To think its pronounced BATH not BARTH

[FlyRussianUnicorn]

Maybe its a northern thing. But my brother has jusy pronounced a "bath as a "barth"

Who is right?

Wrong!
Barrth
Grarse
Clarse
Carstle
And I think it's a southern thing

What on earth is Laff? Laugh is Larf!

I can't say giraffe in a way that doesn't rhyme with scarf!

Clarse is like an amalgamation of claggy and arse! brilliant.

Ok its actually pronounced La-oo-gu-huh.

Can i just say that my son was educated in irish and is now learning to read and write in english and english is shit. Its an awful language to learn. The phonetics are crap. I didnt realise quite how awful it was until i started to teach him.

Bah th with a long a not a short clipped one. if you're a bit further into Somerset then add the 'r'.

I was born there and lived there until my 30s

I grew up in the Midlands, now live in Somerset. Went to a private school on an Assisted Place. Had electrocution speech & drama lessons.

If I were in the town with a BA postcode, wishing to carry out my ablutions, I would go for a bath (short-a) in Barth (long-a).

FIL cracks up every time I say "one" or "bus" when I'm a bit drunk, because it comes out "wun" and "buzz" and apparently I sound just like his dad did. However, that's OK because after three gins, MIL drops the "somewhere vaguely southern" accent and is BROAD Wigan .

People up north say water as though it has an r sound in the middle.

Why dont you pronounce water the way you pronounce bath...there no r in it.

I know it's a baahth really and that's what I call it to my family. But my partner says bath so sometimes I say it that way to him because it's cute - but it's not the real way to say it.

It's not just a North / South difference. In the West Country we say 'baath' rather than 'barth'...i hear words in northern accents as a very short 'a', whereas Devonshire / Cornish is a longer 'a' but definitely no 'r'

YABU.

Barth.

Midlander here, and I say "bath".

I live in Essex though, where DH grew up. He and the DDs all say "barth".

I have asked them before why the cat remains a cat and not a cart, but they.cannot answer that one.

I had this conversation with a northern colleague many moons ago. The office was in the south and he was commenting that we all pronounced bath wrong, as there was no 'r' in it. So I asked him how he pronounced "vase"

I find it really interesting that in such a small country we have such a variety of accents. My DH is Australian and they all have pretty much the same accent, certainly nothing like the variety there is here.

How do you pronounce vase? Its vaaz where i am.

RudeElf - where are you? I can't understand any of yours!

What MilkTwoSugars just said.

I live in Sussex. So baath for me. We have a place near me called Leigh pronounced lie and Ansty pronounced ans tie rather than ans tea.

Is Bath in the North of England? No then its Ba-ah-th.

And yes it is Ah-rse not Ass.

Baaath, North-east Somerset

Bathgate, Scotland

County Down nancy

I think its like the whole Sconn/Scohne thing...both are More Proper depending where you're from.

It is a regional difference, but 'barth/baaath' is received pronunciation. Perhaps though 'bath' with a short a would have been the most used everywhere originally.

There was an interesting programme on the radio a few months ago about original pronunciation as it was in Shakespeare's time. Here is a related article:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12159454/Shakespeares-lost-puns-and-rude-jokes-revealed-in-new-guide-to-Elizabethan-pronunciation.html
The last paragraph says, English accents in Shakespearean times are said to have been more similar to today’s American accents than how British people speak today, according to the theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn.

I wonder if the long 'aaaa' sound derived from the German kings and their court?

YADNBU to say bath. If it was meant to have an 'r' sound in there it would have one, wouldn't it?!
If you say barth then you're either posh or a wet Southerner lol.