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.

I can’t stand rum instead of room. Along with previously said buk instead of book.

Both Kirsty Allsop and Sarah Beeney commit the rum for room crime.

I’m in the Midlands and interchangeably say “noo” and “neeeew” I have no idea why.

Harassment?

But at some point, @PleasantPedant, a y was introduced into the English word to give ‘mayor’ - so claiming that the pronunciation should remain unchanged from the French seems rather baseless.

And when did 'sneaked' become 'snuck'? 🤨

.. And 'Pleaded' become 'Pled'?
I could go on..

Pleaded and pled are both standard English in the US; however, pled is used almost exclusively in the legal context.

Snuck is not standard English in the US, but it is often used in a casual, especially jokey, context.

I don't put an emphasis on the second syllable. I've been practising saying it. I think I give all three syllables about the same emphasis.

Ah Marjorie Dawes 😂. Remember when she wrote CHOCLIT on the whiteboard?

I can be a little pedantic when it comes to pronunciation, especially when I hear people say 'Birminam' or 'Nottinam'.
These places are actually Birmingham and Nottingham, so where are the Gs and Hs?
It might be regional dialect in some cases like the noo or nyou (new), but these are names of cities, which I feel should be pronounced correctly regardless of people's dialects. I have been known to ask someone who said 'Birminam' what they were going on about because I want aware of any such word, and when they said 'this place we're standing in', my response was 'oh, BirminGHam, there is a G and an H in that name you know. Would you like your name said with a chunk missing from the middle?'

I know someone with a daughter called Elle who speaks like this

Ewwel

Clur with the lovely hurr

I thinks it’s fascinating how accents are changing. As Londoners, my dad’s accent sounded like the old movies such as ‘Passport to Pimlico’. I sound like Kathy Burke, but my grown up kids speak MLE -multi cultural London English.From noo to nyoo back to noo from different roots.

Ah that's an interesting one. Would you say that Paris should be pronounced by its proper way too, as in Paree?

OP you'd hate how we pronounce 'new' in Wales. Neither a nyew nor a nu in sight.

Place names often aren’t pronounced as they are spelled. Where does your pedantry take you with Kirkcudbright and Gloucester, to name but two off the top of my head?
Having lived in Brum for about 6 years I’d agree the G should be pronounced - something like Bur ming oom (first syllable non rhotic, rising stress on the second.

I bet you’re fun at parties.

@harmonypuss

only Americans say Birming HAM. It’s Birming -um to Brits

same as Tottenham isnt Totten HAM

Scottish people would pronounce the HAM in Birmingham.

That’s in Alabama.

Maybe we should say it as the Brummies do , if we are aiming for this myth that is 'correct'?

Burmin- guhm

Ish.

Do you insist on pronouncing the H in Burnham??

Well no, that’s my (poorly expressed) point! What I’m finding odd is people with what used to be called RP pronunciation adopting ways of speaking that sound foreign to them.

It is indeed. There is a town near me in another US Southern state that has a Gloucester Street. Any guesses as to how the locals pronounce it?