Vech-run or vet-er-an?

[BringOnTheScience]

One teeny weeny aspect of the news coverage of the D-day commemoration has got me thinking. When did vet-er-an become vech-run?

At the same time that news reporters and journalists decided "pled guilty" rather than "pleaded guilty", or "I am sat" or "I was stood" passed for correct English. Horrific, toe curling and just wrong.

I've never heard vechrun. They might skip over the middle syllable a bit, sort of veteran. Which channel are you watching?

• sort of 'vetran'

What new hell is this?

Not heard that. Have heard vetrun.

'Jography' is another bastardisation of English which seems to have crept into common useage.

Definitely hearing more of "vech-run" than "vet-run" (ch as in church)

Radio 4 this morning, BBC & Sky this evening.

The one that really gets me is 'sixth'. People pronouncing it as though they have a lisp.

Yeah, sikth,rather than siksth

beekeeper pled is the past tense of plead in Scotland so maybe if a Scottish journalist is doing the news, that's when you'd hear it.

Yy, SirSteve and Smidge! I’ve had people tell me that pronouncing it ‘sixth’ is impossible, but I don’t see why — it’s ‘six’ with th’ on the end...? ‘Sikth’ sounds like something Violet Elizabeth Bott would say.

I haven't heard 'vechrun' but 'vetran' is definitely being used a lot.

I was watching a documentary about King George VI recently. All very interesting, but it was narrated by the actor Laurence Fox who really should've known better than to pronounce sixth as 'sicth'. I realise I'm being pedantic but it ended up annoying me so much I turned it off.

Ok I’m an idiot, I was reading it as ‘ch’ as in ‘chorus’ and wondering what the feck you were on about. I can see how ‘vet-er-un’ becomes ‘vet-run’ becomes ‘vech-run’.

Probably also one of those words where the more you hear it, the more it sounds ‘wrong’.

I see what you mean OP, the 't' and 'r' sound are sort of being merged. I've heard it quite a bit too.

Oh don't get me started on sixth too!

Tr becoming ch is common and feeds into spellings too. I've had pupils write chree for tree and well remember the shape labelled as chriangool.

My mum is Scottish and spent my childhood correcting my 'wrong' English under-enunciation of words

This is just how pronunciation has evolved, OP, 'I was stood' is colloquial English and I pronounce 'veteran' 'vechrun' - language is constantly changing.