Letter: Girl talk

Fiona Gordon (Letters, 3 June) reacts to Cat Cubie being referred to as a "weather girl". Well, Miss Cubie is definitely a girl, though Fiona Gordon sees this as "infantilising".

I am an old boy of my school and have no problem with being one, so I cannot see why Miss Cubie would have a problem with being a weather girl as she is an old girl of the very same school.

Miss Cubie's glottal stops are an issue of a lack of pronunciation rather than of accent as Ms Gordon suggests.

The point is that Miss Cubie has adopted a mode of speech which is currently very la mode. It is very ugly, of course, and does her absolutely no favours.

After all, if Miss Cubie were only on the radio, she would very likely not have a job. It is because she is attractive that her speech is overlooked.

It is the result, I expect, of a teenage rebellion against her middle-class upbringing.

It was the imitation of West Indians, in particular, in the early 1990s that brought this rather staccato speech pattern to the streets of Britain. The essence of speech is that it is communication.

Those whose utterances are strewn with glottal stops will find their path to the top is rather restricted, especially when youthful good looks begin to fade.

Andrew HN Gray

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh