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.

To be honest as a young child I was horribly picked on by school friends who would try to correct my pronunciation. Barth/parth/glarse got changed to bath/path/glass eventually despite the rest of my family (from Middlesex and a smattering of Yorkshire) using the previous. I'm still the odd one out despite us all living here. But the one word I could never change, even after 40 years is to differentiate one and won. They sound the same to me.

Same. Also only knew it from the Tube map. Still say it that way (to myself).

One = the word "on" then put a 'w' in front of it.
Won = wun

@LittleGreenDragons one and won are the same to me too.
They'd both sound like wun.

I'm trying to make them sound different, but I can't.

Nope. In trying to create a difference it ends up as wan and the wun ends up with me using a gruff voice just for that one word, my chin sticks out to emphasise the uh sound. Not a good look😂 Apparently, I pronounce them both wrong now, they really should have left me to my Middlesex accent as at least I would sound right to some of the people some of the time, instead of being a weirdo.

Edit. I do find this subject fascinating though.

Unless you can point to a specific person who’s accent has changed ( or even who you think shouldn’t have the accent they have) this is quite tricky

That’s true in London. They have a different system now, but a few years ago, before automated announcements, on the Underground you’d hear the District Line train being announced as the next station for, and I don’t know how to reproduce it exactly, Eeow’s Cor’ *. Londoners frequently substituted a w for an l. In fact, I think that in many cases the letter L was surgically removed at a very young age.

• Earls Court.

@HoppityBun I taught in outer London for a while and a child wrote "heeouw". I had no idea what he meant so asked him to read it aloud.
It was "hill" but he'd written it as he pronounced it.

Yod dropping. I think Norfolk is one of the areas they do this. ie advert for Bernard Matthews turkeys. "They're boootiful! ."

I definitely said Theydon Bwa (fortunately only in my own head as I had no reason to say it aloud) when I first lived in London and was getting used to the other end of the Central Line. Probably also pronounced Gants Hill in the same way as the French for gloves... 😀

I have always said may-or. I couldn't even try to say it differently! Do the mair, lair people also say plair? That sounds very RP when I do it in my head. All the rugger plairs line up for the anthems.

@Piggywaspushed , mayor is from maire, player is from play.
It's not "RP", it's just pronunciation.

May-or is also 'just pronunciation', you know.

The word mayor traces its origins to the Latin word maior (or major)...

I have heard people say 'plair'.

I can't get worked up about mayor said as may-er. I was taught the word as being pronounced as mair.
I don't care if you've heard people say player as plair. I wouldn't want to hear it said like that.

A friend said she was going to have lairs put in her hair. I think she was going for a wolf cut.

I didn't want to hear it said like that either. But it was - by vair posh people! It's that kind of lazy RP - I imagine Boris Johnson says 'plair' like 'rare' (none of this works in my accent anyway as I pronounce rs!

Layer/lair same to me.
Rare - ray-er

Mayor - may-or. Unless you're in Coronation Street and Alf was the "mirr" of Weatherfield.

It's fascinating how many different pronunciations there are.

Mayor = mair
Player and layer = p/lay-er

My accent is not remotely RP.

They cannot pronounce Leicester.

Not all Americans. We have many different accents in the US, some of which (like mine) don't feature yod dropping.

I can answer that. Suffolk here. Boyfriend with surname Hughes was universally known as Hoosey.

I would say any bloke called Hugh here would very likely not gave the regional accent thus still be called Hugh within his circle and Who/Hoo by those with the accent. We tend to drop all the letters round here. A friend named their child Katie and was so annoyed that everyone dropped the T. Kay-eee

I think you mean mispronunciations, @RaraRachael .

@Piggywaspushed , I think you are mixing RP with something else.

Agree. No dropped yods for Houston, Texas. It's Hyooston.

Also I know several people with that surname in the US. All say Hyooston.

I say mair too. But others pronounce it as may-or.

And I get confused by mayoral.

Agree been like that for centuries

Nu ( knew)
Toonah (tuna) on Toosday ( Tuesday)
Ruf ( roof)
Bootiful ( beautiful)

@Pinkfluffypencilcase , [ˈmɛːr(ə)l].