Mispronunciation at the BBC. Whatever next!

Easy to see where haitch came from – the French 'hache'. Yes, I know they don't harden the aitch, but non French speakers wouldn't know that. Saying 'haitch' also makes it clear you really mean 'aitch', if you see what I mean. Think of a bad telephone line and a soft accent on the tch.

I prefer aitch too, but it's easy to work out why people say haitch. I think we're stuck with it.

Re innit, I love the Mitchel and Webb spoof about it in which they are acting as upper crust air force boys.

I find a lot of these changes irritating too but I think we just have to grit our teeth and be tolerant. There's no stopping it. Besides, it's nothing new. Think of The Great Vowel Shift in the middle ages. We also changed the pronunciation of some of the germanic consonants, e.g. v and w.

A variation on 'dee' is a Scottish pronunciation of 'day'. Regional accent, folks!

I cringe when I hear Tuesday etc pronounced as Tuesdee!

Re the dreaded 'Haitch', I went to see the headmaster of our catholic primary school here in Queensland Australia, when I heard my kids using 'haitch;. He sighed and said it was brought over from Ireland with the Catholic teaching nuns and he'd tried everything to stamp it out but with no avail!

PS
I sent them there because the state schools' curriculum was being manipulated by the then ultra-right wing Calvinist creationist Premier. This was totally against Australian norms. The catholic schools at that time (early 80s) were very progressive, had 100% lay teachers, and were totally influenced by the spirit of Vatican 2. All that has changed since then, of course.

Greatnan mentions the dread Haitch for H. When did that become the norm? It used to be regional but now everyone - well a lot of people - seem to say it, including some TV presenters. The other bugbear is 'init' which is a cockney shortening of isn't it, now is used in completely the wrong context for example ' I've been to the cinema init' . This is nothing to do with regional accents.

In any case, Gally, the correct expression is "I call a spade a b*****y shovel"
Get it right, gal.

A lot of people say "I'm na...." instead of "I'm going to....". That doesn't bother me but I don't like "passed away" in place of died.

gally, you really must tighten up! A shovel is a quite different tool from a spade! Dear oh dear!

I also hate 'gonna' and here in Manchester, I hear 'gonnu' just as often. 'I'm gonnu pick the kids up from school.' Eugh!

'fora' or 'forums' are both accepted usage - I agree that 'fora' does sound a little affected. On the other hand, I would say 'media' and not mediums, unless I were referring to so-called psychics! Isn't English a wonderful language (er......or Latin!)
One of my pet hates is 'gonna' - is it really so difficult to say 'going to'?
I am another hater of euphemisms for death/dead, especially 'passed over'.
Grr.....somebody on Today has just said 'It's a no-brainer'! Nearly as cliched now as 'going forward'.

A presenter on the 'William and Kate 'programme announced that
Anglesey is a small island off of Wales.!!

Greatnan or should that be "fora"?? Perhaps a pedant step too far?

gally I say the same 'he died 9years ago'
I had some salesman recently asking to speak to mr jeni, I replied ' I hope you know a good medium then'. His response '?'.

Pennysue and Gally - I agree about silly ways of saying someone has died. I just say they died: passed or passed away are just pointless expressions. If people don't like it - tough. The words are nowhere near as harsh as the fact.

As for bad pronunciation by people who are paid to get it right, such as news readers, it is just as bad here in Australia where there are hardly any regional differences in speech. Some of them sound like strangled chooks (chickens).

Gally I am also intrigued by "organised rain". Who did that?

I do wish presenters of all kinds would stop saying 'fith' instead of 'fifth'. It's almost as though they think that's the correct way to pronounce it....

Posh people and politicians say ta instead of to. Listen to Miliband, Cameron and Clegg. e.g. I'm going ta reach out ta the voter.

Oh, I agree, Gally! Some of the women presenters look as though they've been out all night clubbing and haven't bothered to change...

Pennysue I'm with you there. Since Mr.G died I have had a lot of odd looks from people as I insist on saying he's dead/ has died. I find 'passing away' or 'passing over' too twee for words. I am known for calling a spade a shovel but am sticking to my guns on this one
AND, what about the weather girls/boys and their 'bits and pieces of rain'. Since when is rain a bit or a piece?? AND, I wish they wouldn't tell me at the end of each broadcast - to 'take care' and 'have a good day'or 'see you soon'
AND, I wish they would dress in a more becoming way - not as if they're off to a cocktail party - sitting on the Breakfast sofa with their skirts up round their ar...es at 7 in the morning is enough to put me off my weetabix (ok I expect the men like it!)
Phew, that's better

And when they say "it's a mute point, rather than "moot" it annoys me out of all proportion to the offence!

I loath and detest "passed over" and other recent substitutes for the fact that some one died - where has this come from!

Discreet versus discrete? Often misused on forums.

Yes, Mamie! In olden times, it was "an newt" and "a napron". Oh dear, I do know some useless stuff!

I think that is exactly what happened with "an orange". The Spanish is naranja and at some point it morphed into an orange rather than a norange. Mind you my son in Spain had a child in his English class who cried when he heard orange is pronounced orinj, because his English teacher at school had told him it was pronounced oranghay.

The one that hs me hurling invective at the screen is 'kiLOMmiter' - when Noah Webster simplified some American spelling he made a boo-boo, and words ending in -metre and those -ending in -meter were merged, despite the fact that they are pronounced differently and refer to discrete ranges of things.

-meter nouns refer to measuring instruments - -metre words to units of measure. -meter nouns are accented like therMOMeter, -metre words like DEcimetre.

We don't say MilLIMiter or CenTIMiter... (although most Eglish speakers get 'altimeter' wrong).

Several of the weather persons appear to have discovered new areas of the country, e.g. Eas Tanglia, Norther Nengland and of course that chunk of land off the west coast called Island.

And on Radio 5Live, my station-of-choice on a Saturday afternoon to listen to the footie, there are often references to a team I can't quite place: Manchu Nited ...