I mentioned earlier about Gavin Phipps being an excellent news presenter. I should have mentioned Brian Foden. He’s equally good and he doesn’t have any non-standard pronunciation stuff going on.
Non standard? Now I can ask my question. Gavin pronounces the country HI - AY-TEE where all my life I heard it as Hay - Tee. Is that standard British English? It’s just strange. Even though I’m American, I’ve listened to the BBC world Service and my family watched nothing but BBC TV shows on PBS while growing up. [It’s true, my dad saw Bangers and Mash on All Creatures Great and Small and that was his go to dish every time Mom couldn’t cook. Thank heaven he did not know there was a Haggis Shop in not far from where we lived in America. ]
Words like “Shedule”(schedule) and other British variants did not burn my ears like Gavin’s pronunciation of Haiti. Maybe it is because Haiti hasn’t been in the news an awful lot when I listened to British Radio and watched British TV.
I’m not sure whether he’s playing silly buggers (British English for “dicking about”) because he’s supposedly an expert linguist. Interestingly, the example you’ve provided is, I believe, the correct Haitian Creole for Haiti.
If it’s any consolation he’s fully equal opportunities. He fucks about with most British soccer (British English for American Football - only one player can handball) teams when he’s having fun with his pronunciation.
I really enjoy ICRT in the morning. Stevie’s G’s show is the perfect mix of music, news and chat. The local headlines with Gavin is great too.
DJ Joseph on the drive home is meh, don’t like the music or chat though the listener phone-calls are ok because they allow me to practice my Chinese listening. Honestly I usually listen to podcasts when driving home.
DJ Erika has stood in for Joseph recently and honestly i prefer her - more bubbly personality and cooler dance type music. I always tune in for her.
I also enjoy the Ted Radio hour when driving late at night.
I didn’t know there is an English speaking station. I tried to tune in to some Taiwanese radio stations in my car. Got annoyed and abandoned. Too much talking and ads. In 30 minutes you will hear like 2 songs…
Will try out ICRT.
Frequency
100.7 FM (Taipei, Kaohsiung)
100.1 FM (Taichung)
100.8 FM (Chiayi)
It’s probably Jane Lee. Of all their news announcers, she has the worst accent. But she’s been with them for a long time. Maybe a recently hired newbie?
Originally it was called aluminum. The Brits added the i. Like with many so called Americanisms they’re actually using the original form. Arguably more traditional British English than the Brits use.
Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812
So, right …and wrong
Sir Humphry Davy had nothing to do with calling it aluminium. That was a purely stylistic change to make it sound more like other elements. Who was responsible, nobody knows. It’s a bit like Stonehenge.
Dude derives from an old Scottish term for female genitalia. It’s become a positive term over time.
I looked up the origin of the word and found it quite interesting too. The one in the end that became common in British English was probably the most difficult to pronounce !
Incidentally similar things happen in science in modern times.
Metabonomics versus Metabolomics.
As somebody said they both add up to 26 points in Scrabble so don’t get your knickers in a twist.