I had to smile the other day. I was listening to programme on Radio 4 reporting on the Home Affairs Committee, which happened to be hearing evidence about an inquiry into drugs by the police, when who should pop up but Russell Brand?
Regardless of the content of what Mr Brand had to say, and some of it I thought was very sensible, what stuck out like a sore thumb, apart from his dress sense on such an occasion (!), was the way in which his speech is so liberally sprinkled with glottal stops ‘?’.
I notice today that Gordon Wells’s phonetic blog devotes a posting to exploring the question of how far we can expect to see the use of the glottal stop extended. Almost infinitely if Mr Brand is anything to go by!