Pronunciation

Dara O’Brien speaks so fast & mutters- he’s indecipherable to me and Ben Shepherd on Tipping Point speaks so fast and never pronounces the end of words and it drives me mad.

I listen to a lot of audio books and the ignorance around pronounciation is abysmal. Sometimes it’s so bad you struggle to know what the word is. Recently I heard ‘hyper-bowl’
for hyperbole, and ‘baLUSTrade’

I dislike most of the 'pronunciation' by northerners its just laziness i think.And yes, i am a northerner! So it just goes to show that people can speak correctly if they so wish. (I did live in Berkshire (pronounced Barkshire?) for a couple of years when i was a child though, so that probably helped. (Most residents there were 'posh') But i have brought up my children to 'aspire' and to pronounce things correctly.?

I went to an east London grammar in Bow and we had elocution lessons back in the sixties to teach us to speak proper!

There is an advert at the moment for a beauty product either L’Oréal or Olay. Can’t remember which the black girl in the ad who speaks such bad English that it’s put me off the products. Why do we have to listen to such poorly spoken people.

I did Latin at school and feel it was useful but I don't call Cicero Kikero. I was taught that Latin is usually pronounced as is normal in the country of tuition. Hence Lucca calling him Chichero (presumably she's Italian!). I was taught by a Scot .....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KftTPpWdcCM

Oh, and my dad was from Cumbria and always pronounced year as yur.

Locally, as well as losting the "g" in -ing and "t" all over the place, "L" is pronounced "w". My poor son is called "Phiw"...
The grammar school is called "Cha'm Arse" instead of "Chatham House"...

I can’t bear candidit instead of candidate or bin instead of been.

I like dialects and detecting where people come from, but I don’t like slovenly, incorrect pronunciation. I made a comment to DH about Alex Scott dropping gs off her words.

Some years back I had some lessons preparing me for an Exam in reading out loud for some Drama School. My tutor said ‘you must come from the Midlands as you over-emphasise ‘ing’ at the end of words’. I managed to soften them from then onwards.

My latest annoyance is with a weather presenter who says ‘there will be remernants of the storm’ instead if ‘remnants’.

Some years back I wrote to the BBC and complained about the weather people saying ‘off of’. That stopped them !

I’m quite easy going really ?

but for people coming from overseas, if they are not taught that what sounds like, gorra, wanna etc, means got to, want to, then they will be at a disadvantage in the area where they are living, they will not understand what those around them are saying.
language is to communicate; different areas, activites = different languages, jargon.
it is all contextual.

Teaching dialect, sociolect and idiolect is fun.

Once, in an overseas school (overseas I more or less use RP), I taught a boy from the area in Northumberland I used to teach in. We greatly amused the other students (German,Swiss, French, Spanish, Russian) with our chat (Ah divvnt kna, Howay wi wa).

I also knew a teacher who was marked down in a lesson observation once for her regional accent. Her observer was roundly castigated later for it. It was total snobbery on the part of the observer.

Newatthis

If they teach it 'properly' i.e.' got to and want to' then when people from overseas listen they cannot understand sometimes and they will ask why the hear this pronunciation. I know this might sound shocking but in order to develop their fluency this is how it is done. Many people from the UK say 'wanna and gorra'. with very few pronouncing these kinds of words properly. This is also the same for words like gettin (getting) lookin (looking) etc. To become fluent in English they do not need semantics, but learn words in the context of a sentence and it is better if they are aware of common pronunciation and how it is spoken by the najority of English speakers..

That really doesn’t sound a reasonable excuse for people being taught, basically, poor pronunciation, which will possibly hinder them in a job search. So when they manage to read a book, see a film with proper pronunciation, they won’t be able to understand the words.

kircubbin2000

I get annoyed with people who say CONTRA bute and DISTRA bute instead of con TRIB ute.

Now that annoys me too!

My pet peeve is on our local radio station. One particular news reader always pronounces the word year as yur. It really grates on me every time. We are in Yorkshire and I think it is the way it is pronounced on the other side of the Pennines .

Lucca I was somewhat puzzled by your response above, but I just realised you must be using a modern Italian pronunciation rather than a Classical Latin one.

Lucca I would pronounce it chichero

I wouldn’t.

Foreign names are a different category, esp when they have had English pronunciations for so long that anything else sounds forced. I would say Cicero (which I don't have occasion to very often) and not Kikero or Chichero , also Nearo. And never Roma, Milano, Firenze, Paree in ordinary English conversation.

I get annoyed with people who say CONTRA bute and DISTRA bute instead of con TRIB ute.

If they teach it 'properly' i.e.' got to and want to' then when people from overseas listen they cannot understand sometimes and they will ask why the hear this pronunciation. I know this might sound shocking but in order to develop their fluency this is how it is done. Many people from the UK say 'wanna and gorra'. with very few pronouncing these kinds of words properly. This is also the same for words like gettin (getting) lookin (looking) etc. To become fluent in English they do not need semantics, but learn words in the context of a sentence and it is better if they are aware of common pronunciation and how it is spoken by the najority of English speakers..

Newatthis

All language is evolving - like it or not. It always has been and always will. They now teach gorra (got to), wanna (want to) etc in English language classes to people whose first language is not English. This is how it is spoken by many people therefore this is now how it is taught.

That is dreadful, does any other language get misused as much. If you are going to teach English, teach it properly, however they use it afterwards.

Blossoming

I love hearing different regional accents and dialects, there are some splendid words and sayings out there.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, Roman history being a favourite subject. One thing that does annoy me is when narrators have not bothered to do any research beforehand and mispronounce the names of historical characters. Cicero is a real bugbear! I do my best to ignore it, and I appreciate that people don’t learn Latin nowadays, but my inner self is still screaming “It’s Kikero” ?

I would pronounce it chichero

All language is evolving - like it or not. It always has been and always will. They now teach gorra (got to), wanna (want to) etc in English language classes to people whose first language is not English. This is how it is spoken by many people therefore this is now how it is taught.

My grandson learns Latin at school, much to my delight (but less to his).