[General] Pronounce "Back" as "Bark" BBC News

[EngFan]

One british lady was interviewed by BBC, she pronounced "back" as "bark", is it a common pronunciation in Britain?

 

[BobK]

No. I'd need to hear it, but my guess is that it might be a hypercorrection (maybe she went to school in the North, where she would've been told to say /ba:θ/ rather than [bæθ]* - and she's mistakenly extended the rule).

b

PS [æ] isn't quite right, but it's nearer than any other English phoneme, so I've used this in a phonetic trancription.

 

[Tdol]

I've not heard it.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you can tell us what the interview was about, we might be able to find it online. Or you could post the link.

 

[BobK]

:up: We're all a bit in the dark. Another possibility (apart from the one I mentioned before) is (mistaken) assimilation to a nearby vowel in a borrowed word; I've heard /gra:nd pia:nəʊ/.

But there's not much point guessing... ;-)

b