Bit random. If we ever meet, I expect everyone to be able to pronounce harassed properly too. #pethateofmine
Do they? I hadn't even noticed... I'll have to get them to say that to me. Not a word that comes up in conversation very often. "Burglarized" is the word that bothers me the most. I can't help but cringe when they say that.
the pronunciation of harassed with stress on the first syllable is a carry-over from the variant pronunciation "HAR-ass" and may not be as well established as "ha-RASS-med." Indeed, the pronouncing dictionaries I also consulted say to pronounce this word as "ha-RASS-ment." Ergo you two are really just very old and stuck in your ways. the major dictionaries clear either form.
I think I speak for both saint and myself when I tell you to shove it up your ****ing degenerate arsehole
We just don't enjoy seeing our native language butchered. Older dictionaries have only the one pronunciation, newer ones accept either. New isn't always better. It's ok if you're happy for our culture to be crushed beneath the jackboot of the US media hegemony, but I'm not. I don't say noocular or aloominum either. I'd concur with RHC's suggestion above except I'm too polite.
Perhaps its not only the US that's doing it? How many of these things are actually US pronunciations and how many are natural evolution locally? Like.... I am not a fan of ALOOOOmium either. or LOOTenants. Those are clearly yanks behaving badly. HAR-assed verses har-ASSED would seem purely down to how toff you are. As in Henley regatta English. Sadly there's no such thing as BBC english any more. long gone with their impartiality.
In all seriousness, I'd never heard the second-syllable pronunciation at all until Michael Crawford used it on his TV show. It then caught on, despite the fact that you were supposed to laugh at his mangled pronunciation - not copy it. I inherited two old dictionaries from the 50's. They both only have the first-syllable pronunciation guide. I realise that language evolves, but often it loses its variety and potential by being "dumbed down" to the lowest common denominator. I know some think it's petty, but I like language and what it can do. When I was a sprog I read 1984 and was fascinated by the realisation that you can control people by controlling and limiting their means of expression. There's also the feeling of identity, I dislike the homogenisation of culture across the English-speaking world through the influence of so much American product being in our faces all the time. I have no problem with them speaking the way they do, but we don't have to. And thanks for calling me a toff, like. Me mam would be dead proud.
I do too... But I don't think this is a British vs American thing either... I've honestly not noticed it being said that other way over here (maybe they do and it just didn't stick out to me because so many other things are pronounced differently).
