August 17, 2006

The BBC pronunciation blog. Via The Hat.
posted by tracicle 18 years ago
  • I'd love to see "Schedule" added to that list Sheduoool?
  • Cool link, thanks!
  • bowl point HAYd monk ee FILTah
  • The news anchors on the BBC all seem to have one or two "pet names" that they pronounce radically differently than their peers - like they are trying to make a statement of individuality or something. It's one of those things that once I notice it, it becomes so distracting that I have to go read a newspaper instead. Hez-bol-AH turns to HIZ-bolah and al-KAEY-da becomes al-chHA-YEEED-a which is still better than Bush's 'Al KAY-der' the distant cousin of Darth Vader?) But I can't talk, I say Sheduoool, much to the merriment of the Americans I work with...
  • Noo-kyoo-lar.
  • You say Al-Qaeda I say Al-Qaida
  • I say Betty-Quaida.
  • I say Dennis Qaida? You say 'erb, and I say herb, You say o-REG-an-o, I say o-re-GAN-o, EYE-rak, EE-raq, Mommy, Mummy, Let's call the whole bloody thing off.
  • They didn't tell us how to pronounce "tomato", though.
  • We'll have to keep calling 'em "love apples," then. When you get to the shed you'll find your schedule...
  • I say "Hey Man! Jaws was never my scene and I don't like Star Wars!"
  • TUM: that's "apples of the earth," as the French like to call them. Oh, right. Potatoes. My point still stands.
  • Something nasty in the woodsked?
  • Great find, thanks! The one I find funny these days is the people who seem to do the BBC world news we get on NPR say "LIB-inon", one very tight word. Every time they do it, my husband and I both sort of twitch. It takes you out of the story a wee bit...
  • In California, the news anchors speak with a straight, liltless accent, but go to great pains to properly pronounce the names of those with hispanic names with the appropriate hispanic accent. "Good evening, and welcome to the Nighty News. I'm Ca[rolling r here]los San Mee-ghel." You don't, however, see them doing the same for other ethnicities. I find this odd.
  • That goes further than California, Nunia. I recall anchors and reporters saying "Nicadagwah" but not "Coobah". And the CBC had about ten different ways to say Chrétien. Tom Brokaw just called him "cretchen". The list goes on...
  • You mean the Prime Minister WASN'T a girl named Gretchen?!?
  • In California, the news anchors speak with a straight, liltless accent, but go to great pains to properly pronounce the names of those with hispanic names with the appropriate hispanic accent. It's an NPR thing as well. You'll hear a report delivered in a perfect newscaster's accent, and at the end it's "For NPR News, I'm Mandalit Del Barrrrrrco."
  • ear ROCK or ear RACK? wot strange echoes bouncing back ear RON or ear RAN tunes on a pipe played by Great Pan or Egg a know? I can knot say how you pruh NOUNZ this URB t'day LEB a nun or LEB anon? well, however we say it a lot of it seems gone