Grammar that makes you cringe

[Jakob W]

Only it was Charlie Stross, who purports to be British; [...]

But who sells his stuff to the US, and is generally (IIRC from blog discussions over the years) copyedited by the US publisher.

[T42]

According to OED they're variant spellings of each other, in the meaning of wreck. But the only sense it gives for rack as a verb is to draw off sediment from a barrel. What meaning is the intended one for 'racking cough' anyway? It could feasibly be drawing off sediment from the lungs, or it could be a comparison with being put on the rack, or it could be the idea of your lungs being twisted inside out, in which case it would be wrack.

The OED is dragging its feet a bit. Chambers lists 5 senses for the verb:

verb (racked, racking)
1 to put something in a rack.
2 to move or adjust by rack and pinion.
3 historical to torture someone on a rack.
4 to stretch or move forcibly or excessively.
5 to cause pain or suffering to someone or something.
racked or (and usually regarded as an error) wracked adj tortured; tormented; distressed o be racked with guilt. Also in compounds o disease-racked.
on the rack
1 extremely anxious or distressed.
2 said of skill, etc: stretched to its limits.
rack one's brains to think as hard as one can, especially in order to remember something.

The cough would come under n° 5, causing pain and suffering.  NB the bit I've underlined.

Agree re wrack as alternative to wreck, but AFAIK the usage is archaic (other than among those who have recourse to the OED to paper over mistakes).

Ngram of wrack, wreck

[T42]

Only it was Charlie Stross, who purports to be British; [...]

But who sells his stuff to the US, and is generally (IIRC from blog discussions over the years) copyedited by the US publisher.

Agree again, but even in the US it's wrong (or should that be rong?)

[Cudzoziemiec]

According to OED they're variant spellings of each other, in the meaning of wreck. But the only sense it gives for rack as a verb is to draw off sediment from a barrel. What meaning is the intended one for 'racking cough' anyway? It could feasibly be drawing off sediment from the lungs, or it could be a comparison with being put on the rack, or it could be the idea of your lungs being twisted inside out, in which case it would be wrack.

The OED is dragging its feet a bit. Chambers lists 5 senses for the verb:

verb (racked, racking)
1 to put something in a rack.
2 to move or adjust by rack and pinion.
3 historical to torture someone on a rack.
4 to stretch or move forcibly or excessively.
5 to cause pain or suffering to someone or something.
racked or (and usually regarded as an error) wracked adj tortured; tormented; distressed o be racked with guilt. Also in compounds o disease-racked.
on the rack
1 extremely anxious or distressed.
2 said of skill, etc: stretched to its limits.
rack one's brains to think as hard as one can, especially in order to remember something.

The cough would come under n° 5, causing pain and suffering.  NB the bit I've underlined.

Agree re wrack as alternative to wreck, but AFAIK the usage is archaic (other than among those who have recourse to the OED to paper over mistakes).

Ngram of wrack, wreck

Splitters and lumpers. Chambers' 4 and 5 seem to be subsets of 3. Alternatively, the OED is defining too coarsely.

[T42]

More like blinkered. I only learnt rack in the sense of decant when I started making wine, back in the 70s - I'd call that technical vocab or even trade jargon, on a par with sparge,* travish, rebate etc.

*come back Rambling Sid.

[Torslanda]

<Rambling Sid Rumpo> "Well Oi tether me nadgers to a grouting pole, for the old grey mare is grunging in the meadow"

<Kenneth Horne> "...Better there than here!" 

[T42]

"If Oi 'ad me time to live over again
Oi would lunge all the women and scrope all the men."

[hellymedic]

Someone on my Twitterfeed was ranting about a 'wreckless cyclist'.
I don't think they meant one with a pristine bike...

[Cudzoziemiec]

One of my bikes is rackless. That doesn't mean the other is wracked.

[citoyen]

Someone on my Twitterfeed was ranting about a 'wreckless cyclist'.
I don't think they meant one with a pristine bike...

Was he called Eric?

[T42]

One of my bikes is rackless. That doesn't mean the other is wracked.

But is it longer, though?

