I was watching the BBC News and Sky News Channels this morning and I’m absolutely sure the announcers were pronouncing Afghanistan as Arfgharnistarn and Kabul as Karboule (boule as in the French bowls game). What the heck is happening here? Are they trying to sound posh or what putting Rs into words where no Rs are warranted or needed? To my ears it sounds even more dreadful than the Rs people put in glass and brass making those words sound like glarse and brarse. Arrggggggggghhhhhhh!
We have a language that has almost been honed to perfection over many centuries and these wazzocks constantly set it back. The young are the worst offenders. They seem to be creating a language all of their own.
No need to apologise - to my Northern ears, it sounds bloody dreadful as well as pretentious. Some time ago, a BBC female presenter (can’t remember who), was saying Talibaaan repeatedly despite being corrected by the Afghan citizen she was interviewing telling her it was pronounced TaliBAN.
I do think it’s all down to where you live, or where you were brought up. I wouldn’t say Arfgharnistarn, but I do say Afghanistaan, or perhaps the last syllable should be spelt ‘stahn’ (note, it’s not an ‘r’ I add, it’s just an elongated ‘a’ sound). I say glaass and braass too, there are no 'r’s in there, I just elongate the vowel sound, because that’s how it’s pronounced where I was brought up. And blimey, there’s nothing posh or pretentious about me at all!
I always prick up my ears and notice when people in my region say, e.g., bath with a shortened vowel. It’s not that it sounds wrong to me, because there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it’s all down to regional variations in pronunciation. But that pronunciation just kind of jumps out at me as being different to what I’m used to hearing.
Funny … I said to Mr M it sounded like they’d dropped the G and said …Af …anistan.
I must get my ears waxed… there must be too much hair growing in 'em.
Its the short a which people don’t seem to get .
My husband laughs at me because I frequently use the short a and o because that is how they speak in in Spanish and I have spoken Spanish for a good part of my life .
I was born in Lancashire and although did not live there after the age of one I see they also use the short vowels . Once on a visit I asked the way to the bass stop in my southern accent and no one could understand me until they cottoned on I wanted the buss ( short u ) stop!
Then again my children used laugh at me for saying ( sometimes) bouk instead of buk.
But I note the way everything is either lengthened to sound posh or shortened to sound souf Lundun
And all the end gs cut off runnin , jumpin , talkin ,added to the glottal stop innit ?
I absolutely love words. When l was first married my husband and l used to take a dictionary to bed to learn new words! (Please…Don’t even think about it! )
That has been most useful for crosswords which l love doing.
I hate it when lovely words are taken and massacred and l feel sad that too many ‘American-isms’’ are creeping into the wonderful English Language.
I agree with you but I think it is not just the Americanisms. I find that many people don’t or can’t spell correctly. Sometimes shockingly so in my opinion. Is the teaching so poor?
When I first started secondary school at eleven we had to write an essay. It was homework for the weekend and handed in on Monday morning. The teacher corrected any spieling mistakes. I got four wrong. I got the belt (strap) for that. Once.
That punishment would not be allowed today. But it fixed my spelling at a stroke.
Considering that Yorkshire, Lancashire, and much of the North were under Viking occupation (Northumbria) when what is now called English was being developed between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, it’s stands to reason that we use the correct pronunciation using the flat vowel sounds. It’s only since the Norman French invaders conquered the country, did the language become corrupted by fancy French pronunciations, especially in the South.
300+ million Americans speaking English, 67 million British (not to mention millions of people all over the world)? English is a living language changed by the people who speak it. If you want a language that doesn’t change learn Latin.
I find Latin impressive, though extremely complicated.
I sometimes wish I’d taken the opportunity to learn Latin at school, but I was too lazy.
But of course, a lot of English IS Latin.
I’m kidding, of course ! In fact, I tend to think of you all at the start of the language line, so I hold you to higher standards in your grammar and speech, hoping you will continue to model each to the rest of the world . I was a fierce when teaching English (with an American neutral accent with a slight southern drawl) but ultimately thanked for those high expectations.
Now get cracking and get those r’s under control, while I stay here in the back, smacking g’s back on all those ing’s ! (I’m now sad because I want to insert that animated whip-cracking emoticon here.)
Love the History lessons, and developmental explanations, but, it has yet to be explained where “Chav Talk” came from, it is now prolific, but its origin seems to be a mystery.
Afghanistan? … Definitely not ‘starn’, that’s putting emphasis on the last syllable where emphasis does not belong. Not ‘stann’ like a geordie, again, emphasis on the last syllable. But more a kind of a ‘stun’ or ‘stn’ like a flat ‘stan’. That’s west country public school meets west london hooray henry layabout.
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! In fact, I tend to think of you all at the start of the language line, so I hold you to higher standards in your grammar and speech, hoping you will continue to model each to the rest of the world 
. I was a fierce when teaching English (with an American neutral accent with a slight southern drawl) but ultimately thanked for those high expectations.
! (I’m now sad because I want to insert that animated whip-cracking emoticon here.)