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Newsreader Pronunciation
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Anyone else noticed how BBC newsreaders have taken to pronouncing Bahrain sort of like 'Bark-rain' instead or 'Bah-rain'. It sounded particularly bad in the BBC News this evening when the newsreader used 'Bark' and the reporter used 'Bah'. I've noticed something similar with Afghanistan.
Pretty unimportant I know but I thought the BBC had rules about these things.
Pretty unimportant I know but I thought the BBC had rules about these things.
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Im sure thats how it would be said, the H is like a flemmy click at the back of the the throat?
It really got irritating after a while.
All of them!
That's what all the locals seem to say when they get interviewed on TV.
Have a funny feeling it was Trevor McDonald, but I could be wrong.
I think you will find a number of newsreaders, BBC and ITN, have claimed that one over the years:D
Then there was Jack de Manio on the old BBC Home Service who introduced the music Land of the Niger as ''Land of the N****r'' (true:eek:)
It is odd that they Anglicise some words as you say, Paris rather than Paree, yet they pronounce Sarkozy the French way, some newsreaders even put on a French accent when they say his name, like it's Allo Allo and not the news.
I seem to remember Andrew Gardiner (RIP) laying claim to that during an episode of 'It'll be Alright on the Night'. He said he had been practising his name for a considerable period of time "...and then they shot him."
Fiona Bruce is a particularly bad offender when it comes to this sort of thing. I think she did modern languages at university - so she feels the need to go into 'funny accent' mode every time a foreign word appears.
It reminds me of this sketch by Catherine Tate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc8tfioOKvU
The newsreaders you heard probably pronounced it BarHrain with an aspirated H (like loCH) which is closer to the native pron but actually a bit pretentious! We generally have to stick to the established Anglicized pron... if this helps!
The way the main ITV football commentator pronounces Drogba as Drogbarrr really annoys me.
Jack de Manio, (MC and Bar, wasn't aware of that for years) regularly got the time wrong by an hour.
That's how Angela Ribbon used to say it, to be fair. She was the one who started all this local pronounciation/'say it like the natives do'. I remember she used pause slightly before coming out with it.
But in English 'Afghanistan' isn't pronounced like a native of Kabul says it so why does that news reader insist on, in effect, mispronouncing it? It's just to show off. 'Oslo' is pronounced 'Ooshlo' by Norwegians but that's not how it should be said in a news broadcast in the English language.
What next...'Montreal' being said 'Mon-rayalle' like Quebecers say it??
Yes, it's odd when you hear an English newsreader saying it with an accent that sounds Afghani or Pakistani, rather than saying it the English way. I don't know why they do that.