pronounciation of common words

hidge mentioned the omission of the letter T earlier in this thread. Sometimes it is difficult to pronounce it where two consonants meet at the end of one word and start of the next: for example "must do". I would definitely soften the t there or I would sound punctilious and over careful.

I am careful with pronunciations as I have lived away from the UK for so long that I'm not really up-to-date. I accept that several words have changed, but even on Radio 3, you get people pronouncing words oddly, as if they'd only ever read them but never heard them spoken (harbinger, indictment are two examples that spring to mind - both heard on Radio 3 pronounced as they're written - really!)

But what annoys me the most is, as was mentioned above, the misplacing of emphases. Distribute and contribute are in transition as I write. While Jenny Murray says the conventional con-TRI-bute, her younger interviewee will be using the new CON-tibute.

I hate to think what will happen when people start messing up the word "monotony".

And when I went to school, we had a couple of Northerners who said "haitch" - the rest of us said "aitch" but we never considered the one right and the other wrong.

I agree, Indinana. How many people actually say 'mountayn' or 'fountayn' anyway?

The scone pronunciation is a funny one I say scone rhyming with cone and other say scone rhyming with gone. I found a website called 'howjsay' and, according to that, both are correct. The website also give the American pronunciation where applicable (as in schedule). One thing that annoys me these days is the change of emphasis in a word such as in subsidence and harassment.

how to pronounce tissue

how to pronounce issue

how to pronounce mountain

how to pronounce fountain

English isn't always pronounced phonetically

Nobody EVER says enn haitch ess for NHS.

Talking of strawberries, I can't bear hearing TV presenters saying 'shtrawberries ' or 'shtreet'- unable to pronounce 'st ' properly.
It's the same with tissues or issues and mountain and fountain, they become tishues and ishues and mountins and fountins- it grates on my nerves!!
I fink its a big ishue!!!!!

Oh, and I protest! I was brought up as a Roman Catholic, attended convent schools, taught by nuns, many of them Irish. And my father was Irish.

But I never said 'haitch'. NEVER! Neither did any of my teachers or schoolfriends.

So there

Dyslexia causes people to transpose letters which accounts for some mispronunciations, they are not just doing it to annoy us!

However, pacifically instead of specifically gets me going.

Yes, Spanishsue, as MamaCaz says, there is a stress accent on the a in 'MAD' in Benalmadena, so that is the syllable that is stressed. And, for the record, the rule is that the penultimate syllable is stressed only if the word ends in a vowel, an 'n' or an 's'. When a word ends in any other letter then the last syllable is stressed (unless there is a stress accent elsewhere in the word of course). Examples are feliz (happy), papel (paper) or libertad (freedom)

Shtudent and Chewsday.

I asked the headmaster of the catholic primary school my lads attended here in Queensland Australia , why they were being taught 'hatch'. He said it was imported by the Irish nuns and he was really trying to re-educate his teachers but they simply didn't believe him!! It was a Catholic primary school.

So, as an earlier poster said, it is a sort of Catholic v Protestant thing.

However, in Queensland people left state school at 13 right until the 1970s; only the Catholics and other religions provided further education. And only the Catholic high schools were affordable for ordinary working folk.

Hence the older tertiary educated class of Queensland is highly influenced by catholic education, so haitch has become mainstream.

But not my own lads - I put 'em straight!!

PS The local state primary school was so appallingly bad at the time, that even non-catholics sent their kids to St Francis Xavier primary.

Haitch instead of aitch. Even my Kindle had to be forced to put the incorrect spelling. It's on television all the time, even adverts like HMV get it wrong. Don't they even know how to pronounce their own name! I suspect that when people hear a word on television they automatically think it must be correct. I can't help wondering what pronunciation children are taught at school, which is where we were taught the correct dictionary spelling and pronunciation of 'aitch'

Flippin ipad
" pronounces" of course!!

Greenfinch Jose Mourinho is Portugese, not Spanish, and my Brazilian (therefore native Portugese-speaking) niece. Pounces the name Jo-say not " "hosay"
However I am amused at ( what is it?) "Benal Madena" being included in " commonly used words"
Spoken English all my life, but I had never heard of it!

I grates on me when people, particulary radio and tv presenters pronnounce hospital as hospitle

Why not what....sigh!

In Irish and American books, the past tense seems to have disappeared, it fit instead of it fitted.
Also bring instead of take- I'll bring the juice to the table rather than I'll take the juice to the table.
Today I heard a lady talking about Sokudu instead of Sodoku. I too shout at the TV, what can't presenters speak correct English!!!

My Ma was a telephonist in 1940s when they were taught to say,"fife" not "five", for clarity.
When I worked in Telephone Manager's Office Edinburgh, I as a Southerner had much difficulty with their pronunciation of alphabet letters,"etch" for "H" and "jai" for "J"

Spanishsue: but there is a stress sign on the 'a' of Benalmadena, isn't there? (Though for some reason this site won't accept the one I typed there!)

@Indinana - The English pronunciation of Ibiza would be 'Eye-beezer'... which sounds faintly comical...

I had a couple of holidays in Corfu, at Agios St??fanos - pronounced by the Brits as 'San Stefano'... ?

When we moved to the West Midlands from the south I corrected my young granddaughter when she wrote MOM instead of MUM but it turns out 'Mom' is commonly used in these parts. Is this traditional in this area or is it an Americanisation? Anyone know?

That makes sense NfkDumpling

DH says he thinks Haitch comes from spelling things out over short wave radios and bad phone lines in the 'old days'. It was to stop confusion with eight. I do remember my father always saying nynna for nine when giving our phone number. What was an affectation has become more the norm.

Etheltbags...........In Spanish, there are very few diphthongs and you pronounce every syllable, with the stress coming on the last but one, unless there is a stress accent. So it phonetically said as....Ben-al-mad-EH-na! My pet hate, although I do have many, is Hatch!