There was, actually, an Anglo-Indian (as in Brigadier Hugh Stevens, not as in Sir Henry Gidney) accent that preferred it to be 'wottah'. So, too, 'caw', as in 'moto-caw', of which you bought the best you could buy, to impress the 'gels'. A terminal 'g' was never, ever pronounced. People with proper RP accents like Philip Crossley, Assistant Editor of The Statesman, visibly blenched when they encountered this variant (except for dropping the 'g'). But that was a clash of extremes. Steven Miles, a career diplomat, had a far easier accent, one closest to the older breed of Indian Army Indian officers, and quite easy to cope with.
Sent from my iPad On Jun 2, 2012, at 10:11 PM, ss <cybers...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wednesday 30 May 2012 1:03:25 am Thaths wrote: >> "So how do you pronounce it - >> is it Woad-house or Wood-house?" > > It's ironic that Wodehouse's main character Bertie Wooster bears a name that > is a spoof on Worcester. > > It believe that World war I - (a war fought between nations who thought that > the plains of western Europe constituted the whole world) was the great > leveller that brought the British upper (uppah) classes down to the same > level > as the lower classes. > > The "uppah" class of course had all these wierd liinguistic, sartorial and > culinary affectations including the intense need to keep their language pure > and different from the hoi polloi. Even today Prince Charles is likely to say > "hice" for "house". "About the house" is "abite the hice" in the upper class > Bertie Worcester accent. > > The female who cleans your house is a woman, not a lady. A lady is a lady, > not > a woman. The Brits threw off the uppah class affectations ages ago, but > Indians > have tended to hang on to them with fond, if faux, "memories" of days gone by. > > Some time in the late 1980s I was somewhere in England and needed to meet the > man in charge of something or other (accommodation IIRC) I was told that I > needed tomeet Mr. Woodwood? Woodwood? wtf, I asked. I was told "Not > Woodwood. > Woodwood." Eventually I asked for a spelling and got "Woodward" > > And for the Kannada speakers I have this one. My sister in law from the US > was > baby-sitting her niece from England for a while in Bangalore. The little girl > said "I want woota". So my SiL thought the little girl is aking for a meal > (oota) in Kannada. But the girl said "No not oota. Woota" > > She meant "water" which the Brits pronounce as woota. My SiL from America > thought water was "wa'er" in Americanese. It is, of course wah-tarr for > Indians. > > shiv > >
