B.b.c. English.

[Theland]

I feel betrayed.
I am Anglo Saxon, and come from a proud community that has done as much as anybody else to contribute to our culture.
But, the BBC have adapted and promoted a form of English that is almost foreign to me.
Larst for last. Eerark for Iraq. Barthrum for bathroom. Parst for past.
The list goes on and on, orn and orn.
What is happening?
Are my people in their rough weave, wooden clogs, and soil encrusted hands being squeezed out of acceptable society?

[Jackdaw33]

Is you 'avin' a larf or a laff?

[vetuste_ennemi]

Leave it aht, Jackdaw, 'e ain't worf it.

[vetuste_ennemi]

OK, can't do the Eastenders bit convincingly.

Love the English language, but as child of uneducated Sussex parents grew up with an 'oi 'oi accent. Moderated a bit at grammar school. Landed part of third gardener in school play's version of Richard II: "Dangling apricocks"? - one of my two lines)Haven't got posh even at my age. Yes, it almost comes back to me.

Ardent fan of the sadly obsolete Lollywood film tradition.

Am doing teach yourself Urdu as part of the "embrace your future and get used to it" program sponsored by the Uxbridge council.

[vetuste_ennemi]

My sponsors are Hillingdon.

[vetuste_ennemi]

By the way, Theland, it's not the BBC's abandoning of (its version of) English that's important, but its abandonment of English culture.

[aelmpvw]

grarse for grass really irritates me

[Tilly2]

It's them vowels, innit?

[fiction-factory]

And yet the BBC gets lots of complaints about the use presenters with strong local accents.
Nay, lad. Surely the BBC's accents have moved away from the old Received Pronunciation they used in the 1950s. And People darn Sarf in London and people across the Home Counties have said GRARSE And BARTH for at least 100 years (probably longer but I've no-one to ask) and certainly since before the BBC came along. In Middlesbrough they still say MARTSTER and PLARSTER for some reason and probably always have done. But I do agree in a way -I just cannot say BARTH- I've tried and can't. And why do they say GRARSE for Grass but say ASS for a little donkey?

[Tilly2]

From the 1600s onwards, however, it became fashionable in and around London to lengthen the vowel sound in a small number of words where the precedes the consonant sounds , and . Thus in seventeenth century London pat would have been pronounced with the short ‘a' vowel, but path and other similar words would have contained a slightly lengthened version of the same vowel. We can describe this sound as ‘aa’. At a later date, however, speakers in London and the Home Counties started to adopt a completely different long vowel making this new pronunciation distinction even clearer. They retained the original short vowel for words such as rat, but began to use a vowel rather like the sound we are asked to produce when a doctor examines our throat in words such as raft. This vowel sound we can characterise as ‘ah'.

[Tilly2]

^ British Library source.^

[Tilly2]

That didn't copy properly so, here's the original.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/changing-voices/phonological-change/trap-bath-split/

[fiction-factory]

Thanks, Tilly. That made me think- maybe I mispronounce SOURCE as SAUCE

[Tilly2]

I just say HP. Saves worrying. :-)

[fiction-factory]

I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.
"I'd like to buy a bottle of sauce please".
"HP?"
"No, I'll pay cash"

It's time I went back to work.

Getting back to the OP, the BBC accent VE refer to is out of touch with reality. (Apart from Radio 1 Extra which is in touch). Most young Londoners seem to have a multicultural Charlie Sloth Radio 1 extra twang, innit bruv.

[fiction-factory]

Sorr VE- I meant Theland, not you

[murraymints]

an' get aht a my pub !!!

[Tilly2]

Everyone's gone, Minty. You scared them off!

[murraymints]

soar'ed ! lol xx

[naomi24]

You can understand what's being said though, Theland, can't you - unlike me when I listen to some Scottish or northern people speak. The purpose of communication is to ... communicate ... and if the listener (or the reader in some instances) cannot understand the message you're attempting to convey, you're failing.

As for the example of the non-existent 'r' in 'bath', etc., I think it's a common problem. I've just listened to someone on television talking about 'sawshul services'.

[vulcan42]

As well as adding letters, as in Glarsgow, they are now dropping them. Recently we had a traffic reporter referring to "the A twenny free".