Pronunciation watch

[Panjandrum]

I had to do a double take last week when, after listening to last Monday's lunchtime concert of Schumann's piano quintet, the announcer told us that "the composer Brett Dean (was playing) the viola"

[PatrickOD]

I have signed copies of Humph's books The Best of Jazz. He spells it Cylalttor, or Cyltltsone. Was he a doctor too ?

[ostuni]

"the composer Brett Dean (was playing) the viola"

Well, he is a composer, and he was playing the viola, so where's the problem?

[Panjandrum]

Well, he is a composer, and he was playing the viola, so where's the problem?

Ok, she had prefaced the introductions of the performers by "what a remarkable work that was. The performers were so-and so on the violins, the composer Brett Dean on the viola..." Anyone unfamiliar with the piece would have gone away with the impression that they had just heard Brett Dean's piano quintet.

More egregious, however, was the trailer for last Tuesday's Performance on 3, featuring works of Dvôrák and Prokofiev. To the accompaniment of the Slavonic Dances we were told how this concert would explore "the music which influenced this composer including Prokofiev's 1st symphony". Hang on, sorry, since when did Prokofiev antedate Dvôrák? This kind of sloppiness is unacceptable and would not occur if the producers did their job properly.

[StephenO]

I don't generally get too worked up about pronunciation but I have noticed that several R3 announcers/presenters have trouble with Finnish, as I'm sure KCII could confirm. Like Hungarian, Finish places the stress on the first syllable of a word, so
KUL-ler-vo not kul-LER-vo and LEM-min-kain-en not lem-min-KAIN-en (sorry - can't do the accents). I think the problem possibly stems from the name Sibelius which is stressed on the second syllable. But, then, Sibelius is a Swedish name rather than a Finnish one.

[Nick Armstrong]

I also try not to get worked up about announcers' (or should I say, presenters') pronunciation.

But on Friday night, I heard something so crass that I can only hope Petroc Trelawny was doing it deliberately to provoke. However, I fear it was just crass.

Introducing the performance of Martinu's Symphony No. 6 'Fantaises symphoniques', he pronounced the piece's title "Fantazeez Simphoneekz"

Isn't it just about THE most basic thing any schoolchild knows about foreign languages, that a French plural 's' is silent?

Am I being unreasonable in finding that pronunciation pitifully inept?

[mangerton]

Am I being unreasonable in finding that pronunciation pitifully inept?

Certainly not, Caliban. It appears that "ineptitude" is one of the BBC's new watchwords. Similar things happen on Radio 4 where mistakes from announcers and newsreaders who really should know better are becoming increasingly common.

[vinteuil]

Certainly not, Caliban. It appears that "ineptitude" is one of the BBC's new watchwords. Similar things happen on Radio 4 where mistakes from announcers and newsreaders who really should know better are becoming increasingly common.

I could have sworn that Martin Handley this morning described a piece by Handel as being one that the composer had performed in the church of St John Lutheran in Rome... but that made me smile...

[Daring Tripod]

Talking of R4 amusing gaffs, last week the correspondent in Tunisia talked about the "streets being full of soldiers, police and the secret police"! How secret can one get?

[Vile Consort]

Mispronunciation undermines the speaker's authority. One feels one cannot trust anything they say about a work if they can't pronounce its name (or its composer's) correctly. The error is all the more egregious if it is a well-known work (or composer) that all one's friends and acquaintances manage to pronounce correctly.

The BBC is viewed as being authoritative: hearing Tannhaüser pronounced as tann-how-zer (as it was twice the other week on the Sunday afternoon request programme) is rather like seeing a not uncommon word mis-spelled in the Oxford English Dictionary.

[kernelbogey]

...hearing Tannhaüser pronounced as tann-how-zer (as it was twice the other week on the Sunday afternoon request programme) is rather like seeing a not uncommon word mis-spelled in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Or like seeing the Umlaut over the wrong vowel.

[french frank]

Or like seeing the Umlaut over the wrong vowel.

Oo-er!

I suppose the written word one just has to expect to be sloppy these days. Slyvia McNair I gave a hard look to on one page, but Otmar Suiter and La fina giardiniera seemed to suggest someone in a bit too much of a hurry.

[kernelbogey]

Oo-er!

I suppose the written word one just has to expect to be sloppy these days. Slyvia McNair I gave a hard look to on one page, but Otmar Suiter and La fina giardiniera seemed to suggest someone in a bit too much of a hurry.

La fina giardiniera = Murder in the garden?

[Vile Consort]

Ignore me, I'm an idiot.

[BBMmk2]

Incorrect names are one of my hates!! (I was listening to R3's Breakfast and heard SMP say Black Dyke Colliery Band!! I mean!! Why can't presenters get their facts right. I have to say she did announce it correctly later on(thankfully!!)