letters
to an unknown audience
I found a pretty good pattern. Check out this table:
Pronunciation guide
| No. of England | Me |
| BERet | berET |
| BALLet | ballET | CHALet | chalET |
| shallOT | SHALLot |
Discussing this last night, someone conjectured that the name 'shallot' might come from a longer French word like 'shallotte'—which answers.com confirms: "Obsolete French eschalotte, from Old French eschaloigne, from Vulgar Latin *escalÅnia. See scallion." The modern French is found to be 'échalote.' So, what at first seems a curious exception turns out to have roots.
The accent I'm calling "No. of England" is, in all likelihood, not that at all but some other, more mysterious cross-section of British society. I will attest that I've heard these pronunciations among several people, in meatspace and on telly, too.
Repudiations & criticisms are heartily encouraged.
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