By: Alan Ramsay

Alan Ramsay — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:53:58 +0000

Frank Lucy is right and wrong. As a former ABC presenter and newsreader many years ago, I remember that we had a standing committee on pronunciation. Sadly, it was almost useless because its edicts were all too often months and even years late and, when they were sent out, arrived on small cards that were filed – eventually – in a tiny cabinet in each main broadcast studio. I never saw any evidence that the cards were regularly consulted. Other than when its decisions created controversy – as with the pronunciation of Don Quixote – the committee had no substantial ability to police and enforce its rulings. These days, by using the internet to transmit text and sound bytes, the process should be much more efficient and effective. Judging by the wayward pronunciation of many ABC presenters and journalists these days, I suspect that nothing has changed since I left the ABC nearly thirty years ago. Like Frank Lucy, I rail against not just the mispronunciation of place names but also against the lack of consistency of pronunciation. There is a strong argument for NOT trying to pronounce foreign words as we think the natives pronounce them. Invariably, we pronounce them wrongly. Better perhaps to anglicize the pronunciation of foreign place names as long as we do so consistently. In that context, I’m puzzled about why so many journalists and politicians insist on wrongly giving COPENHAGEN an exotic twist by pronouncing it COPEN-HARGEN instead of COPEN-HAYGEN when not even the Danish, in their most gutteral Danish, call it KOBEN-HARVEN. Talking of the Danes, I challenge anyone who doesn’t already know how to do so, to pronounce ODENSE. Apparently, the D doesn’t get pronounced at all. Just as we don’t usually say PAREE for PARIS, or MUNCHEN for MUNICH, or NAPOLI for NAPLES, let’s accept the anglicization of foreign place names but at least demand consistency.

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By: Alan Ramsay