I have been a listener to ABC radio and television for forty years, and I believe that the ABC has set the standards for the industry in a number of areas. With a few exceptions, it outperforms the commercial channels right across the board. One such area has been the correct pronunciation of our language, and the use of reasonably correct grammar. I have contacted the ABC several times over the last few years on the correct pronunciation of the name of the Chinese capital, Bei Jing. In general, I believe the ABC should do better on the pronunciation of foreign words. The simple rule is to ask a native speaker of the country involved and make sure all announcers are informed of the correct pronunciation. Let me applaud Rod Young, who seems to have made the effort to get it right, but just last weekend I heard Tony Delroy, Peter McNamara, Ian Eckersley and Lisa Backhouse use the truly awful "Bay Zhing" word. The j is not a soft j as in French (de jour) but the typical English hard j (as in jellybean). China is becoming more important, and is in our news and conversations very frequently. It is going to be hosting the 2008 Olympics, so how about a crash course for all the ABC sports commentators? There are other examples of wrong pronunciation of foreign words, and the ABC could do a lot better. How about we give Bei Jing some emphasis? While on the subject of pronunciation, could someone please explain to my absolute favourite weather reporter, Jenny Woodward, that the word "only" has an "l" in it. It is NOT pronounced to rhyme with "boney". Thanks and best regards, Bob

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2002

Answers

I am an ABC listener (612)and on my drive home in the afternoon, I listen to Spencer Howson. He pronounces length and strength without the "g". It sounds idiotic and I have taken to listening to Newsradio or Radio National to escape from the mispronunciation. Regards, Susan

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2002

I have been listening to the ABC since I was a boy in the late 1950's. I have noticed that in recent times the ABC people do not take sufficient care of the pronunciation of English language words. One of them which annoys me a lot is the pronunciation of Queensland as Queenslnd. It is linguistic laziness to drop the final vowel.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 2003