Mispronunciation at the BBC. Whatever next!

One thing I have never heard apart from my corner of SW Scotland: even some teachers would pronounce the letter J as jai, to rhyme with eye. Anyone else come across this?

onlyme it's not only you! It is a pet hate if mine too. Aitch it is

And what about the confusion of 'aesthetic' and 'ascetic' ? It does make a difference!

The pronunciation the OP mentions is the same, I think, as the people who say, for example, 'bek' ''bik' or anything rather than 'book'. We call it 'the flight from the Northern vowel'. They are trying to avoid any sound which might be mistaken for a north-of-Watford accent. Drives me mad.

My pet hate is the pronunciation of the letter 'H' as if it were 'haitch'. I wish I hadn't started this now - is that how aitch is spelt?

That's one of my bugbears, granniesruntoo. It seems to have crossed the Atlantic. When two words exist for two different things, they should be used.
I have noticed a tendency for the pronunciation of words with 'cc' such as eccentric of access to be pronounced as if the double c were a double s, thus making access sound the same as assess. 'Essentric' really is an eccentric pronunciation, but gathering currency.

....alternate instead of alternative. Imagine walking down alternate routes - you would never get there! Reading an alternate version, missing out every other page...
Oh and 'off of' instead of 'from , 'for free' instead of just 'free' (ecsetera as they say.....)

How about the difference between milliard and billion?

Or is that just USA weights and measures giving us short shrift again?

eh?

I think it's more Australianese....

There's another one that sets my teeth on edge - the tendency to make a statement sound like a question when the pitch of the voice is raised at the end!!

Aaarrrgghhh - just like Americanese!!

BBC news readers seem to have invented a new Cabinet Member – the Pry Minister. I know we live in an age of CCTV and personally intrusive legislation, but is this appointment really necessary?

I've forgotten

I think that was an explanation devised after the word had been in use for centuries. There are etymologically similar terms in other languages, which do not fit relevant acronyms. It was just a mediaeval word for a basic activity, short and expressive. Come to think of it, it is a bit onomatopoeic if you say it repeatedly out loud and use your imagination.

I'm sure I heard that one word was an acronym of a legal term ' for use of carnal knowledge' can any of you medievalists confirm?

Greatnan Yes, I once wrote a magazine article called "A Rat up a Drainpipe" about the use of female biological imagery as a means of abuse. Weren't the 1970s an exciting time?

Words which are now considered rude or crude were very often in normal use a few centuries ago. One person's colourful language is another person's swearing. There are only a couple of words I would not use, because they sum up a contemptuous attitude to women and their bodies.

I'm sure I saw an actual swear word on a thread not long ago - though I'm not going to repeat it here just to see if it gets through!

I hope we are not going to have our posts censored- we are all consenting adults and anyone who doesn't like what we post need not read it.

Greatnan's answer is better.

There is systematic asterisk elimination going on on GN, absent. I've remarked upon it before.

They got p*ssed off!

Where did the other two ** go?

Taking the p* out of other people's accents is not just a British thing. Absentdaughter has lived in New Zealand for 12 years and sounds quite kiwi to my ears. However, she still encounters silly people who mock her British accent (for British read posh). No doubt, she still sounds quite British to New Zealanders, but she has never said hice for house in her entire life.

Mamie, I used to have a strong Salford accent (much softened by having left Lancashire nearly fifty years ago) and did get a bit fed up with Southerners saying 'Cum quick, trouble at t'mill'. I used to tell them that the first hundred people who had said it to me had also thought they were being funny and original. I would never dream of commenting on anyone's accent or trying to mimic it - just normal good manners, I think. (I know you were not being patronising, Mamie and I must confess that Fred Dibnah used to make me smile!)