Fucks It Up, M'Lud

In the prestigious accent of England called Received Pronunciation, or RP, the vowels of "cat" and "cut" have been moving so close together that they are now nearly indistinguishable. The linguist David Crystal has recently reported a striking instance of misunderstanding between two RP speakers resulting from this change. A High Court judge apologized to the lawyers in his court for a delay: it seemed he had left a crucial document at his weekend cottage, and would have to go back down there to fetch it. One of the barristers present suggested helpfully, "Fax it up, m'lud." The judge replied, "Yes, I'm afraid it does, rather."}}

-RL Trask}

Historical Linguistics, un libro de mi clase de cambios lingüisticos