BBC perceived pronunciation?

[TheRtHonSec]

There are lots of accents and dialects in this country, which I think is wonderful. But where did pronunciation like this come from: brarss plark (brass plaque)? Barth (Bath)? And lots of others. There was a time when we had the "Dan Maskell" type of pronunciation, e.g. gress (grass), gless (glass), so why and when did they start to put an 4rse in these words?

[d9f1c7]

lighten up fred, the use of the phrase "correct" above is meant to portray the idea that regardless of the sound we all think our pronounciation is right and anyone who does it differently is wrong.

I cringe when I hear the Irish guys on the TV talking about the Toyn senner when they mean Town Centre!

[NOX]

I'm from Norn Ireland and I say 'brass plack', whereas my wife is a sloane and says ' braaaze plarque', the kids tend to favour her pronunciation more than mine as well, although the older ones who were for a time brought up in my home country do say brass plack as well. I always believed either was fine and was all down to accent and upbringing.

[heathfield]

The letter H at the start of many words is a device adopted from the Greek language. It is there as an 'aspirant', and in Greek is not pronounced, but is to show that the following vowel is breathed. Because 'O' in 'hotel' is preceded by an aspirant H, the O is pronouced as the O in IOU, and not as the O in 'offer'. It also explains the use of 'an' rather than 'a' before 'hotel'. The unpronounced H means the 'a' sound would run into the 'o' sound, requiring a glottal stop between them. Try it, and you'll find it much easier to say when a consonant 'n' comes between the two vowels.

[jake-the-peg]

The notion of "correct" is dubious in English.

We don't have accents on our words to let you know how they should be pronounced and so you can have an awful lot of variation.

I think Hungarian is so closely "accented" that the pronounciation is pretty explicit in the word and you really can talk about a right and wrong.

We have changed over the years too - there was a major shift in pronounciation in the late medieval period

http://en.wikipedia.o...iki/Great_Vowel_Shift

not sure if bath vs barth was involved in this

[Quizmonster]

Chakka, the reason I say "an 'otel" is perfectly correct is because there are STILL people I know around who use it, just as Fred's grandmother did. (Granted, I'm in my seventies.)
As far as I know, Britain has not recently acquired the equivalent of the Académie Française or any other body that has ruling linguistic powers, for which thank goodness. Usage is what matters.
Even Mark Twain made fun of the phrase over a century ago, having apparently forgotten that Americans have 'erbs rather than herbs!

[Quizmonster]

Apropos my comment re a British equivalent of the Académie Française above, I see the Queen's English Society has come to a grinding halt and will cease to exist by the end of the month.
Click http://www.guardian.c...sh-society-enuf-innit for a report on that in yesterday's Guardian. If you read it, you will see that they actually DID have plans to try to institute an Academy of Contemporary English!
Tha' ain't gonna 'appen now, innit? Wonderful!

[NOX]

and here's Eddie waffling about the use of the 'h'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4Ps55Rx40

[Johnysid]

Received pronunciation is what most private schools teach their pupils, especially in the Home Counties. (With a few exceptions - some ancient private schools developed their own accents and some modern private schools allow local accents). Its the Oxbridge based language of the Court. Dan Maskell was a failed experiment by the beeb.

[jake-the-peg]

Really?

I went to a private school in Middlesex in the 80s and we certainly didn't have any lessons in pronounciation.

You do however tend to pick up accents from people you grow up with but it certainly wasn't "taught" in my day

Anybody have any elocution lessions at school?

[jno]

what about your teachers, jake? Did they teach in any particular accent? We pick things up from them too. I remember being conflicted, between teachers who said "off" and parents who said "orff" (a regional pronunciation, not an upper-class one).

[hideaway]

Ihave an Australian friend who calls pasta 'parsta' - it makes me cringe

[boxtops]

That wouldn't make me cringe - it's just a different pronunciation, it's not incorrect.

[boxtops]

... it's like the tomayto/tomarto discussion.

[wiltsman]

A lot of Bristolians add an 'L when pronouncing words ending in an 'A'.

A few years ago a local news team went out into the streets of Bristol, and asked people to speak the words on a card which read, 'The Carla Rosa Opera Company'.

Virtually everyone they asked, read it as, 'The Carlal Rosal Operal Company'.

[DTCwordfan]

He'er be sum Carrnish fer you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9CGsQtM-0I