Why are Radio 4 presenters mispronouncing ‘new’?

[TheMarriageOfAirAndFrock]

First thing this morning I heard ‘nuuu’, rather than ‘neeeyouw’ (compressed) which is the word I’ve been familiar with for 6 decades.

And it’s ’s not just R4 - I’m hearing a lazy pronunciation of this word everywhere these days.

"Nus" / "noos" rather than "nyews" is a feature of Derbyshire accents. Also things like "Tooosday" rather than Tyews-day, etc...

I grew up in Essex and the local accent was very much ‘Toosday’s noos’.

Do you think 'buck' is regional or modern-semi-affected? I notice the 'buck' pronunciation. I don't say it like that, nor do I say 'book' with the oo sounding the same as in 'moo'.

In Britain we used to say 'speciality', with 5 syllables, but I think the Americans say 'specialty, with 3 syllables and I hear many British folk say it like that nowadays.

I also come from South bucks and grew up saying nyoo, but living in the midlands for 30 years I've picked up noo instead. It's funny how only the odd word has changed - I keep the y sound in most words like few, student etc. I think I still say nyoos but not entirely sure!

...and round the corner into south Lincs. Syoosan where others would say Soosan for Susan, and noo where others would say nyew, for new.

Isn’t it just their accent? I would say “neew” but I can think of people with different accents who would say it more like “nooo” or “nu”.
It’s good to have different accents on the radio isn’t it?
Or do you want them all sent for RP lessons like in the olden days?

Book with a short oo sound is southern, book with a long oo sound is northern. New is also regional. I grew up in Norfolk and they say noo there, but my DPs speak in RP so I grew up saying neeyoo.

I admit I'm a snob with pronunciation, but I can't bear the way a lot of presenters speak now and I can't wait for Amol bloody Rajan to leave the Today programme. His pronunciation grates every single time!

I call him Aymol Rayjayne.

What do you mean by saying you're a snob with pronunciation? Are you saying you don't like the use of regional accents?

Oh, they don't!

Houston Texas is pronounce Hyoooston by most Americans. Americans get very pedantic on us when we assume (assoome/ assyoome) it is pronounced Hooston. This was a particular bugbear of my late DM.

Except Houston in NY which is Howston.

English is full of millions of ways to say words. Place names in particular are a minefield.

I am from middle England, spent time in North Cornwall near Bude, Many locals called it Bood, it seemed strange.

Exactly. ‘Neeeuw’ and ‘tiss-ew’ are regional . Nothing ‘lazy’ about ‘tishoo’ and ‘noo’ unless you’re a crashing snob.

You’ve just reminded me that when I first lived in the US I genuinely thought (as I spoke French and had never heard anyone say it aloud) that Boise, Idaho was pronounced ‘Bwoz’. Place names are a total minefield.

"Yod-dropping" @QwestSprout 😇

Well, well, well, you live and learn, thank you.🌸

I often wonder if I'm the only person left in the UK who says privacy. Pryvacy is definitely an American thing that most people seem to use now.

I see all of you all of these words and raise you my username! 😡

I learnt only last week that loads of British people said 'LABoratory' the American way, in fact the majority. It was the BBC in its desire to standardise pronunciation who declared it LabOratory and also Marge - arine . My (English) grandmother said margarin like Margaret and I thought she was just weird (especially as she was a terrible snob on the whole). It seems not.

This thing we call 'American pronunciation' wasn't generally invented by them and is often the way some of us still say things. Lots of Scots say pryvacy.

It's nooz in Bedfordshire as well, especially amongst the Old Boys. It's actually a bit sad that the old Bedfordshire accent is dying.

It's not so much accents, it's pronunciation, although I find some strong accents hard to understand. I love a Mancunian accent, for instance, but scouse, geordie and some western Scottish accents I find really hard to understand. Estuarine English pronunciation really grates though and British people who use American pronunciation - argh!

Time to wheel this one out:

https://www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/six-oclock-news

So it is about accents!

Fascinating thread. I’ve got a S. Welsh accent so have always used ‘nu’ rather than ‘nyu’ anyway.
I was reading an article only this week about ‘chumeric’ and ‘chewsday’ becoming much more prevalent among younger people. Can’t remember why, might have been YouTube.

edit - or YouChube

These are what we call 'rhotic' accents (a term coined by the great Prof John Wells).

It's really as simple as the fact that both Scots and US accents retained the 17th century English pronounciation. Many other accents of English evolved to remove them in the 18th century, but you will also see these retained in the Cornish accent and Irish accents.

YooToob to some...

Well no, it's not, because I don't have an issue with people having regional accents, but I do think that anyone who's on the radio or TV should be easy to understand to anyone who is a native English speaker. However, the mispronunciation of words is annoying and grating.