Mark Liberman at* Language Log takes the scientific props away from the story that cows have accents, including quoting a testimony from John Wells, the linguist in question (and one of ours).
I particularly like Professor Wells’s complaint about a PR company who issued the original press release on behalf of a Somerset cheese company:
They showed it to me only after they had sent it out, which meant that it was too late for me to protest that they had put into my mouth the solecism “This phenomena is…”. Of course I would always say only “This phenomenon is…” or “These phenomena are”.
*I refuse to use over at to refer to another weblog.
Update: More from Language Log and Professor Wells.
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