"Restaurant"

[Joel S. Berson]

 From a complete ... layman, what I always hear (or perhaps only
remember) from British actors is the nasalized vowel, and from
American actors (and nonprofessionals) the "NT".  When I think about
the pronunciation I see Patrick Stewart.  So I infer that's the way
Brits still say it today.

Joel

At 6/14/2010 05:50 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>Is anything known of when an English spelling pronunciation replaced
>the French pronunciation?  I recall in one of the Lord Peter Wimsey TV
>productions several actors used a pronunciation with a final open
>syllable and final nasalized low back rounded vowel.  Since these
>productions were done in the 80s or 90s, were the actors making up a
>pronunciation or reflecting the way the word was pronounced but upper
>class BE speakers in the 20s?
>
>Herb

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org