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?

It has nothing at all to do with "r." It has to do with different pronunciations of "a."

But there's no r in long vowels is there?

An a is pronounced a not ar, there's no ar in bath, is there?

It's a speech impediment, not an accent.

Really.

It's not shit, it's fascinating. The richness of our language, the variety of our accents. Nothing remotely shit about it.

The problem comes when value judgements are applied to different accents.

I do believe it's an horrible amalgamation of the mangled Francis of the Southerners and the blunt Scandi of the Northerners that came together and made the English language, with a little Latin touch.

So possibly never the twain...

Besides, isn't it a bit hypocritical of those with 'northern' accents to bang on about the correct pronunciation of bath when 'to the' becomes 't'

That's because we are speaking a form of the language that is purer and closer to Anglo Saxon. We may also reduce the 't' to a mere glottal stop and pronounce 'd' as 't'.

An a is pronounced a not ar, there's no ar in bath, is there

But what does an a is pronounced a mean?

Father
Lathe
Bash
Half
Basted

All contain an a. Half and father don't contain an r either but in a non rhotic accent, we pronounce them harf and farther.

Because the r isn't vocalised.

Same reason lawn, porn and faun rhyme.

Cue a billion people saying they don't.

As a southerner you're right it is BATH, as my northern DP constantly reminds me, but regional accents and all that, I have to say it as BARTH

Aha I have DD who was brought up on the Welsh borders who has THE most delightful rhotic accent so all Rs are verbalised, DS bizarrely doesn't though. We're a mixed bunch.

We're in the Midlands, I grew up in Birmingham in Leicester and say bath. DH grew up in Solihull and says barth. DCs are weirdly Southern and say b-a-rth, c-ar-stle and gr-ar-ss like DH does. They're odd creatures, because their behaviour does not match their pseudo-posh accents.

My Mum is rhotic while the rest of us are non rhotic so I'm used to being part of a mixed bunch. Extended family are midlanders and Welsh so there's all sorts going on. I'm very aware that "a is pronounced a" is utterly meaningless!

I'm Scottish and I would say Ba-Thi (with a short 'a' and short 'thi')

Christ almighty, when will people on MN get it into their heads that not everyone in the UK would add an "r" to a word to denote a long "a" sound? I know the point that you are making (which is a stupid one as no regional accent is more correct than any other and the days of RP=correct are long gone) but unless we know what your accent is then writing "Barth" means sod all. In my rooting accent it would have a very strong "r" and that's definitely not what you were going for.

If you must make stupid points at least find a way of writing them down that makes universal sense!

Rooting=rhotic

I'm in Buckinghamshire. It's Barth here. It's to do with pronunciation of A. Surely you know that?

no regional accent is more correct than any other and the days of RP=correct are long gone

This.

Which is why the OP is BU.

I say:
Bath
Castle
Plaster
Master
Etc

My mum says:
Bath
Castle
Plahster
Mahster

This baffles me! She speaks with a broad Lancashire accent. I also speak with a Lancashire accent although mines more posh she turns "the" to "t" etc, whereas I don't often. I do sometimes but it depends who I'm talking to.

It's barth.

When I was a child, we also went to Marss.
We did play on the grarss, while you played on the grass.
Sometime during my lifetime, it stopped being Marss and became Mads, though I've no idea why.

We do still play on grarss and have barths.

By the way, no one is correct. It's just accent isn't it? If I'm down south then I would expect to hear bahth but I don't say that because it sounds daft in my accent and I would sound like I was taking the piss.

My DDs both called it a sand cahstle when small because of Peppa

Mass, it became Mass in my lifetime (by the time I went to secondary it was Mass). Argh!!! Bloody virtual keyboard!

What Pickle said. There's no right or wrong. It's just accents

Don't be silly OP.

Everyone knows it's either "Ahm ga'an t'sheep dip pet" or "Jeeves, hold the eggs benedict, I'm orft to bathe".