly.
North of that line the Scottish savages remained in total oblivion of the Roman centurions taking over further south. Bit like it is to this day Only joking
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