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?

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

Surely baaaath is southern pronunciation? Bath with a short a is the northern pronunciation.

And nobody is saying barth. Unless they are actually pronouncing an r.

It's called the trap-bath split (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_English_%E2%9F%A8a%E2%9F%A9#Trap.E2.80.93bath_split)
It's to do with vowel changes that happened in different parts of England at different times.
As a Kentish Maid I personally say:
Bahth (/bɑːθ/)
Pahth (/pɑːθ/)
Glahss (/ɡlɑːs/)
Grahss (/ɡɹɑːs/)
Cahstle (/ˈkɑː.səl/)
Girahffe (/dʒɪˈɹɑːf/)

DP from "up Norff" says:
Bath (/bæθ/)
Path (/pæθ/
Glass (/ɡlæs/)
Grass (/ɡɹæs/)
Castle (/ˈkæ.səl/)
Giraffe (/dʒɪˈɹæf/)

It is a constant matter of debate and has been for the past 7 years!

Also there is no "should"! English is not one, singular, prescribed language.

YABU

it's not bath, it's barth
Well it is here in Kent anyway

How's this for a headfuck then? I'm Australian, from Victoria - we say 'barth' like wot they do down south, but castle like wot they do oop north!

[bangs head on table]

hughgrantshair the long "a" used when an RP speaker says "bath" is NOT written phonetically as "ar". "Ar" is the noise a pirate makes.

There is a phonetic symbol for long "ah", it is a lower case "a" written like an "o" with a straight line on the right hand side, the way children are taught to write "a" at school (can't get that font on my iPhone) followed by a colon (:). However since Mumsnetters are unlikely to have learned the full range of phonetic symbols, the closest universally recognisable written representation of the sound to a layperson would be "ah" or perhaps "aah".

Are those of you saying stuff like 'it should be bath not barth because you say athletics not arthletics' actually believing this crap or are trying to be wind up merchants....

If the latter then good job...
If the former, you are startlingly ignorant I'm afraid. How have you got to adulthood and not realised that English is not a phonetic language?!? How do you say 'father' do instance... And what about the six or so accepted pronunciations of 'ough', not of which use a hard 'g'!

It's 'baath'.

Grew up near Bath, its baahth.

This is just daft. How can anyone say for sure whether the long or short vowel sound is correct? And who even cares?

"It is a constant matter of debate and has been for the past 7 years!"

Really? Can't you just both accept that you each pronounce particular words in different ways, and move on?

Maybe because I was born in Yorkshire, moved to the south west, then moved up to Scotland and started a family here, I accept, even embrace, regional differences in accent and dialect. I'm sure I've got a pole up my arse (ass) about some things other people don't care about though so I won't be too pleased with myself.

op was clearly on a wind up.

Life, 'Elastoplast' is just how it looks. Lengthen no vowels. Add nothing. Say what you see!

I'm guessing however much fuss there is about it, that longer a sound (rendered however) still sounds like 'ar' to a Northerner. I know it does to me.

Short and long vowel sounds are both fine. Barth is just plain wrong. Because no-one is saying it.

An isogloss runs across the Midlands from the Wash to the Welsh border, passing to the south of the cities of Birmingham and Leicester.

Seryph Interesting link - explains why I am used to several variations of pronouncing bath and similar words - in fact my switch between them I grew up near and around this isogloss.

How do northerners say father?

Fatha. Obv.

It was Bath (actually it was always called The Bath as in "I'm travelling to The Bath" which is hysterical). And then various Georgian dandies started talking with a lisp to make themselves exclusive (yeeeaaahhh) and it became Barth (or The Barth). And then everyone is the Upper Ten Thousand of the time started copying them. That's basically where the long a came from. Before that everyone in England sounded the same.

Barth in the east.

I'm a Geordie so say bath but have lived in London for an eternity so am used to hearing barth/barth even though I know it's wrong. What gets me most is my DD will grow up with a completely different accent to me. She does say Newcastle correctly without the "ah" which I'm pleased about.

Sorry, I'm a BARTH girl

I get the mickey taken of me at work as well talking about our TRAAAANSPORT manager with a long A.....I go DAAAANCING as well.....

Live in Shropshire but originally from down South.

I have lived and worked in Bath for 54 years.

I have never heard it pronounced BARTH.

I have heard it pronounced with a short 'a' as in the name Cath.

I have heard it pronounced with the longer vowel sound 'aaaaaaah'.

I live in the wrong county and have for most of my life. I've had a lot of heckling for my "posh" bahth, pronunciation. It's not wrong, it was very right where I lived in my early years!

DH has a totally different accent. I've noticed that the DCs have picked up a random mix of some of my southern long vowels and some short local ones. They'll go oop to bahth, not up to the bahth, or oop to baath.

But... I pronounce ar and aah exactly the same Jessie! (From West Yorkshire but with a Surrey father so a bit of a mixed accent).

Jessie - I pronounce bath like the 'ar' from pirates though

Ar and aaah are completely different to me. Aah is running away from a ghost like noise, ar is a and r. So all my words def do have the r sound not a long aaa

Speaking of rhotic accents; I have an erohtic accent and pronounce it barth whilst licking my lips suggestively.

artandco so do millions of other English people! But not everybody in the UK does. Whereas we all say "ah" in roughly the same way. Do you see the point I am making?