Emphasis, inflection, and intonation

[sparkythecat]

What sort of elocution lessons are they giving newsreaders these days?.

I've heard of singing the blues but it sounds like a lot of them are singing the news. National TV's bad enough, but local TV and radio stations are definitely worse, especially the female announcers.

Does anyone else find this annoying, or is it just me?

[vixpy1]

Just you.

[Pigeon]

I find it vaguely amusing the way that, when some new foreign name starts being in the news a lot, they keep ringing the changes on the pronunciation. Churn a bill, Cher nobble, Cher noble... But they never get round to pronouncing Afghanistan with a proper gh instead of a g.

[scared but happy]

Iraq - Please pick what version it is and stick to it, I expect the BBC had a memo about this.

[D_Mike]

The BBC have an accepted pronunciation department that tells all their presenters how to say names of places... for example Niger always used to be pronounced as the "Niger" in Nigeria, but now they say it French style with a softer g. Which is actually correct.

[funinthesun]

not nearly as annoying as the everpresent 'AUI'

[slikk]

And why the hell do they always pronounce Newcastle as Newcassle ?