Irish News Reader

[lankeela]

on BBC - can someone tell her there is an 'H' in thousand, thanks and authority - its not tanks, tousand and autority!

[roopower]

I come from Suffolk and if I spoke with a heavy accent you would have a lot to moan about! I think the days of newsreaders speaking 'properly' are gone. We have to embrace their accents/ dialects whether you like it or not.

[1ozzy]

Nope, my bad spelling Tilly.

They usually start or finish "cockney says"

So, no (H)aitch ;-)

[Bazile]

But why all the bother ?

We all know it's an irish accent and that's the way they speak

[Electrochem]

It is received pronunciation. Whilst I find it a bit annoying at times I don't expect them to start speaking like the newsreaders of old.

What I find really irksome is the speed at which people speak as if they can't wait to get to the end of what they wish to say.

Just as bad are those who use the wrong word. I've lost count of the number of people I've heard say "non" when they mean "none" and vice versa.

[fbg40]

Tilly2
On Countdown a few days ago, Susie Dent put the "Aitch" or "Haitch" to bed, once and for all. According to the OED either pronunciation is now correct, "Tank you very much !!"
FBG40

[DTCwordfan]

try speaking French without using any definitive or indefinite pre-fix - as in 'Voici table et chaise' - we had a Vietnamese guy in our Lyons factory who could/would not use le/la/les or un/une. Really odd!

[jno]

it's quite a common feature of Irish-English. So if a cockney were impersonating an Irishman, he'd drop haitches rather than aitches.

[Tilly2]

I don't watch Countdown.

[davebro]

I don't think it's accent per se - it's mispronunciation associated with particular regional dialects. People used to have elocution lessons to standardise their speech for better acceptability (in "society") - not so much these days.

That George Clarke guy really grinds my gears - I think It's Geordie speak but I could be wrong.