Throughout the history of the language, what has been considered ‘bad’ speech often becomes ‘proper.’ You just have to give it time.
Articles on Pronunciation
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Both President Trump and Vice President Vance pronounce Iran as ‘Ih-RAN,’ not ‘Ih-RON.’ A linguist says that how the country’s name is pronounced may be a political choice.
Although the spelling “ñ” only exists in Spanish and Galician, it is true that the sound is not the exclusive heritage of Romance languages; it even exists in languages that do not come from Latin.
Linguicism sees people penalised for speaking in non-standard forms of English.
Everyone has words they struggle to pronounce – and that’s no bad thing.
Bothered by ‘expresso’? An expert on speech and language explains why you shouldn’t correct mispronunciations.
Who are the arbiters of contentious language? The answer, in the case of terms that refer to people, is the people to whom those terms refer.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, University of Cambridge
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Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno
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Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Essex
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Lecturer in linguistics, University of Essex
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Lecturer, Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
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Catedrática y Directora del Departamento de Filología Moderna, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
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Professor of Phonetics, University of Reading
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Professor, Linguistics, University of Manitoba
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Lecturer, Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex