Abdul is right in his comment on “Kofi Annan and Edward Stourton”: the news readers can’t deal with the sounds and phonotactics of other languages – and the Pronunciation Research Unit doesn’t expect them to. As he points out, the syllable-final -h of the name Fahmi can have two solutions: ignore it, and say /fa:mi/, or replace it with /x/ as in “loch” or “Bach”. This is the practice followed by all languages when borrowing: use the nearest sounds of your own language in order to approximate the sounds of the borrowed word. Professor John Wells is discussing this problem in relation to English loan-words in Japanese on his blog at the moment.
In an earlier post, I was critical of Mishal Husain precisely because she does not follow this practice when it is a question of a name from a language she knows intimately. When she is speaking English, she should not introduce “foreign” sounds – it is disconcerting to the listener.

When Mr Annan was appointed as Secretary General of the United Nations, we in the BBC’s Pronunciation Research Unit were sent a tape of his inauguration, in the course of which he had to pronounce his own name. He clearly said “I, KOHfi ANNann” (re-spelt to show where he placed the stresses: -oh as in ‘ohm’). Consequently, this was the recommendation that the Unit made to the Corporation’s broadcasting staff, and so far as I am aware, and judging by the Radio 4 newsreaders’ pronunciation, this is still the recommendation today, available to every BBC employee, whether staff or freelance, via their desktop. Nevertheless, yet again this morning, he has been interviewed live on Radio 4, and introduced as “KOHfi aNANN” by Edward Stourton. This is the man who when he first joined the BBC from ITN had us informed that as a linguist, he had no need of the help of the Pronunciation Research Unit, and could we please stop sending him notes! He is the only news presenter in my experience who ever behaved in this way. Most of them have always been delighted to have the responsibility taken off their hands.

It ill behoves a man whose own name is pronounced in an opaque manner (STURton, not as written) to believe that he can say anyone else’s name without help. The very fact that he could think of telling us he was a linguist and didn’t need help proved (a) that he is no linguist, and (b) that he needs lots of help.

What is it about Spanish names that sports commentators can never get them right? For the past four days, not a single BBC sports reporter or commentator has pronounced Sergio García’s first name correctly (let’s leave aside for the moment whether the second name ‘should be’ garssee-a or garthee-a). They seem to have no problem with the name José – the first sound doesn’t come out as a full-bodied velar fricative, but there is an attempt at it – so why have they decided that Sr García’s first name is Italian? Inevitably, they don’t even get it really right as an Italian name either, saying ‘serji-o’ rather than ‘sairjo’, but can the golfer really want them to say it that way? Brian Perkins, the incomparable Radio 4 newsreader, is the only broadcaster I’ve heard all week end pronounce it in a Spanish manner. He ought to live up to his “Dead Ringers” reputation, and deal severely with the sports people! Continue Reading →

In the days before most people were literate, there were only two ways to pronounce a foreign place name – you either pronounced it more or less how the locals pronounced it, or you ignored their name and gave the place/river/mountain/whatever a name of your own.

This meant we said Paris as ‘parriss’ and Lyon as ‘lions’ (like more than one of the animals). This is because in early medieval French, Paris was pronounced in French as ‘parreess’, and Lyon as ‘lyonss’ (-y as a consonant, not a vowel). In the course of time, final -s disappeared from French pronunciation, but not from English (I’m talking 12th-13 Century here), but by this time, the names were so familiar to English speakers that they had become English words and started to develop according to English rules rather than French. Continue Reading →

The approaching tenth anniversary of Diana, Princess of Wales’s death brings Althorp back into the news. This is where she grew up, and where she is buried. The BBC first became aware of the difficulty about pronunciation well before the Second World War – Broadcast English II, published in 1930, included it, with the pronunciation áwltrŏp. Later, in about 1952, the Pronunciation Assistant, G.M. “Elizabeth” Miller, wrote to the then Viscount Althorp (Diana’s father) about it, and was told the same thing. I, as Pronunciation Adviser, wrote to the present Earl Spencer (Diana’s brother) in 1992, and in January the following year, he wrote back saying “áwltrŏp. This is definitely correct. I can remember my grandfather pronouncing it like this; my octogenarian great-aunt does, too – and it is clear that alternative pronunciations only came about recently, out of laziness (it became simpler not to correct the many who mispronounce it – the majority of whom were foreign visitors to the house.)” See here for more on the argument. He included the same pronunciation in his history of Althorp

However, some time after this, he succumbed to the pressure, and put out a press statement saying that henceforth the house should be called ‘áwlthorp’ – as spelt.

