I was, I need hardly tell you fellas, much distressed at having gotten this wrong, according to Tim, a native speaker and stalwart Man of Kent who ought to know about such things. I have at one time or another taken some pains to inform myself about all manner of niceties of the Queen's English, and I could scarcely believe I had been so self-deluded.
But I was not, and I have the incontrovertible proof in hand: if you have half a minute to spare, boys, kindly direct your attention to the following marks in these episodes of the endlessly fascinating BBC art-investigation series Fake or Fortune? - one of the regulars of which is the eminent art historian Bendor Grosvenor (B.A., Camb.; Ph.D., E. Ang.) - a scion of the Dukes of Westminster, as anyone could guess by his heraldic name alone - whom I reckon no one could accuse of having an incorrect, or even an inelegant vocabulary.
Please listen for just a moment to him saying "I reckon" at about the 5:15 mark of this 2014 episode on a work by Gainsborough, and again at 5:30:
And likewise at about the 25:15 mark of this 2012 episode on a work by Van Dyck.
Presenter Fiona Bruce says it at about 2:00 in this episode on a work by Winslow Homer:
And ceramics expert David Battle uses the verb in the interrogative at about 3:45 in this clip from Antiques Roadshow:
I. Rest. My. Case.
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6 comments:
Bollocks! The man was educated at Harrow, and is of mixed British/Swiss decent. Swiss!!!!! Are you reading this Bubba? He is not representative of how the British public speak. I might as well say you sound like Donald Trump.
Bite your tongue! Even on my worst day, I could never sound like Drumpf, the rancid, bawling New Yawker of mixed German/Scottish descent. It is to laugh.
Dr. Grosvenor's delightful diction merely serves to prove my point that "reckon" is a perfectly acceptable, nay, elegant word in the mouth of an educated, elegant speaker. And on my side, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Milton, Addison, Steele, Pope, Defoe, Dean Swift, Richardson, Goldsmith, and Dr. Johnson all say aye with one accord. From such an august court there can be no appeal.
The babbling of the riff-raff in the streets - who hardly know what they are saying or thinking, long since thoroughly Americanized, as I have pointed out to you many times, by a century of far too much American cinema - is of no consideration in this discussion. We take no notice of such things. We are speaking of people of quality here.
(And Harrow - for the benefit of my American readers - is of course one of the great English public schools, which has produced many and many admirable graduates for centuries, including writers, politicians, and warriors: not the least of whom is the great Winston Churchill, an acknowledged master of the English language, for the magnificent use of which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. So Harrow can hardly be deemed a flaw in Dr. Grosvenor's education.)
Really, Tim, if you lot had been content to be "Greeks in the Roman Empire" as Macmillan advised, holding aloft the flambeau of civilized speech, thought, and behaviour for all the world to see, and not tried to ape the vulgar Romans whilst carrying on this caterwauling carnal affair with Europe, things might have gone much better for all concerned.
>>>GRIN.<<<
I dunno’ Russ, all you Yankees sound the same to me.....one nation, indivisible...
***BIGGER GRIN***
(Piercing glance at Tim) Yankee??!!! Well, I never!
Upon my word, Sir, you have said quite enough now, and this conversation is at an end.
Nevertheless, because you were smiling when you said it, I shan't sic the hounds on you. This time.
Tim to self.....”I reckon that went rather well...."
Oh my - things have heated up. I reckon there's trouble ahead. And as a faithful son of the Empire by way of Down Under I can use the word without hesitation! (And yes, Tim, your bloody ancestors sent mine there as ballast!
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