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<p>My Irish speaking colleague (from Belfast but studied in Dublin)
writes: "Well, the name doesn't sound Irish, even remotely. And if
it's said humorously, could it not be a mock-Irish accent? But if
I say it out loud, it definitely sounds North Dublin."<br>
<br>
Watkiss is being humorous, so presumably may well be imitating
someone or something. I can’t see why he would imitate a Black
Country dialect, but he might well imitate posh, or a stage Irish
(mock-Irish as my colleague has it) that was conventionally used
for humorous effect.<br>
<br>
Another friend says that "it’s a bit like Laurence Fox imitating a
working-class accent." I think he means that VW is stepping
outside her linguistic / social comfort zone here.<br>
<br>
What about Watkiss's middle initial? Is this (a) Woolf or her
narrator mocking his pretentious way of referring to himself, or
(b) his wish to be known by a name that suggests importance, or
(c) his own jokey way of referring to himself as if he were
important (he knows he is not)?<br>
<br>
Incidentally, are we to presume (given the end of the novel) that
it IS the Prime Minister's car?<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Jeremy H<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 22.11.2020 17:53, Stuart N. Clarke
via Vwoolf wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:F84AB534C32E42D58A38DD32DF74265B@StuartHP">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
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<div style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR:
#000000">
<div><span style="FONT-FAMILY: ; WHITE-SPACE: normal;
WORD-SPACING: 0px; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; FLOAT: none;
COLOR: ; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; ORPHANS: 2; WIDOWS: 2;
DISPLAY: inline !important; LETTER-SPACING: normal;
TEXT-INDENT: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial"><font face="Times New Roman"><font
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.6pt; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #faebd7">Edgar
J. Watkiss, with his roll of lead piping round his
arm, said audibly, humorously of course: "The Proime
Minister's kyar."</font></font></span></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Leaving aside the ramifications and peculiarities of his
name, what is his accent? This has subconsciously bothered
me for years. It has been suggested that it is Irish.
“Proime” sounds Southern Irish; alternatively, very
Birmingham to me. Is “kyar” Irish? It doesn’t sound like
any accent I can readily think of. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Woolf wrote in “Memories of a Working Women’s Guild”
(1930):</div>
<div> </div>
<div>“to deride ladies and to imitate, as some of the speakers
did,</div>
<div>their mincing speech and little knowledge of what it
pleases them to</div>
<div>call ‘reality’ is not merely bad manners, but it gives
away the whole</div>
<div>purpose of the Congress, for if it is better to be a
working woman</div>
<div>by all means let them remain so and not claim their right
to undergo</div>
<div>the contamination of wealth and comfort.” (E5 182)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>If he says it “humorously”, then is he perhaps parodying
upper-class speech?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Stuart</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Jeremy Hawthorn
Emeritus Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
7491 Trondheim
Norway</pre>
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