July 1, 2018
by Graham
8 Comments
For anyone reading this who is not familiar with British TV, the heading is the acronym for the programme “The Only Way Is Essex”, a reality show featuring natives of that county. I have to admit that this is not … Continue reading
May 9, 2018
by Graham
4 Comments
We’re all used to the confusion between the words ‘diffuse’ and ‘defuse’ as verbs, caused by the pronunciation of the latter with the KIT vowel rather than the more etymologically correct FLEECE. If we were to introduce a hyphen into … Continue reading
February 8, 2018
by Graham
1 Comment
So, if any of my readers in the UK, or who can otherwise access BBC Radio 4, have not yet discovered John Finnemore, can I suggest that they start with the last in the current series of “John Finnemore’s Souvenir … Continue reading
February 3, 2018
by Graham
0 comments
On the Today programme this morning on BBC Radio 4, Nick Robinson interviewed my successor in the Pronunciation Unit, Catherine Sangster (who is now in charge of pronunciation for the Oxford Dictionaries) about the problems of pronunciation. This piece arose … Continue reading
January 27, 2018
by Graham
2 Comments
There was a lot of discussion in the early days of broadcasting about what the audience should be called. The first issues of Radio Times regularly placed the word listener in inverted commas, wherever it appeared, although there are exceptions, … Continue reading
January 15, 2018
by Graham
1 Comment
I can claim no expertise in either the languages or the peoples of the area of the Bay of Bengal littoral. Today, 15 January 2018, the BBC has been highlighting the plight of the Rohingya people with a series of … Continue reading
November 10, 2017
by Graham
1 Comment
We appear to be in danger of completely losing what I consider to be a useful distinction between two phrases, one of which seems to be disappearing. Earlier this year, a cyclist, Charlie Alliston, riding an illegal bicycle (it had … Continue reading
May 24, 2017
by gpointon
2 Comments
In sorting through a box of miscellaneous papers the other day, I came across this letter, which the recipient, a BBC newsreader, gave me at some point (it is undated). I have replaced all names with initials, for obvious reasons. … Continue reading
May 9, 2017
by gpointon
3 Comments
Thank you Alec for alerting me to the number of mispronunciations American broadcasters have come up with for the new French president’s name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGgHy3BLloY Has anybody come up yet with any jokes about the meaning of his name? Perhaps a … Continue reading
April 12, 2017
by gpointon
0 comments
I had started to think that someone in the BBC hierarchy had issued an edict that the Syrian president’s name should be pronounced by all journalists in accordance with the Pronunciation Unit’s recommendation, with stress on the first syllable of … Continue reading