RTE News

50_pennies

Why dont they have Irish accents? Most of the announcers dont seem to have Irish accents. :eek: Is it the same reason why you dont hear southern accents on CNN?

Von Manstein

Good point there - i only realised it :rolleyes:

On every other show Irish or not you can hear there accents so thats kind of weird. Maybe its because where used to hearing them every night.

Kind of like the way you dont hear the accents on a lot of the BBC shows...except those nasty Northern Accents

Third_Echelon

my guess would be so that when they read the news that they are clear and you will be able to understand them when they speak.

RTE actually have a manual telling you the way to pronounce certain words etc for newscasting. 'RTE' for example is pronounced as 'oR-T-E'... 'Gardai' is pronounced 'Gordee' etc.. etc..

DMC

The only really pointed accent on BBC News is Huw Edwards.

TBH, its a relic of what came from the 60's when Telefís was set up, and best practice from abroad. Neutral accent, clear diction etc.

aidan_dunne

Third_Echelon wrote:

my guess would be so that when they read the news that they are clear and you will be able to understand them when they speak.

RTE actually have a manual telling you the way to pronounce certain words etc for newscasting. 'RTE' for example is pronounced as 'oR-T-E'... 'Gardai' is pronounced 'Gordee' etc.. etc..

I heard about this many years ago as well. Also, in the early days of Telefis Eireann, apparantly many of the newscasters and continuity announcers were sent over to the BBC to learn how to speak "properly" and read the news, etc.

There is one thing, though, that has pissed me off over the years when it comes to RTE's pronounciation of words and that's the way they pronounce Portlaoise. It's pronounced "Port-leesh" (I should know, I've lived there all my life! ) but you'll often hear it pronounced "Port-leesh-ha", particularly by the "old skool" presenters, so to speak. Apparantly, RTE have received numerous complaints over the years about this (I remember a whole morning of Gerry Ryan's radio show being dedicated to this very subject a few years ago) and it's now been agreed that "Port-leesh" is the proper way to pronounce it and you hear it pronounced that way more than it used to but, now and again, as I said mainly with the "older" presenters, they still pronounce it "Port-leesh-ha" and it pisses me off no end, and has done for years.

50_pennies

I want Father Doogle to do the News. <SNIP> Politics can be discussed here

Tiriel

Von Manstein wrote:

except those nasty Northern Accents

I love the Northern accent

aidan_walsh

50_pennies wrote:

I want Father Doogle to do the News. And I want to kick Bertie Ahern up the arse, for making false claims against Sinn Fein which he cant back up.

TV3 have a news show for people like you...

mike65

Its called Received Pronunciation and as said its so everyone can understand whats being said. The last thing the news needs is some gombeen from halfway up a hill or Ballybricken/Blackpool/Moyross etc reading it!

Mike.

simu

aidan_dunne wrote:

There is one thing, though, that has pissed me off over the years when it comes to RTE's pronounciation of words and that's the way they pronounce Portlaoise. It's pronounced "Port-leesh" (I should know, I've lived there all my life! ) but you'll often hear it pronounced "Port-leesh-ha", particularly by the "old skool" presenters, so to speak. Apparantly, RTE have received numerous complaints over the years about this (I remember a whole morning of Gerry Ryan's radio show being dedicated to this very subject a few years ago) and it's now been agreed that "Port-leesh" is the proper way to pronounce it and you hear it pronounced that way more than it used to but, now and again, as I said mainly with the "older" presenters, they still pronounce it "Port-leesh-ha" and it pisses me off no end, and has done for years.

I'd pronounce Portlaoise the Irish way, with the e at the end. I don't see anything wrong with this tbh.

Most RTÉ presenters do sound Irish although it's a type of Irish accent that few Irish people outside the world of media have. The problem of fake American accents is far worse on some radio stations.

mackerski

simu wrote:

I'd pronounce Portlaoise the Irish way, with the e at the end. I don't see anything wrong with this tbh.

I don't see anything wrong with it either, considering that the name Portlaoise is inherently an Irish language form (to replace Maryborough). That said, you can't really object to a local form either. I personally say (and write) Dunleary, not Dún Laoghaire.

Dermot

simu

mackerski wrote:

I don't see anything wrong with it either, considering that the name Portlaoise is inherently an Irish language form (to replace Maryborough). That said, you can't really object to a local form either. I personally say (and write) Dunleary, not Dún Laoghaire.

Dermot

It's good to give people a choice!

OFDM

"Gor-dee" instead of "Gar-dee" (Gardaí) and "Doyle" instead of "Dawl" (Dáil) are the two mis-pronouciations that piss me off most...

SprostonGreen

Where do we stand on the Mostrim/Edgeworthstown debate?

mackerski

SprostonGreen wrote:

Where do we stand on the Mostrim/Edgeworthstown debate?

Dunno - I've never heard anybody actually call it Mostrim, so I don't either. But I can't claim any local knowledge. Though I have known folks to claim to be from Bagenalstown and Charleville.

(Mad attempt to get back on topic)
Dunno how RTE likes to pronounce any of these...

Dermot

feicem

Does anyone remember the continuity girl from RTE when announcing a colour film in the 60's or 70's used say "and t'is in colour" ?

Pigman II

It's television. It's not real. I remember the first time I went over to England as a kid I was startled to hear everyone talking various weird sorts of badly-pronounced nazally gibberish that was hard to decipher.

Up to that point I'd always presumed everyone talked like the actors and newscasters on TV.

Mossy Monk

This thread reminds me of the movie Private Parts.

wNbc

Elmo

Of course they speak with Irish accents, it might be toned down but they have Irish accents they pronounce their vowels the same way as every other Irish person.

I meet Claire Byrne a few weeks ago and she has a Clare accent when not reading the news. Why she feels the need to change ?????

kevmy

I think they do make an effort to be more understandable to all which means you end up with a neutralish accent.

Mind you there's one lad who does the news as gaeilge straight off the bog.

On the issue of pronunciation I hate the way they pronounce issue especially Sharon Ní Bheoláin and Anne Doyle, and Dobbo's pronunciation of New York - whats going on there??

Elmo

I think they do make an effort to be more understandable to all which means you end up with a neutralish accent.

Claire Byrne is easy to understand even without the put on neutral accent, it's not like she is the presenter of Song for Europe on Father Ted.

Mind you there's one lad who does the news as gaeilge straight off the bog.

Maybe that is the correct way to speak Irish rather then the fake connemara accent many of the other news readers put on when speaking Irish.

Also long as you can understand the person then there should be no change to their accent IMO.

It's like the New Zealand girl on TV3 a few years back, she really couldn't pronounce Pat Rabitte, often she would say Pet Rebitt

EamonnKeane

OFDM wrote: »

"Gor-dee" instead of "Gar-dee" (Gardaí) and "Doyle" instead of "Dawl" (Dáil) are the two mis-pronouciations that piss me off most...

What about Fine Gwael? And it's more like "Gaurthee".

Elmo

What about Fine Gwael? And it's more like "Gaurthee".

The could spell the name of their party correctly.

Fianna Gaedheal or even just Fianna Geal