Pronunciation watch

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  • subcontrabass
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 2780

    Originally posted by Belgrove View Post
    The serene Michel Hussain got it right.
    Her name is Mishal Husain. A very large number of her guests mispronounce her first name.

    Comment

    • french frank
      Administrator/Moderator
      • Feb 2007
      • 30241

      Originally posted by Bryn View Post
      I suggest you actually listen to the case in point before acting as an apologist for the miscreant.
      To save me listening to it, what was the case in point?

      In general, I tend to be quite forgiving about mispronunciations of foreign words, especially since I have long ago given up mourning the passing of a BBC that was the fount of accurate information.
      It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

      Comment

      • Ein Heldenleben
        Full Member
        • Apr 2014
        • 6748

        Weird mistake to make given the word German word Reich is in fairly common use. To be honest I’m more amazed (and heartened ) by the Today programme doing something on a contemporary classical composer. I guess the pull is the hook up with the (multi millionaire) Richter.

        My particular bête-noire on R3 is the constant Messy- AN when it should be like MessyOn as in enfant. There’s even a YouTube site on how to pronounce French composers names.

        Comment

        • gurnemanz
          Full Member
          • Nov 2010
          • 7380

          We're used to BBC (and other) commentators not bothering to check the pronunciation of foreign names but it keeps annoying me. In the case of Elena Rybakina, winner of the Wimbledon semi-final yesterday, we had three different versions. One commentator had Rybakeener (incorrect), the other got it right with Rybarkina. Stalwart presenter, Sue Barker, came up with the bizarre Ry bike ina.

          Comment

          • Bryn
            Banned
            • Mar 2007
            • 24688

            Just now on BBC TWO's Politics Live, Emily Thornberry attempting to say "paragon", managed to come out with "pagan". She was referring to a certain cabinet member not being a former of virtue.

            Comment

            • cloughie
              Full Member
              • Dec 2011
              • 22114

              This morning on Breakfast Lizzie pronounced Strathspey as Strathspea - I thought the correct pronunciation was Strathspay! Maybe jc or someone from north of the border could tell me what the correct is!

              Comment

              • french frank
                Administrator/Moderator
                • Feb 2007
                • 30241

                Originally posted by cloughie View Post
                This morning on Breakfast Lizzie pronounced Strathspey as Strathspea - I thought the correct pronunciation was Strathspay! Maybe jc or someone from north of the border could tell me what the correct is!
                In my 13 years in Aberdeen, I only ever heard it as StrathSPAY though a Scottish accent might just possibly convert it - to some English ears at any rate - to something not unlike Strathspea. But then it wouldn't sound right to pronounce it like that unless you had a Scottish accent.
                It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                Comment

                • subcontrabass
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 2780

                  Is there any hope that BBC newsreaders and politcal commentators can agree on a pronunciation of "Braverman"? I have heard at least three different pronunciations of the first syllable.

                  Comment

                  • french frank
                    Administrator/Moderator
                    • Feb 2007
                    • 30241

                    Originally posted by subcontrabass View Post
                    Is there any hope that BBC newsreaders and politcal commentators can agree on a pronunciation of "Braverman"? I have heard at least three different pronunciations of the first syllable.
                    I'd wondered: Suella Braverman:

                    video, sharing, camera phone, video phone, free, upload


                    Marilyn Braverman:



                    If correct, it's easily found out. The problem is usually that people 'know' how to pronounce it so there is no problem and they don't need to check. It's an attiitude of mind.
                    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                    Comment

                    • Eine Alpensinfonie
                      Host
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 20570

                      I’ve been wondering when people - singers in particular - phased out the short vowel sound “a” from “E” to “A”. When I sang in a York-based choir in the early 1990s, we would sing “black” as “blek”, but that has now changed.

                      Turning to the Decca/D’Oyly Carte recordings of the G & S operas the change can be dated to the early 1970s. Iolanthe was recorded twice in stereo by this partnership. In the first (1960) the chorus sings a very clear “Iolenthy”, but by 1974, this had changed. This might suggest a gradual evolution, but the previous year’s recording of The Mikado showed no such change.

                      Of course, it wasn’t entirely abrupt. John Reed was the Lord Chancellor on both recordings, and his clipped accent remained identical. The Chorus of Peers still had the unrhyming “masses/brasses” as “messes/brahsses”.

                      Tracing the evolution of the same vowel sound with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge would be interesting too.

                      Comment

                      • ardcarp
                        Late member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 11102

                        Tracing the evolution of the same vowel sound with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge would be interesting too.
                        Same evolution at Kings. Had they sung G&S (!) I'm sure that in the early Willcocks era, they would have sung 'Iolenthe'! Any English films around the WW2 era also have that clipped 'a'.

                        Comment

                        • Serial_Apologist
                          Full Member
                          • Dec 2010
                          • 37589

                          Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
                          I’ve been wondering when people - singers in particular - phased out the short vowel sound “a” from “E” to “A”. When I sang in a York-based choir in the early 1990s, we would sing “black” as “blek”, but that has now changed.

                          Turning to the Decca/D’Oyly Carte recordings of the G & S operas the change can be dated to the early 1970s. Iolanthe was recorded twice in stereo by this partnership. In the first (1960) the chorus sings a very clear “Iolenthy”, but by 1974, this had changed. This might suggest a gradual evolution, but the previous year’s recording of The Mikado showed no such change.

                          Of course, it wasn’t entirely abrupt. John Reed was the Lord Chancellor on both recordings, and his clipped accent remained identical. The Chorus of Peers still had the unrhyming “masses/brasses” as “messes/brahsses”.

                          Tracing the evolution of the same vowel sound with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge would be interesting too.
                          Interesting because I don't recall any of this being the case when I was in and eventually leading the school chapel choir during the years 1957 and 1964. And I had to undergo elocution lessons to gain that particular grade. What you are describing sounds almost like the transferring of the affected 1930s middle class RP way of pronouncing the short A, eg "A metter of feckt", into the choral sphere.

                          Comment

                          • gurnemanz
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 7380

                            Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View Post
                            1930s middle class RP way of pronouncing the short A, eg "A metter of feckt", into the choral sphere.
                            I vaguely remember a discussion years ago about RP when teaching English in Germany. Some elder Germans still spoke English with the RP accent which they had been taught in the 1930s.

                            If "man" is pronounced "men", how, someone asked, is the plural "men" pronounced? The answer was "min".

                            Comment

                            • Bella Kemp
                              Full Member
                              • Aug 2014
                              • 457

                              I am late to this party, so I'm sure someone has mentioned this before, but surely pronunciation (like words and their meanings) changes over time and according to geographical location. When I was young, posh people pronounced 'house' as 'hice.' In Glasgow they say 'hoos'. Shakespeare would have used a markedly different pronunciation to the one pedants deem as 'correct' these days. Listen to recordings of such as E.M Forster and others of his era and the pronunciation sounds peculiar to our contemporary ears. If one can readily understand a word, however it is spoken, then I can't see the problem In short, I think this entire thread is peculiar.

                              Comment

                              • Eine Alpensinfonie
                                Host
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 20570

                                Originally posted by Bella Kemp View Post
                                In short, I think this entire thread is peculiar.
                                Maybe, but it can be very interesting.

                                Comment

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