Diction

I listen to Radio 4 Extra a great deal. Yesterday they had a programme (Funny you should ask - but that link may not work after a while) featuring some old comedians (Sid Colin {who he?} John Junkin, Barry Cryer).

I was struck by the clarify of diction and superb pronunciation of all their words: a real joy to hear. It got me thinking.

I regularly say to my choir at school (and to the school as a whole during hymn practice) that the letter 'T' is falling out of fashion. If you listen to the radio of TV you will noticed that t's are often dropped within a sentence but often at the end. Thus, "Get out" becomes "Geh ow". It is called T-glottalization.

Later I heard some programme in which 'modern' people were having a discussion and it struck me that my brain was actually working overtime to decode what they were saying; so poor was their diction. I guess we do not notice this (well, I do) from day to day but the juxtaposition during the day of 2 radio programmes made this clear to me. What will diction (and the English language) be like in 50 years time? I shall not be here to find out.

Don't get me started on 'the' (thuh) becoming 'thee' before a vowel. Others have noticed!

And where have Blogger put their spell checker?