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by ntr-- 1089 days ago
It was once pointed out to me that French derived vocabulary is avoided in received pronunciation, compare:

- Napkin / serviette

- Lavatory or loo / toilet

- Graveyard / cemetery

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

1 comments

There are also some words derived from French but pronounced in a very non-French manner. The t in valet should be fully pronounced. Making the word sound French is a non-U hypercorrection.
> Making the word sound French is a non-U hypercorrection.

I disagree that pronouncing it "VALLay" is hypercorrection. Proper French pronunciation would be "vallAY" (with the emphasis on the second syllable).

At any rate, my language background is upper-middle-class English English, and nobody pronounced the word "valitt". That's an americanism, as far as I'm concerned. As a consequence, I've always struggled with the word when used to mean cleaning e.g. a car interior.

FWIW, I understand that the "U and non-U" thing was meant as a joke, was horribly snobbish, and was anchored in a particular stratum of early 20th-C English society.