Mispronunciation at the BBC. Whatever next!

And now there is a weatherman (on BBC1, I think) who has the same annoying type of speech.

I read an article on Robert Peston not long ago; He had a very bad stutter and has overcome it - maybe that's why he talks as he does.

I think you must be right, Elegran, about Robert Peston taking lessons - he's definitely easier to listen to these days. Unless we're both just getting acclimatised, of course!

I have should of rather than should have , and them instead of those

I think he has been taking lessons in breathing properly in between phrases instead of in the middle of them- he was almost bearable last time I saw him. Maybe I'm getting acclimatised.

Does anyone bristle when comperes/comedians etc say to the audience 'laygenamen' for ladies and gentlemen - lazy!

Do you mean Robert Peston - what a ham that man is - good information but the pauses are quite peculiar- makes him an easy target for the impersonators.

Now its caught me out. I say 'going to a hotel' but would never say haitch as my mother thought that was common, and there was no worse criticism of anyone or anything than that word. I suppose in my mother's days we never went to hotels anyway, it was not in her spoken vocabulary.

I am constantly upset by the misuse of words on the BBC. The special financial expert usually gets his words and tenses right, but has the most unusual language rythms, I find myself holding my breath. Lately I also think he has not said anything new for weeks. After he has shouted for 5 minutes we are none the wiser.

I also notice how many newsreader can't say environment and disorientate leaving out whole syllables.

susiecb and Greatnan Wouldn't it be interesting if an hotel became a notel, just as but in reverse, norange became orange and nuncle became uncle?

and re occur instead of recur(Times 2 crossword) and di ssect instead of
dis sect

......and led and lead - they use both for past tense - I've seen it on screen in the Points of View programme.

I am told that decimate no longer means to destroy one tenth, but that is how I will continue to use it.

I have heard politicians who didn't know the difference between militate and mitigate.
And most annoying of all, newpaper copy writers who don't know the past tenses of drink and sink, or the difference between lay and lie.

...and why do they say on the BBC 'innIvItive' for innovative? I also get fed up with nucular.

numberplease It would have been better if she's used the colloquialism sparrow grass which is at least colourful and appealing, rather like the sailors on the Bellerophon who called their ship the Billy Ruffian.

Old fashioned suits me!

Greatnan ôtel as an English pronunciation of hotel is quite old-fashioned and hotel is regarded as acceptable by the five dictionaries in my office. I wasn't suggesting that you should pant like a dog at the beginning of the word. Yes, I hate "haitch" too.

I used to work in a canteen, and it really grated on me when my oh so posh and proper supervisor used to talk about "asparagRass soup!

I don't think it is correct to aspirate 'hotel', absentgrana. My grandson insists on saying 'haitch' which really annoys me!

Susiecb, you've hit on my no.1 annoyance, the when it should be thee. It is so much harder to say that way, why doesn't someone tell them????

"Julery" for "jewellery". And "prostrate" for "prostate".

susiecb Isn't it only an hotel if you don't pronounce the h à la Bertie Wooster's Aunt Agatha? I think most people aspirate hotel these days and one wouldn't say an horse? Could be wrong, of course…

Oh its the saying the for thee that irritates me and a hotel when its an hotel!
and while I'm at it who is that new shouty finance person on BBC breakfast - too loud and too strident bring back Simon!

I had a tantrum (well got a bit a cross) yesterday evening, but with Channel 4 News rather than the BBC. We had "nucular" several times artygran and then what I have always called a coffin was referred to as a casket. In this country a casket is a small box or chest, not big enough for a body and somewhere for keeping valuables. It's like the way train station has superseded railway station, but at least that makes sense.

I had to laugh when the oh-so-posh woman on the ridiculous 'Ladettes to Ladies' said she was going to teach them proper 'pronounciation'.
With the coming of wisdom with age, I have managed to shed my inverted snobbery and now accept that someone who says ' orff' for 'off' is just speaking in a way which is natural to them.