Irish TV station 'forced' to use Queen's English
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READING:
Broadcasters at Ireland's national broadcaster RTE are angry at being told to use the Queen's English. RTE staff were given an A-Z of words they had to pronounce in the Queen's English to make sure they are clearly understood. The A-Z has audio clips on how to "properly" pronounce the "problem" words. RTE said the producers issued the guide to keep up standards. It said RTE got complaints from people about how some words were mispronounced.
An Irish linguistics expert called the RTE's actions "internalized colonialism". He said: "The basic issue is RTE expects its staff to speak as if they were English. Why? We have our own form of English, which is different but fully…accepted worldwide." He said Irish people don't pronounce the TH in 'birthday' like the English do. He added that the Irish pronunciation of 'news,' "is and always has been 'nooze'".
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