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The BBC used to (maybe still does) have a Pronunciation Unit which dictated how proper names must be spoken on TV and radio. They were always getting things wro

The BBC used to (maybe still does) have a Pronunciation Unit which dictated how proper names must be spoken on TV and radio. They were always getting things wrong. My family's bete noir was the pronunciation of "Sowerby Bridge", the small town in West Yorkshire where my dad's parents lived. Everyone for about 50 miles around: "Sorbey Bridge" BBC: "Sourby Bridge" My dad used to get quite irate about this.

scubbo 5y ago
As someone who is clearly interested in words, I hope you will take this comment in the "let's share some interesting knowledge!" sense in which it is intended, rather than a nit-picky correction... It's actually "bête noir" - which is interesting because, commonly, ê signifies a replacement/contraction of the "es" sound. So the original phrase would have been "beste noir", which makes it easier to see the English meaning of "black beast" - an evocative phrase!
- zabzonk 5y ago
  I know - I can actually speak a bit of French, but I could not work out how to type the e-circumflex. Perhaps you can inform me?
  - Stratoscope 5y ago
    On Windows, you can open Character Map, find the character you want, click, copy, and paste. For characters you enter frequently, if your keyboard has a numeric pad, then you can use the Alt key and a numeric code as described here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/insert-ascii-or-unicode-latin-based-symbols-and-characters-d13f58d3-7bcb-44a7-a4d5-972ee12e50e0 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/insert-ascii-or-un... Unfortunately that doesn't work with the number row, only the numeric keypad. On any OS, you can find several similar character tables online: https://www.google.com/search?q=unicode+character+map https://www.google.com/search?q=unicode+character+map
  - spockz 5y ago
    On macOS you can either hold the e or option I + e. Iirc
  - SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
    On Windows, there's a program Win Compose[1], letting you press Compose e ^ to get ê. On Linux (Xorg/xcompose), that's built in but you may need to map a key to Compose. I use right control. [1]https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose
  - gnopgnip 5y ago
    If you are on a windows machine with a numpad, hold alt+ 0234 for lowercase or 0202 for capital. Within the Microsoft office suite you can press ctrl +shift+6, release press e. And there are similar shortcuts. You could also use the character map program included with windows to copy it to the clipboard.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    In addition to the Character Map and other tips, you could also try just pressing the circumflex character[1] and then 'e' (or some other letter). Works for me without running any special utilities like mentioned in a sibling comment, but Idunno if that's down to something similar built into the non-English keyboard driver or something. You can but try. ___ [1]: On my Nordic keyboard it's somewhere to the right of P or L, but on an English one it should be Shift-6 (or AltGr-6?) in the top row, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout
Someone 5y ago
I would guess the BBC would have/will argue(d) that the locals speak with an accent, and that their way to say it is received pronunciation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation)
- zabzonk 5y ago
  This might be so, but the way that the BBC operates is pretty incomprehensible in many cases. I worked for them for several years and know of what I speak.

scubbo 5y ago

As someone who is clearly interested in words, I hope you will take this comment in the "let's share some interesting knowledge!" sense in which it is intended, rather than a nit-picky correction... It's actually "bête noir" - which is interesting because, commonly, ê signifies a replacement/contraction of the "es" sound. So the original phrase would have been "beste noir", which makes it easier to see the English meaning of "black beast" - an evocative phrase!

zabzonk 5y ago
I know - I can actually speak a bit of French, but I could not work out how to type the e-circumflex. Perhaps you can inform me?
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  On Windows, you can open Character Map, find the character you want, click, copy, and paste. For characters you enter frequently, if your keyboard has a numeric pad, then you can use the Alt key and a numeric code as described here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/insert-ascii-or-unicode-latin-based-symbols-and-characters-d13f58d3-7bcb-44a7-a4d5-972ee12e50e0 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/insert-ascii-or-un... Unfortunately that doesn't work with the number row, only the numeric keypad. On any OS, you can find several similar character tables online: https://www.google.com/search?q=unicode+character+map https://www.google.com/search?q=unicode+character+map
- spockz 5y ago
  On macOS you can either hold the e or option I + e. Iirc
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
  On Windows, there's a program Win Compose[1], letting you press Compose e ^ to get ê. On Linux (Xorg/xcompose), that's built in but you may need to map a key to Compose. I use right control. [1]https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose
- gnopgnip 5y ago
  If you are on a windows machine with a numpad, hold alt+ 0234 for lowercase or 0202 for capital. Within the Microsoft office suite you can press ctrl +shift+6, release press e. And there are similar shortcuts. You could also use the character map program included with windows to copy it to the clipboard.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  In addition to the Character Map and other tips, you could also try just pressing the circumflex character[1] and then 'e' (or some other letter). Works for me without running any special utilities like mentioned in a sibling comment, but Idunno if that's down to something similar built into the non-English keyboard driver or something. You can but try. ___ [1]: On my Nordic keyboard it's somewhere to the right of P or L, but on an English one it should be Shift-6 (or AltGr-6?) in the top row, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

Someone 5y ago

I would guess the BBC would have/will argue(d) that the locals speak with an accent, and that their way to say it is received pronunciation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation)

zabzonk 5y ago
This might be so, but the way that the BBC operates is pretty incomprehensible in many cases. I worked for them for several years and know of what I speak.