The Enid Blyton Society

pete9012S wrote: I'm sure it was just a minor oversight Dave.

You may well be right, but as he'd put it twice, I assumed it couldn't be a typo. I actually thought he meant that characters in the book, who knew Aristide well, were calling him Ariste for short. The pronunciation given obviously referred to Aristide Leonidas in full.

I recall that the first time I came across the name D'Artagnan (not in the actual book but probably in a comic), I pronounced it Dartagan.

Dave

Nice examples Courtenay and Dave.

I'm sure there must be some sort of highfalutin terminology for these deliberate malaprops?

pete9012S wrote:Talking of Agatha Christie characters, I remember my dear old Nan giving me my first Agatha Christie book in the early 1970's. I was still a bit too young to read them, but she surmised correctly that my supply of Enid Blyton books wouldn't last forever.

She was a well read, educated lady. She handed me a large print version of Curtain, the last Poirot book to start me off.
A very strange choice I've always thought.

Interesting, Pete! the first Agatha Christie book I ever read was also given to me by an elderly relative - in my case my Great Aunt Rene. The book was 'Cat Among the Pigeons' - a book I really enjoyed, and which seemed quite a natural progression from Enid's school stories!!

I can still remember the feeling I had on first reading that book, as it was the first real adult novel I had ever read, aged about 14.

Darrell71 wrote:I've always assumed it was Howton or Hooton! :lol:

Moonraker wrote:

Darrell71 wrote: I pronounce cough as huff, so I was quite confused there for a second.

I think you've confused us all now!

SorryNotSorry :twisted:

     This is quite confusing - certainly I'd never have even thought of the possibility of anyone pronouncing "cough" as anything other than "coff" (or the first half of "coffin").
     I do sometimes wonder if there is any unambiguous way of discussing the pronunciation of words without resorting to the International Phonetic Alphabet.
     Yes, I know that is unambiguous and standardized, and was designed precisely for this purpose - but really, how many understand it other than professional linguists? I wonder how many have ever had this experience:
     You look up a name or word in Wikipedia and either have no idea how to pronounce it, or else you are wondering which of two pronunciations you know is preferable. You see the name given in the phonetic alphabet, don't understand it, and look up the alphabet somewhere else. You then laboriously try to find each character in the alphabet, and try to put them all together in your mind to see how the word should be pronounced - but you give up in the end, confused by all the details, your head full of static caused by trying to decipher it.
     There surely has to be a better way than that....

Regards, Michael.

MJE wrote:[Certainly I'd never have even thought of the possibility of anyone pronouncing "cough" as anything other than "coff" (or the first half of "coffin").
     

That's how I've always heard most people say it, though there have been a few 'coff'ers in life.

Domino wrote:

Moonraker wrote:

No, Nigel. Your post seemed to be suggesting that Ariste should be pronounced 'Ari-steed'.

It is spelt Aristide, not Ariste, Dave.

So why did you put Ariste in you post? That's what's confusing me, Nigel.

Dave

Oh, the fog has lifted, I now understand! Really sorry, Dave and thank you for persevering! That was a typo, I should have written Aristides - goodness knows why I wrote Ariste. I have now added a PS to my post stating the error.

I learned a great new word today - 'nibling'.

I admit I had to look it up - only to find I have two niblings!

It's great isn't it? So much easier for me now to use it instead of saying 'my niece, nephew and step niece'.

I also have two Great-niblings! (if that's possible!)

Well if not, invent the word. Niblings has only been around since the 1950s.

That's a lovely word - I had not heard it before but it makes sense. The only trouble is, I guess I would have to explain it quite a lot! I have a number of niblings too!

That is a lovely word — even if it makes them sound a bit like something you'd graze on in between meals...

I must say I immediately thought of something to eat when I first read the word!

Rob Houghton wrote:I admit I had to look it up - only to find I have two niblings!

I hadn't heard the word before either. I have one nibling!