Added in December 2020:

Thirteen years on from writing that post, the death of Diana came back into the news with the disclosure that part of the background to an interview that she gave to the BBC in the shape of Martin Bashir (now BBC Religious Editor) was some faked documentation. I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but was there a concerted effort to determinedly irritate the Spencer family? In 1998, on the first anniversary of Diana’s death, when Althorp was very much in the news, the Pronunciation Unit came under a lot of pressure from senior BBC executives to change the recommendation, despite the clear evidence that the family’s pronunciation was still ‘áwltrŏp’. The Head of Policy Management gathered ‘evidence’ supporting the revisionist version. He wrote “I have consulted and discussed widely and have concluded that the overwhelming view is that we should pronounce it All-thorp.”

The evidence:

World Service: someone who “knows people who live in the area and it’s All-thorp to the locals”.

BBC World: “All-thorp, having checked their database.” (Which database? – the only one I’m aware of that included pronunciation was the BBC’s own, i.e. the one I was in charge of.)

Programme Complaints Unit: another person who “knows people round there, and to them it’s All-thorp. He believes the All-trup pronunciation to be ‘almost totally spurious’.

(BBC) Radio Northampton: “they say All-trup at present on the basis that that’s what the current earl calls it. If that’s how he pronounces his home then who are we to argue. However, the overwhelming view of the audience from correspondence etc. is that it should be All-thorp.” The writer of the memo adds – interestingly at this point in the narrative: “Of course, much of this is hearsay and of little real value, but interesting nevertheless.”

Someone from Rugby (“fairly nearby” [15 miles by the nearest route]) agrees with All-thorp and “says his mother also calls it that.” [The writer of this memo lives about 15 miles from the village of Thriplow in Cambridgeshire, but was unaware that it was pronounced ‘Triplow’ by all its inhabitants.]

I am named as “an intractable Altrupist”. He goes on “the letter [a further letter from the Spencer Estate] was prompted by Graham – I have a copy of the whole thing – presumably as a way of re-validating the earl’s 1993 letter in the light of the current debate.” So I am responsible for persuading the earl to retain the ‘awl-trup’ version? That is what is implied here.

A note to [the late] Peter Donaldson [then Chief announcer Radio 4] “included a page from the BBC dictionary of placenames, which plumped for All-thorp.” [Its correct title is the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names, and it gives All-thorp as the second pronunciation, not the first.] “When I pointed this out to Graham – he had a hand in the book [I was its editor, and only my name appears on the title page!] – he drew my attention to the introduction which, applied to this case, would favour All-trup on the grounds that it is preferred by the ‘local educated population‘ – the book’s qualification. Therein, I think, lies the heart of the affair: should the view of the local population be subordinated to that of the incumbent squirearchy?”

These last two words give away the whole thing: Earl Spencer and his family are merely “the incumbent squirearchy” whose views can safely be ignored. In a telephone conversation I had with another ‘policy’ manager, he used the word ‘effete’ to describe such people.

Should we be surprised, therefore, to discover that underhand methods were used to inveigle Diana into giving such a damaging interview?

The knighthood conferred on this author has brought him back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, many people still find it difficult to pronounce his name correctly, including some BBC newsreaders (Natasha Kaplinsky on 18 June, for instance). The man in the street can be excused – not everyone know Sir Salman personally, nor speaks Urdu, but everyone working for the BBC has access to SpeakEasy, the Pronunciation Unit’s computerised database which I helped design in the 1990s. This not only gives a re-spelling of all its entries, but also has a voice component, so that broadcasters in doubt can listen to it as well. What a shame that so many fail to take advantage of it.

For the record, the correct pronunciation is sal-MAAN ROOSH-di (stressed syllables in capitals, -al as in “pal”, -oo as in “foot”)