Encouraging children to write like Enid Blyton

If it doesn't fit into any of the above categories, post it here!
User avatar
MJE
Posts: 2534
Joined: 15 Nov 2006, 12:24
Favourite book/series: Famous Five series
Favourite character: George; Julian; Barney
Location: Victoria, Australia
Contact:

Re: Encouraging children to write like Enid Blyton

Post by MJE »

     There's no accounting for how people interpret it. One of those who took me for British was a railway station attendant at Waterloo Station I made enquiries of when I was visiting Britain in 2014. I don't really know how many would do that, though.
     But I have a very strong tendency to use long A's in words like "France", "castle", "plant", "example", and many others, and additionally, I just speak very precisely and properly, and I think these things sound very British to many in Australia at least, where I fancy some of these older-style habits I have retained seem to me to be becoming less common. My brothers lost their long A's decades ago, if they ever had them - but my mother has kept them, as well as very proper speech in general.
     Oddly enough, I don't recall whether my father used long A's or not - he died in 1997, and details of memory about such things are fading a bit - but he generally spoke properly, too, in a rather old-fashioned kind of way that you'd expect to have long A's - so quite possibly he did.

Regards, Michael.
Society Member
User avatar
Rob Houghton
Posts: 16029
Joined: 26 Feb 2005, 22:38
Favourite book/series: Rubadub Mystery, Famous Five and The Find-Outers
Favourite character: Snubby, Uncle Robert, George, Fatty
Location: Kings Norton, Birmingham

Re: Encouraging children to write like Enid Blyton

Post by Rob Houghton »

Maybe that's why many Brummies get mistaken for Australians by Americans, as I guess most Americans believe all British people use 'long A's' - which most Midlands/Northern people don't! I would never say 'graaaaas' or 'paaaass' or 'laaast' or Fraaaance! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



Society Member
KEVP
Posts: 550
Joined: 15 Oct 2015, 02:18

Re: Encouraging children to write like Enid Blyton

Post by KEVP »

The accent associated with the high-status or "Brahmin" class of Boston does sound a great deal like a RP British accent, but it has been dying out. You can still occasionally meet an elderly Bostonian who still speaks with that old accent.
Post Reply