Favourite spelling error of the day (needs an English accent, I think)

[ailbhe]

In a list of religions: Wicker.

Comments

[vatine]

Yes, it should obviously be "wicket" and is a religion to partake of at the Oval, Old Traffod or Lord's.

[da-pol.livejournal.com]

You never saw my great aunts house. It was a veritable shrine to that one.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

LOL! Literally!

[flybabydizzy.livejournal.com]

hmmm, spell weaving...

[nwhyte]

Do they worship the journalist who used to present "Wicker's World"?

...I'll get me coat.

[pauamma]

Which brings a question. Are all UK English dialects non-rhotic?

[da-pol.livejournal.com]

Not even nearly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents

It's quite common though.

[songster.livejournal.com]

A pilgrimage to Lord's?

[ckd]

A very old-fashioned religion which believes in caning.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

. o O (The Wicca Man)

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Celtic or Celtic-influenced areas tend to be rhotic - Wales, Scotland, and the West of England generally (not just the West Country, even up to Lancashire). In the South of England, the changeover point is around Oxford; further north, it's just west of Manchester. The Manc accent is not rhotic, but Preston, Bury and Accrington definitely are.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Rhotic speakers always tend to sound American to me (e.g. a lady from Northern Ireland in Amy's kindergarten; the chap who played Dumbledore in the later HP films), even though I know intellectually that "from the British Isles" != "non-rhotic".

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Darn, that was the joke I came here to make. Well, not about your great-aunt, obviously, but the home counties in general.

You can tell followers of Wicker by the characteristic marks on their bums.

[pauamma]

*nod* (I just noticed I mentioned the UK and not the British Isles when I should arguably have said that, but I'm not sure about the status of English in the RoI: co-official language, widespread native language, widespread second language, other) and that might conceivably affect the rhoticity.

[ailbhe]

Surely most of the isles are mainly rhotic accented? Parts of GB are non-rhotic; where else?

[ailbhe]

I'm not aware of any Irish accents with a non-rhotic R. English is officially a recognised second language of the Republic of Ireland, but is actually most people's mother tongue; fluent Irish-speakers are a minority.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia has maps, including one of the U.S., which was what I was going to mention. The stereotypical Boston accent/statement is "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd."

[pne.livejournal.com]

Surely most of the isles are mainly rhotic accented?

Yes, it's surely rather provincial of me -- it's mostly that the varieties I've been exposed to most are south-eastern ones, i.e. from the non-rhotic area, even if that may not be representative of the speech of the majority of the Isles.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

a basket case, was she?

[d-h.livejournal.com]

Rattan to the core

Wicker

[(Anonymous)]

I thought of LOTs of good Wicker/Wicca jokes - - and everyone else had got to them first AND told me lots about the letter r and its pronunciation. Enjoyed reading it all though! (And thanks for the great comment on my blog, Ailbhe)
Daphne