Speak proper!

Galen

Tegan don't think it was him, in fact pretty sure it wasn't. This chap played the guitar and sang a song at the end. I'm glad graces heard it too, at least it wasn't just me!

No, don't think it's him but I have discovered that he has a website [sigh]....

My mother who was an infants teacher, once commented when another teacher came in and said that he'd just found two kids 'shagging' in the grounds, that 'they're too young to be smoking'!
To be fair her father smoked a pipe tobacco known as shag.!

Didn't hear it but sounds like the sort of programme that Simon Armitage would make [my current favourite tv historian ]. He has a very broad [but quite delightful accent].

I remember the programme - No idea who it was though - it was very funny and very informative.
I think the reason people used to be expected to use RP was that it was associated with being educated, as teachers would correct dialect/slang in the classroom. That was in the days when education was respected for itself and had nothing to do with being "posh".
And while children on the whole can distinguish between the sort of language acceptable in the playground and the sort acceptable in polite company, of course many kids do not receive a particularly good example in the home or, these days from the media. It makes me cringe when I hear a (harrassed- maybe) parent tell their child to f-ing shut up/shut their f-ing cake 'ole/f-ing give it a rest etc. Children will copy what they hear, whether at home or on Eastenders.

I've just email them after extensive googling! How sad am I ???

You've got me going now - just googled 'arse/house' on BBCs website, no luck!

Ring them up and ask for the nice chap with the Lancashire/Yorkshire accent who sounds like Mike Harding.

Possibly Riverwalk

Oooh I'm going mad here trying to find it, after all I can hardly phone the BBC and say "Who did that programme about house being pronounced arse" can I ?

The chap I was trying to think of with the unusual name was Gervase Phinn, but I don't think he did the house/arse programme.

Is it the one who sounds like Mike Harding (singer/poet, whatsit)?

I just wish I could remember the chap's name" He pops up from time to time, has a lovely accent himself (might be Yorkshire?) I think he's got quite an unusual name, but not sure.

Just choked on my wine reading this Phoenix

Didn't hear the programme - wish I had!

Did anyone hear a programme on Radio 4 a few months back, where this chap set off to find exactly where "house" becomes "arse" ?! he was explaining that some people would say "I've just had double glazing fitted in me arse" or "I inherited me arse from me mother"

Lovely programme, both amusing and informative!

Agree entirely, Roseyk!

Yes she is right, this is her job and she obviously takes it seriously, which is very good to see, so very well done to her.

Articulation is the key. Doesn't matter about the accent. Can't stand mumblers

Add me to the "can't be arsed" fan list.

I agree with vegas that clarity of speech is extremely important. Even with good hearing it can be difficult to understand people whose enunciation is imprecise or who mumble into their chests. It staggers me how many people don't seem to realize they need to speak louder/more clearly than usual when they turn or walk away from you but carry on talking.

'Can't be arsed' is one of my favourite expressions.

Or 'you could try getting off your arse' to DH if I think he is being lazy.

When I used to teach mature students, I noticed that those who were smart enough to adopt an 'academic' way of writing undoubtedly increased their chances of doing well on courses and in exams, but in the process they lost something, in that their writing lost a liveliness and sense of who they were and where they had come from.

Yes, I think it's important that children learn to speak and write grammatically, otherwise they risk being disenfranchised - posh, rich people make sure their kids know how to do these things. Fortunately, the development of language is somehow greater than these petty, get on in the world concerns. Through years of teaching and listening to my students, my own vocabulary has been increased enormously - when I can't be bothered to do something, I always now say 'I can't be arsed' - it has a wonderful, deadpan English ring to it.

On a slight digression, as someone who has hearing difficulties, what I really appreciate is not people who speak in a posh accent, but those who really enunciate their words. Now you're cooking with gas!

Although she was brought up in Cornwall my daughter always had (I thought) a definite Home Counties accent. When she came up to University in Surrey everyone commented on her lovely Cornish accent !!! After she'd spent three years renting a house in Staines this had degenerated into what we refer to as her "Shtines" accent (The closest I can get to how she says it)

One needs a good English accent on the phone these days so those bods in Mumbai and Perth can understand one.

My late MiL was normally as Yorkshire as they come, but had taken elocution qualifications in her youth and her telephone voice would have been a credit to Henry Higgins.

Bags I enjoyed the David Almond article this morning

Me mam came from NE England and used 'short a' in path, plaster etc. However when moving to London she modified her speech to sound more 'Counties' to fit in. But there were two words that always kept the short a: giraffe and bath.. and I also say them like that though do walk up the parth!

When I was about 9 we went to live in Hong Kong and I was sent to a convent school run by American nuns. When I first went there children laughed at my English acent and pronunciations so within a couple of weeks I acquired a lovely New England accent. Even Americans assumed I was one of them. My mother was in despair. My beloved maternal grandmother was a stickler about language and my mother had no doubt how she would react when she returned to the UK with a daughter with an American accent.

In fact within weeks of leaving the school the accent went, and the American pronunciations and vocabulary. One or two words did stick, mainly ones I met in American before I came across them in English (Skedule, doobious) but by the time I saw my grandmother again my accent was everything she would expect.