Monthly Archives: November 2013

When Americans Imitate Canadians

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Ben

Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live featured, naturally, a Rob Ford sketch. As SNL has (I believe) no Canadian cast members currently, American actors Bobby Moynihan and Taran Killam played Ford and a CBC interviewer, respectively. (What might Dan Aykroyd have done with Ford … Continue reading →

More on Dictionary Pronunciations

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Ben

As per my last post on “dictionary standards,” here’s an actual editor’s thoughts on dictionary pronunciation guidelines: Good dictionaries leave room for change. Take, for example, a word like “comfortable.” In a pronunciation guide from the early 1960s, the word is … Continue reading →

Midwestern English is Not “Dictionary Standard”

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Ben

In a recent column, Marilyn Vos Savant (a columnist with an alleged record-setting IQ) wrote: I’ve retained 99+ percent of my Midwestern ‘accent,’ which sounds like no accent at all because nearly all the words are pronounced according to dictionary standards. A … Continue reading →