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?

Jessie, nicely chosen blasphemy for Easter Sunday.

I think most people can infer from context that the r denotes the long a sound. Hence the common criticism of " there's no r in it".

If somebody doesn't understand what people mean by barth, they can ask and somebody can explain. As Trills did early on.

And then everybody can ignore her anyway. As they did.

Really!??
Are we doing this again?

I think some people confuse the word different with wrong.

Yes, very deliberate.

I just hate it when people assume that all posters talk the same way as they do.

Ive never understood the insistence from those that it is barth, garse, carstle etc when those people dont actually pronounce any 'r' when saying the word! Why insist on adding an unnceccesary letter that you arent ever going to pronounce? why not just write it as caastle? Or cahstle?

I'd imagine Rude Elf it's because phonetically the "Ah" sound is written "ar" as in car, bar.

Does everyone pronounce the Rs in those words either?

I don't. And I say "baRth" not "bath".

To add to Jessie's points, in addition to all the rhotic accents in the UK, there are also quite a few Irish, Canadian, and American folk on MN. In fact, I think that rhotic English is in the majority world-wide, but MN remains very non-rhotic centric. There are other ways to indicate the long a for anyone who wants to be a bit more inclusive.

Does everyone pronounce the Rs in those words either?

In my accent the beginning of "Bath" sounds like "bah bah black sheep" (but slightly less emphasised), and they are different to "getting a drink at the bar".

But you dont say barth though. You say baath. There is no r pronounced. Just because you pronounce car without the 'r' doesnt mean words that you pronounce the same way should have an 'r' written in when they dont have one!

I think Mr Tumble has a lot to answer for, my grand children say sarnd carstle, but nothing else has a long A in their vocabulary, they have northern accents. The only culprit to have any influence that I can think of is Mr Tumble, so I blame him.

Boaty you went to Mars as a child? Wow! :o

This is a silly thread anyway.

It's pronounced in different ways by different people.

I just disagree with the suggestion that I say BARth when I do not.

It is silly to talk about these issues as mispronunciation. There was a thread a few weeks ago in which the OP was complaining that Americans mispronounce the word "solder" because we don't generally pronounce the "l" in the word. That's right, 300,000,000 people are mispronouncing the word because we don't say it the way the OP does.

I've never got this thing of putting in extra sounds where they don't exist. Why make a simple word more convoluted to pronounce?

I'm a Northerner, my husband a Southerner. My kids don't particularly have accents unlike us - we both have strong regional accents. But if I heard the say "barth" (or "b-ah ath" I'd correct them.

In the recent floods, I was amused to see a newsreader pronounce a town near where I grew up as 'Tadcarstair' - actually did a double take as the pictures of the screen were clearly Tadcaster. And this imaginary place looked exactly the same. Then I realised it was Tadcaster. Yes, I get the different pronunciations North v. South etc, but at least do us the courtesy of pronouncing our bloody place names correctly because if you don't, frankly, they're unrecognisable... It's not a case of saying a Northern word in a Northern accent just do us the courtesy of not sticking a load of redundant, extra vowel sounds in there because they're actually not there.

I carefully study the Queen's Speech every year so I can ensure my pronunciation is, indeed, the Queen's English.

She hasn't said "bath" in living memory, though
Who can I consult? Should I contact her speech-writers and insist it goes in for this year? Or just avoid the word - "The receptacle upstairs for cleaning oneself", perhaps.

Bah (bah black sheep) and the ba in Bath and (let's go to the) bar are exactly the same for me.

I am northern. I live near Bath. Even my children correct me.

Baaaaath is just Northern pronunciation of Bath but with a lon get a.

But Joffrey, if you're talking about baath rather than bath it isn't an extra sound,it's a different sound!
Southerner, so say baath - but my grandmother came from Newcastle,my mum used some northern vowels - result is there are some words I can't use at all as if I say them northern it sounds silly given the rest of my speech,and if I say them southern it sounds poncy to me.
Elastoplast is a case in point ( not that I often want to say it!!) Elarstoplast? Elarstoplarst? Elastoplast? Elastoplarst? Can't do it!

any one who thinks they are using proper original English is presumably also pronouncing the k, g and h in knight.

If this video is anything to go by, Shakespeare probably would have said BARth with a nice big R.

It's regional isn't it? I say Barth but then I also say plaar- stic:) not plastic. I have tried to stop though as I get funny looks sometimes from the locals in the from the region I now live.

Barth

You don't say arthletics, you say athletics.

So it should be bath and not barth.