A Blog for Anglophiles
You can file this under ‘I wish I was in London today.’ To mark the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s famous Battle of Britain Speech – a special ceremony was held in London today outside the Churchill Museum.
The star of the show was one of the last original Spitfires doing a flyby along with some Hurricanes. Very cool.
Here’s a couple videos from ITN News of the day.
I came across this really cool Jack the Ripper themed iPhone app.
From the description:
This guided tour of London’s Whitechapel describes the locations surrounding five notorious murders committed in the autumn of 1888. To this day, no one knows the identity of Jack The Ripper. Over the years since that 1888 autumn of terror, numerous theories have been put forward, ranging from mad surgeons, deranged barristers and psychopathic immigrants and members of the mysterious society of secrets, the Freemasons.
This app includes 14 key locations connected to this mysterious murderer. Use it as a walking tour or simply browse the information and photos provided as a fact-packed guide to interesting and edgy locations around East London.
I’ve played around with the app myself and it’s pretty awesome and well done. I highly recommend it.
It costs $0.99 – which is much cheaper than paying for a Jack the Ripper themed tour in London.
Click here to Download:
This is an interesting bit of news. It’s a shame – generally the Brits zealously protect anything of historical value. It’s even a small tourist attraction.
I guess Liverpool Town Council thinks of him as ‘just the drummer.’
Here’s a great video summary of the history of British Airways – it’s a little dated but the information is still relevant.
From the description:
A compilation of the history of British Empire Airways & BOAC and their eventual merger as British Airways.
I came across this on Stumbleupon and it answers a question I’ve always wondered: Did the Founding Fathers have English Accents?
The answer is more complicated that you think.
According to Nick Patrick:
Reading David McCullough’s 1776, I found myself wondering: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? If so, when did American accents diverge from British accents?
The answer surprised me.
I’d always assumed that Americans used to have British accents, and that American accents diverged after the Revolutionary War, while British accents remained more or less the same.
Americans in 1776 did have British accents in that American accents and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. That’s not too surprising.
What’s surprising, though, is that those accents were much closer to today’s American accents than to today’s British accents. While both have changed over time, it’s actually British accents that have changed much more drastically since then.
First, let’s be clear: the terms “British accent” and “American accent” are oversimplifications; there were, and still are, many constantly-evolving regional British and American accents. What many Americans think of as “the British accent” is the standardized Received Pronunciation, also known as “BBC English.”
While most American accents are rhotic, the standard British accent is non-rhotic. (Rhotic speakers pronounce the ‘R’ sound in the word “hard”; non-rhotic speakers do not.)
So, what happened?
In 1776, both American accents and British accents were largely rhotic.
It was around this time that non-rhotic speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class; this “prestige” non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been spreading in Britain ever since.
Most American accents, however, remained rhotic.
There are a few fascinating exceptions: New York and Boston accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region’s British connections in the post-Revolutionary War era. Irish and Scottish accents are still rhotic.
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.
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