A family tree search revealed a Liverpudlian forebear which prompted a pondering of the word “Liverpudlian.” In England, such genitive form of place names seem confined to individual places. While someone from Liverpool is a Liverpudlian, someone from Blackpool is not a Blackpudlian.  While someone from Manchester is a Mancunian,  someone from Chester is not a Cunian.

In France, suffixes may be shared by a number of cities, but it does not seem to happen consistently. Someone from Bordeaux is a Bordelais,  someone from Cognac is a Cognacais and someone from Lyon is a Lyonnais, and someone from Marseilles is a Marseillais,  but someone from Nice is a Nicois, and someone from Paris is a Parisien. Maybe there is a rule about these things, if there is, it’s hard to fathom.

Naming the natives of a particular city is hardly a matter of vital importance; would a Bordelais find his life very different if he were instead a Bordeauxois? (My apologies if this is grammatically impossible). In other spheres, inconsistencies in rules are troubling.

The fashion for television series like The Crown, a new series of which is being filmed, series which purport to represent real people in historical events, raises questions about who makes the rules about what can and what cannot be said in a story.

Does the fact that a programme is a work of fiction presented as historical fact allow things to be said that would otherwise be open to challenge?  Can you say things in a popular format like a television drama series, that would not stand up to examination in a serious discussion?  Shouldn’t the rules on what is true be consistent? Mustn’t the truth at one level be the same truth at other levels? Shouldn’t television drama be subject to the same standard of truth as academic books, especially as it is where many people’s opinions are shaped?

Maybe a Liverpudlian could be described by some other word derived from the name of his home city, perhaps a Liverpooler. What would not be correct would be to describe the person by the name of some other city altogether, a Liverpudlian could not be correctly described as a Glaswegian. There has to be cognisance of the facts

There will be always be different interpretations to be derived from any set of facts. What there should not be is untrue things being told as if they were true. Television drama strays into the realm of making people from Merseyside into people from Clydeside.