On Wed, 06 Jul 2005 00:25:01 GMT, Bob Cunningham
<exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Burchfield discusses "usedn't" in his _The New Fowler's
> Modern English Usage_, (page 815 under "use"), published by
> Oxford University Press.
Ah, I was looking in the 1968 2nd edition, revised by Sir Ernest Gowers.
He mentions "usedn't" as colloquial but otherwise dismisses it (and
confirms that the form "didn't used to" is regarded as vulgar by most
Brits although he regards it as merely colloquial).
> He says of it "(Now regarded as somewhat formal)". He has a
> quotation from Agatha Christie's _Poirot Loses a Clent_ (no
> date): _The Mistress usedn't to sleep well at night_
I don't approve of a lot of her style of writing (in one of her books
she had more exclamation marks on one page -- in narrative, not speech
-- than even my mother uses in a letter).
> But spelling is one thing, pronunciation another. I suspect
> that whether it's spelled "usen't" or "usedn't", it's
> pronounced ['jus@nt] ("YOOSSuhnt"), just as both "used to"
> and "use to" are pronounced ['just@] ("YOOSStuh").
Hmm, I pronounce the 'oo' at the end, as ['justu] ("YOOStoo"), but in
general British pronunciation of vowels in unaccented syllables tends to
be a schwa (or as I've put it, "speaking in grunts"). The 'd-t'
combination tends to be elided, it's difficult for most south-eastern
English people at least (some other dialect speakers may have less
trouble with it), and in many places 'used' is pronounced "YOOST"
anyway without voicing the 'd', even when used as an adjective "a used
car".
Chris C
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