She has odd quirks, but that is her persona.

Let's face it, so did FForsyth, and a huge ego, and he really was the most intensely irritating presenter. The show is immeasurably better now that he has finally gone - Tess does a much better job, despite the little quirks.

Oh I'm sure it is.

Along with an accent she is inconsistently avoiding despite never possessing it in the first place

Oh? Is she not really from "oop North" then?

Where would you reckon, without checking?

I've never really thought about it, to be honest - but I suppose I just assumed she was from Lancashire.

Born in Stockport and grew up in the top end of Derbyshire. Elongated vowels not a speciality in either location

Kudos to you for admitting the assumption, others made it, used it against her and then tried to wriggle out of it

I'm not an expert on regional accents - I tend to struggle to identify Lancashire vs Yorkshire accents - unless I hear one after the other, in which case I could probably tell which was which... not so much if I hear them in isolation though.

Stockport is more of a Mancunian accent though is it not? I don't think her accent sounds like that either to be honest.

I don't really mind her accent all that much, other than the odd sounds she sometimes comes out with but I do find that her attempts at humour are woeful, whereas Claudia is funny, self-deprecating and has spectacular comedy timing!

It is strange

I think she actually gets those three names right.

It is closest to soft Mancunian, ie not the stereotypical harsh one that in realty most of them do not have.

I think she was thought to be from Bolton by some because she married Vernon...though why she did that remains a mystery to me

You can usually tell Yorkshire folk apart rom Lancastrians by listening to how they say "you" - it sounds more like "ewe" in Lancashire.

*bangs head repeatedly on wall*

Nobody is suggesting otherwise... have you actually understood what I posted or just assumed that I suggested that she mispronounces their names? I really haven't.

She isn't mispronoucing the names. She is simply delivering them in the manner that one would address a class of 5 year olds. That's why I see it an an affectation. She only does it with certain names though - not them all.

Aah, now you see I am Scottish and when I say "ewe" or "you" they both sound the same (to me, at any rate) but I suspect the way I would say either/both would sound very different to the ears of someone from either Yorkshire or Lancashire.

This is the constant trouble with trying to convey accents, when people say she says "Jooges" to me that rhymes with Stoogies

Ok, well Yorkshire folk may object to this clumsy analogy but their "you" sounds more like "yoh" to me

By the way, I used to teach English as a foreign language. We always had to bear in mind the accents our students would hear where they lived or worked, to help them cope.

Accent on the last but one syllable is correct for all three of the names. Don't get yourself a concussion though.

Oh, never mind. I really can't be bothered trying to explain to someone who has so completely failed to grasp the point I was making.

As you were...

Yes, as a Scot I find it tricky when language and phrase books try to give phonetic spellings for words. These books assume that the reader speaks using received pronunciation so it's pretty difficult for those who don't.

So a word like "horse" is pronounced as "hawse" (with no letter "R" discernible) by someone who uses RP... whereas as a ScotI would pronounce the "R".

Anyway, as I have been trying to explain to someone else, I haven't actually suggested that she mispronounces anything.... just that I find her manner of almost singing certain pro dancers names to be a bit bizarre.

Why can't she just say them as she would if she was introducing them to a neighbour instead of delivering them in that weird way?

I think if she or anyone spoke like that when presenting it might be almost too pedestrian. Though for the life of me I can't do with darts comperes

I think it is possible to announce people professionally without it being a requirement to demand faux enthusiasm. She ought to be able to introduce each celebrity and pro dancer in the same measured tone of voice. Alan Deadlycoat seems to manage it on every programme.

One of the issues I currently have with Strictly currently is its tendency to try to stir up the audience into a frenzy at the drop of a hat instead of permitting them to respond spontaneously.

I see it elsewhere too - not just on this show. I don't really like when people are introduced to an viewing audience by a presenter teetering on the brink of abject hysteria *cough.... Davina McCall *... which, sadly, is a habit which is becoming all too pervasive.

I suppose it does beg the question why we have presenters and a separate dance announcer, though I have no wish to see either become the victim of BBC cuts

I suppose it is a recognition that in some way the two roles are purposefully differentiated.

Wrong. Emphasis should be on 2nd, or in some cases, 1st syllable. Some examples :

Maria Sharapova

Everyone says: Sha-ra-PO-va, but it's actually supposed to be: Sha-RA-po-va.
However, she accepted the incorrect version a LONG time ago, and it no longer bothers her. In fact, I think she might even use it herself!

Dinara Safina (my all-time favourite sportswoman)

People used to say Saf-IN-a, but she (quite rightly) insisted on the correct: SAF-in-a (Her older brother was the great Marat SAF-in). Most commentators eventually caught up, but they usually still said it wrong out of habit, and had to (reluctantly!) correct themselves.

Svetlana Kuznetsova

People seem to usually get this one right! Kuz-NET-so-va. [EDIT: Hmmm... Apparently not! See link in my next post ]

So, there you go & now you know...
Last edited by midflight : 07-12-2015 at 20:37

More examples here:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/myl/langua...es/001472.html

NOTE : all that I've said applies to FEMALE surnames. Males might be different...!?

But that is her Saturday job . A job in which she is highly paid for doing .

Remember a male skater, Aleksandr Fadeev, whose name was pronounced two different ways by presenters, ie emphasis on first or second syllable.

Assume easiest thing is, or should be, to tell the presenter the correct usage themself!

What Liza is talking about, IMHO, is Tess's failure to drop her intonation on the last syllable of the sentence (which happens to be the pro's name), as speakers of English normally do when making a statement. The tone just sort of hangs there, leaving the listener waiting for her to finish the sentence, which is mildly disconcerting.
Thank you SO much for pointing this out, BTW, now it's going to bother me every time!

Someone finally gets it!

I think I love you.