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Mind your language

Dot Wordsworth

Wednesday, 15th August 2007

I was reading in bed (quietly for a change, since my husband was off on some drug-sponsored jamboree in Tallinn) the Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation (£14.99) — a work of the BBC Pronunciation Unit — that someone had given me for my birthday.

It did not bring sleep, for on page 80 I stumbled across ‘Top ten complaints about pronunciations’, from viewers and listeners that is. The ten were: clostridium difficile, controversy, Davos, the letter H, harass, kilometre, Kuwait, New Orleans and schedule.

I differed on two and a half items, most strongly on the first. The recommendation with the name of this troublesome little organism is for difficile to be pronounced DIF-iss-il, much like the French word. The BBC justification goes: ‘This pronunciation is in line with the sage of the various microbiology and infection control experts the BBC has consulted. Medical Latin is commonly anglicised.’

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