This came up on another thread a day or two back: when hearing the usual North American pronunciation of “pecan” (piKAHN), it sounds - to a British ear - like an over the top hypercorrection, like a gauche attempt to sound sophisticated (we say PEEk’n). A pronunciation equivalent of saying “yourself” instead of “you”, to try to sound formal. Another classic would be the hunk of meat which a Brit would pronounce FILLitt but an American would say fuLAY.
Caveats then:
- No, its not a pretentious affectation and well I know it. I mean that it has that feel when heard by a Brit, because it would be if a Brit did it. We’ll have no judgemental “Ugh, have you heard how they say…” comments, please folks! If it’s the accepted norm then it’s the accepted norm, whatever the historical underpinning to how it came into being - even if the origin was falsely putting on (or avoiding) hoity toity airs and graces.
- I haven’t used IPA as not everyone will understand it, but feel free if that’s how you roll.
So…what pronunciations sound like they’re beyond a simple difference of accent? Like they’re needlessly posh, is what I’m going for, but other ideas may crop up along the way.