An incomparably better examination of language is Andrew Taylor’s A Plum in Your Mouth. Where Humphrys has only bad-tempered nit-pickery, Taylor brings curiosity, learning and a sense of celebration. He takes us on a tour of the British Isles, pointing out fascinating phonetic trivia along the way. In Liverpool he examines the Scouse accent once described as ‘Lancashire pronounced by an Irishman’, although its sources are rather more complex than that. The city’s most famous sons, the Beatles, spoke with recognisably different tones. Harrison had the broadest Liverpudlian accent, McCartney’s was ‘more restrained and middle-class’, Lennon had an emphatically nasal manner, while Ringo Starr’s voice marked him out as a resident of the Protestant area of Dingle.
The tour broadens and Taylor travels the Commonwealth explaining how English has developed in different corners of the globe. In the West Indies, the influence of African languages tends to blot out pairs of consonants. So around and ground become aroun’ and groun’. But the rule applies only where the conjoined consonants appear at the end of a word. In the middle, the consonants are fully pronounced. A grandee is always a grandee, never a granny. This is a wonderfully entertaining work, every page crammed with intriguing discoveries. If you’re passionate about language you’ll be passionate about Taylor. More, please.
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