1.25.2006
Watching BBC news this evening and I finally blew my top. What in the name of all thats holy is 'sikth'?
Where did that monstrosity of a word come from and who the hell uses it in daily language?
When i was growing up Bosco told me that the figure which followed 5 was the figure 6.
This figure was called 'six' pronounced 'sicks'. For years I lived believeing that the derivation of six was sixth (i.e. sicks-th).
Not anymore. TV have deemed that it is now sikth. I hate it. Simply hate it. If it was good enough for years then why the hell need it change?
There is no rationality behind my hatred only that as a word sikth is nonsense.
There Ive said it.
RR
Is it like when people call Alex Ferguson "Alec". He probably does so himself, but why? It's clearly spelt Alex - with an X, as you can see.
yes i forgot that one, it is clearly an x and the fact that some jumped up fool in front of a camera tells me its a k doesnt make it right.
If you're Scottish, 9 times out of 10 Alex is pronounced Alec. Tough - live with it. I guarantee Sir Alex Ferguson pronounces his own name Alec.
Loads of words and names are not pronounced phonetically. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you're right.
The correct pronunciation, according to to the Collins and Oxford English Dictionary is SIKS-TH, and not SIK-TH.
SIK-th is spreading like a hideous virus, and yes, the media, and the BBC in particular are very much to blame. I've complained officially about it after, in the same week, hearing a radio 4 play about Lady Jane Gray use SIK-th, and Jeremy Paxman used it in his otherwise excellent series, The Victorians.
It's rife, news presenters, continuity announcers, journalists, they've all adopted SIK-th for some mysterious reason.
The reply I got from the BBC was that they promote regional and cultural variations in accents, but this is nothing to do with regional and cultural accents. It's a systemic shift in the way a word is being pronounced by the broadcast media, and every time I hear it, it's like having a piano lid slammed on your fingers.
Most people I've spoken to haven't even noticed it, which makes the problem worse.
Cheers,
Mark.
I've noticed it and so has my wife and it drives us bloody mad - there's one bloke on the formula 1 commentary team who does it all the time, sikth lap, sikth place ad bloody nauseam - he was doing it on ITV and now the bloody Beeb has hired the bugger and he's doing it again. Oh and while we're on the subject, we hate 'droring' (drawing) as well!
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