LL-L: "Pronunciation" LOWLANDS-L, 10.SEP.2000 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 10.SEP.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Pronunciation

John Magnus wrote, quoting me:

>>... the Daily Telegraph is a right-wing broadsheet, but I have no
difficulty in imagining
>>a news item based on the same facts appearing in the Guardian or
>>Independent, which are papers of the centre.

>This is precisely what I was saying. Linguistic prejudice is immune from
>political correctness, and therefore those of the 'left' - who may imagine

>themselves to be impeccably liberal and unprejudiced, but in fact are
often
>just following by rote those correctnesses which are assumed in their peer

>group - are quite as likely to be subject to it as the 'right'.<

I sometimes despair of conveying what I mean in the e-mail format. I should

perhaps have said, to be clearer, "a right-wing broadsheet with populist
leanings". I would say that the Guardian and Independent do not have such
leanings. My point was that a quirky news item about something slightly
daft
said by an academic was just as likely to turn up in these papers with no
aim of stirring up ethnic or linguistic prejudices, and it is therefore
unreasonable to assume that this is the only reason why a paper would run
this story.

This week a number of the broadsheets reported a bizarre Italian legal case

concerning the circumstances in which adultery by a wife is a criminal
offence. Everything seems to depend on whether the act of infidelity takes
place during the day or overnight. I don't _think_ we were being invited to

remember the Italians' role in WWII.

I am still hoping for clarification of which British TV sitcoms Ron
believes
project negative images of Germans, since they seem to be unfamiliar on
this
side of the water.

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Pronunciation

John,

I realize that I said "sitcom"and had really meant "comedy" more
generally.  The only glaring example in a sitcom I can think of right now
is in _Fawlty Towers_ which, as Sandy explained, depicted a rude person and
in one episode used his anti-German prejudices to illustrate how his
"insanity" gets him into trouble.  In "comedy" I am including shows such as
Benny Hill's and "Whose Line is It Anyway?"  I hope you will not ask me for
the numbers and titles of the particular episodes.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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