Pronunciation

I hate criticism of the way people talk. When I was at grammar school, especially at first, everyone laughed at me because of my broad accent. But I wouldn't try to change it, because the people who mattered to me - large family, local friends - would have felt I thought I was better than them (no-one else from my school went to the Grammar). I do love listening to the BBC English of radio 4 presenters (& guests too). Not JRM though.

There was one commentator at the Olympics who insisted on talking about ‘ath-e-letes.’ Where did the extra syllable come from?

The early hard pronunciation of Cicero can only be speculative as we don’t know exactly how the Romans pronounced it. The softer ‘Chi-che-ro’ is later Medieval Latin and British pronunciation is ‘Si-ser-o’ - think Cell Block Tango in ‘Chicago’!

Call me a snob if you like, but should we have an education secretary who says ‘reckernise’ for recognise?

If you want a job as a television presenter why not have some elocution lessons so that everyone can understand you.
I am from the NE and often get taken for a Geordie, I am not, I am a Wearsider and I have never said " gan " or " why aye " in my life. I have friends and family who live on Tynside and in Northumberland and they do not use lazy slang either. Language is more about the person than where they come from.

Not pronunciation with this one just the irritating “Can I get a coffee?’ said in a coffee shop !! To quote another “You pays your money you takes your pick !” ( yes I know that is totally incorrect grammatically but just sums it up). Hello fellow Wearsider Harrigran and I’ve never used “gan”or “why aye” either .

Bankhurst, I’m another who winces at ‘haitch’. However a Gdd (6) has started saying it ? - it’s evidently come from her lovely and very good teacher. Still, she’ll have a different teacher in September so ?.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I don’t think this is to do with local accents, saying twen’y is just sloppy pronunciation. I’m irritated by people on radio missing out Ts all the time. Where Americans pronounce T as D (DADDA for data) it’s become commonplace in Britain to simply drop the T altogether.
Crazes come and go but much faster now, thanks to social media and broadcasting. We now have Ay instead of Uh as the indefinite article, “He had Ay sandwich and Ay cup of tea”
also strange stresses ( usually American) like VaccINE, GENN-ome, MISSel etc
You can’t stop it, just shout at the radio.

Glottal stops. My bete noire. Radio 4 is full of people dropping the 't'. I hate it but i'm told it's a fashion. To me it distracts from what the person is saying, and often it is very interesting and I miss half of it by repeating the words complete with the 't'!

I am often told I am posh because of the way I speak, I'm not, I just speak received BBC English which is heard and understood the world over. This is what I tell my French friends when they ask me about pronunciation.

We have a lot of fun when I'm explaining about 'h'. I use Professor Higgins method of 'In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire etc....' They think it's hilarious. Squirrel is another word they laugh at!

One friend on a foreign holiday met some most unpleasant people who called her posh. Another person told her just say 'Posh? You obviously mean that as an insult. How about I call you common, how does that sit?' I wish I had the nerve to say that when I'm called posh.

I hate to hear 'haitch' for the letter 'h'.

A fellow EFL teacher in the Middle East used to say ‘we was’ and reacted very stroppily when someone (not me, I hasten to add) suggested that she should change it to ‘were’ when teaching, since it was confusing for her students who were nearly all sponsored by their employers, were expected to take - and pass - exams, and would be marked down for such mistakes.

Her attitude was that if it was good enough for her…..
She was a stroppy type in general, though.

Accents and dialects are fine but it is embarrassing if you can't understand a strong one and you have to ask them to repeat what they said a few times.
I can't stand SecUtary instead of secretary and FebUary instead of February.
It also drives me mad when people put a 'T' on the end of thousand (Ann Robsinson for one)