Following on from Auden’s American accent, I’ve discovered the reverse phenomenon in Larkin’s Sunday Sessions.
In ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ he uses the American word ‘dude’ — which, in the recorded version, he pronounces ‘dyood’ (instead of the usual ‘dood’) in a very arch Received Pronunciation.
It’s very funny. And I’m guessing deliberately conservative, in a carmudgeonly way. The poem was written in 1960, but the recording was made in 1980 — 8 years after Mott the Hoople reached #3 in the UK singles chart with the (normally pronounced) ‘All the Young Dudes’. So he can’t have been ignorant of the usual pronunciation.
Can he?
