Radio presenters and politicians saying ‘ay’ instead of ‘a’

[PotteringPondering]

Anybody else noticed the trend among radio presenters and politicians of saying ‘ay’ instead of ‘a’ (traditionally pronounced ‘uh’)?

For example: ‘There will be ay debate in the House’, ‘There will be ay by-election’, ‘At ay meeting of the United Nations’.

I’ve even heard ‘ay-nother’.

‘Ay’ here is clearly not for emphasis (‘How many doughnuts?’ ‘Oh, just ay doughnut’). And it’s clearly not to buy time to think (‘That’s… aaaay… difficult question to answer.’) Some people do it all the time (Boris Johnson, Amol Rajan, Evan Davies), while others never do it (Mishal Husain, Justin Webb).

So grating!

[upinaballoon]

Yes, I have noticed it, although I couldn't have said which people do it most. Sometimes on 'Countdown' a contestant will ask for ay vowel and aynother vowel and ay consonant and so on.
(Related, is the use of thuh in places where we always pronounced 'the' to sound like thee, e.g. thee EU, which Katya Adler calls 'thuh EU'.)

[PotteringPondering]

@upinaballoon

Yes, I have noticed it, although I couldn't have said which people do it most. Sometimes on 'Countdown' a contestant will ask for ay vowel and aynother vowel and ay consonant and so on.
(Related, is the use of thuh in places where we always pronounced 'the' to sound like thee, e.g. thee EU, which Katya Adler calls 'thuh EU'.)

Ah yes, how ‘the’ sounds before a vowel. You’re right. It was always pronounced thee in UK English (‘thee only way is up’, ‘thee apple and thee orange’, ‘thee elephant’).

That now seems alien to most young people in the UK (‘tha only way is up’, ‘tha apple and tha orange’, 'tha elephant’).

I find it easier to understand this though. Pronouncing ‘the’ as ‘tha’ before a vowel is quite normal in lots of overseas dialects of English, most obviously South African English. These found their way into multicultural London, youth culture and music, and spread through popular culture. So now for anybody anybody trying to sound hip… it’s tha only way to talk.

I still don’t understand why Tory politicians and leading journalists suddenly replaced ‘a’ with ‘ay’. Harder to believe that was under the influence of other dialects of English.

[knackeredagain]

Eh?

[Fairislefandango]

Weird - I haven't noticed this! I expect I will now though, and it will irritate me. Thanks OP

[MiniMoosey]

This is how I’ve been taught to speak as a child

[carefullycourageous]

It was always pronounced thee in UK English What, in every accent?

I think this extremely unlikely.

[Lindy2]

I think ay is normal in my dialect and I believe myself to be quite well spoken. Another would be more of an ah sound though.

[ClumpingBambooIsALie]

I think it's sometimes used to indicate a pause for thought, or to emphasise either that word or whatever word follows, or to show that you should listen carefully to this bit because they've started enunciating more carefully. It happens with words like a, the, my, your, etc. which normally become uh, thuh, muh, yuh, but can be enunciated more carefully for particular effects.

[UnimpeachableBravery]

@MiniMoosey

This is how I’ve been taught to speak as a child

Me too

[WorkEventing]

That’s not how it works. It’s ðə before a consonant sound and ði before a vowel sound. What probably happens on the radio is the people say the article and midflow change their mind about how they will continue the sentence.

[Babayagadreamhome]

I was taught the letter is ay but the word is a (uh).

[ClumpingBambooIsALie]

@WorkEventing

That’s not how it works. It’s ðə before a consonant sound and ði before a vowel sound. What probably happens on the radio is the people say the article and midflow change their mind about how they will continue the sentence.

That's true, but there's lots of contextual stuff that affects it too. Can you imagine someone pausing for thought on the word "the" before saying whether something's the second, third or fourth version of something, and saying "it's theeee…third version, I think?" with the long "theeee" intended to demonstrate that they're thinking about it?

[HaveringWavering]

@MiniMoosey

This is how I’ve been taught to speak as a child

Are you still a child?

Otherwise, you'd have said "This is how I WAS taught to speak as a child".

[whathaveyoudonetoday]

The 'uh' sound in English is a 'schwa' sound. I don't know why well educated people (eg Amol Rajan) say eg. 'ay' politician instead of 'uh' politician. But it is grating indeed!!

[ColleenDonaghy]

Old thread, but I would say thuh UK rather than thee UK because it doesn't start with a vowel sound. Thee apple and thuh banana. Even though it's the letter U it's pronounced you so I would use thuh.

Haven't noticed any preference for ay, but it would be ay rather than ah for me, not ay rather than uh. Again, all to do with whether the following sound is a vowel or not for me.

[KnightonShiningArmour]

As soon as I started reading I had Amol Rajan in my head!

[Hardy1945]

Just watch University Challenge. Amol Rajan is an ittitating Past Master in the art! Uses ‘ay’ at every possible opportunity. Probably wasn't brought up to speak the English language as it should be spoken.

[upinaballoon]

I call him Aymol Rayjayne.

[ActuallyChristmas]

The Beeb also seem to have stopped saying ‘the’ as in ‘the United Nations/Kingdom’ etc. Also, can’t differentiate between ‘the’ and ‘thee’

[VesperLind]

Glad this thread had popped up. Amol Rajan is the(e) absolute worst for this. I can’t bear to listen to him.
My theory is that presenters are taught to speak like this in the same way as they’re taught to put the emphasis in the wrong place - it’s to keep us listening/ concentrating on what they are saying. I know the TV newsreaders do it and I assume radio has gone the same way.
It’s excruciating.

[Freetodowhatiwant]

i haven’t noticed it myself but could it possibly be when they are reading rather than talking? Sometimes we read words differently out loud than we would do if we were just talking. One thing that is sometimes suggested to trainee newsreaders is that if they are going to struggle with reading something and making it sound natural they could always write it how they would say it. An example that springs to mind is I remember it being suggested one could write ‘the Prime Minister sez’ in a news bulletin script so ensure one didn’t use the more clunky ‘saYS’.

[ColleenDonaghy]

Probably wasn't brought up to speak the English language as it should be spoken.

Fucking hell. Exactly how "should" the English language be spoken?

[Hardy1945]

To answer your question, without the need for an expletive, I suggest that this link may help. I know that the teacher is an American, but he explains things pretty well.

[Prawncow]

‘Uh’ bigot
’Ay’ bigot
Sounds the same to me.

[PotteringPondering]

@Hardy1945

To answer your question, without the need for an expletive, I suggest that this link may help. I know that the teacher is an American, but he explains things pretty well.

Yep. What he says is absolutely my understanding of standard English.