[Jock Stewart]

English RP is the forced and grating imposition of a Germanic structure onto an Anglo Saxon Language by the Saxe-Coburg Gothas. The forced poshness of it gets on my tits.

It became (even more) political when the Posh English tried to make us Scots stop talking Gaelic and putting down anyone with a a Scottish accent.

#Ref: Lewis Grassic Gibbon's A Scots Quair, and Hugh MacDiarmid.

RP is a foundation on which English snobbishness is built, which is a virus in holding back talent in this country.

This is why I support diversity in accents and in written British language forms. I'm proud of my Broad Glasgow accent, and of writing in that vernacular.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Just talk slowly when in a conversation, otherwise some of us might have no idea what you're saying.

[hellymedic]

RP may grate with Jock. I find it a useful way to entice phone droids to do my bidding with minimal effort.
I had an unhappy time in Glasgow and it is unfortunate that the accent serves as a reminder.
Like it or not, RP is more universally understood than some local variants. I happen to do these with ease but many don't.

[Bledlow]

English RP is the forced and grating imposition of a Germanic structure onto an Anglo Saxon Language by the Saxe-Coburg Gothas.

I'm afraid this confuses me. What does pronunciation have to do with the  structure of a language? Different things, surely? And Anglo-Saxon is Germanic - more Germanic than modern English, RP or not, with its huge French vocabulary acquired via Anglo-Norman, loss of most case endings, etc.

BTW, I don't think that RP sounds at all German.

[hellymedic]

Depends if it's enunciated by Gisela Stewart...

Many of my early memories are from various German-born aunts and their English (and German was my mother's first language) but I don't think my English is usually particularly German. I can lapse into a German accent totally effortlessly though.

[pcolbeck]

Don't know where Jock got that idea about RP from. It basically evolved out of a Midlands accent from the late middle ages. It's got nothing to do with the introduction of a German speaking Royal Family in the 18th Century.

[mattc]

RP may grate with Jock. I find it a useful way to entice phone droids to do my bidding with minimal effort.
I had an unhappy time in Glasgow and it is unfortunate that the accent serves as a reminder.
Like it or not, RP is more universally understood than some local variants. I happen to do these with ease but many don't.

Very true. (although I haven't yet had any bad times in Glasgow, and my colleague across the aisle is a delight, despite his rather strong Glaswegian!)

There are some "poshos" that speak in odd ways, like the "Air Hair Lair" accent. That's not RP.

[Hang on - isn't there a seprate thread for Pronunciations that Grate or similar? ]

[Ian H]

Jock may like this.

[T42]

From an Italian hotel brochure:

[mattc]

That scannable digital thingy really is a crime against good taste - totally ruins quite a nice advert.

[Guy]

Fenland Council fails the dating game test as FOUR times Chatteris firm planning incentivised switch to Alconbury snubs corporate director Gary Garford

I have read this headline several times now and I don't have a bloody clue what they're on about. It has however, completely disincentivised me from clicking on the link and reading the story.

http://www.elystandard.co.uk/news/fenland_council_fails_the_dating_game_test_as_four_times_chatteris_firm_planning_incentivised_switch_to_alconbury_snubs_corporate_director_gary_garford_1_4888686

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ely Standard in punctuation crisis help i am the editor of the ely standard a local newspaper from ely in cambridgeshire and someone has stolen all my commas full stops question marks exclamation marks and all other punctuation now we cant make sense of the long strings of words we write like this can you tell where this begins and ends no neither can i please help me thank you

[T42]

Fellow called Simon Winstanley (note the built-in wince) doesn't know that the past tense of may is might.  That wouldn't much matter if he didn't write books, and even then it wouldn't matter if they weren't published.  And their being published wouldn't matter if Mrs T hadn't bought me a couple for me burfdy.

[citoyen]

Fenland Council fails the dating game test as FOUR times Chatteris firm planning incentivised switch to Alconbury snubs corporate director Gary Garford

I have read this headline several times now and I don't have a bloody clue what they're on about. It has however, completely disincentivised me from clicking on the link and reading the story.

The 'four times' and 'as' have been transposed - swap them over and it makes marginally more sense, but it's still an awfully clunky headline.