Guest PP.

Ok I'll concede the point however if I understand correctly the aim is to outmode all dialects and have everybody speaking proper English so you and others can understand what they are saying.

This, in some "lets make everything standard" way would be very boring. Why can't someone call an alley a "ginnell" or a toilet a "cludgy"? That they can makes life more interesting and varied. They are also to my mind more descriptive in expression.

Making everyone speak proper English doesn't make it more understandable either. You only have to speak to an operative in a call centre far from our shores to realise this.

If you tried to insist that everyone in Birmingham, Cornwall, Lancashire, Yorkshire "should drop the dialect and talk proper" you are definitely going to get told where to go.

This attitude brings to mind the couple who sat next to us in the hotel restaurant on one of our foreign holidays and complained that there was no english food being served! We were in the middle of the Indian Ocean, what did they expect!

On another note, there are songs and poetry from the Scotland, Wales and Ireland sung and spoken in native tongues which are all part of our rich heritage. When translated into english they unfortunately lose the meaning and the essence of the original.

There is a comment under a You Tube performance of "Slan Le Maigh" that says "May this song never be translated into English" and I totally agree it would lose the setting completely.

The OP may hail from 'Ull and talk "East Yorkshire" but having spoken to his good self on a regular basis. Even though I hail not from these parts, he is perfectly understandable and did not merit your comment. "Quaint" though it was.

People are mostly "better for the knowing". Provided you can be bothered to get to know them better.

May your days be long, varied and interesting.

Chris