Two bits of housekeeping before Pet Peeve time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First: Thoughts and prayers for the people of Puerto Rico. Two devastating disasters in five years – the mind reels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second: It’s generally good manners to try to pronounce names and places relatively close to their linguistic originals. It’s why “Beethoven” and “Bach” are proncounced “BAY-to-ven” and “BAKH”, rather than BEE-Thoh-vun” and “BATCH”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now that there’s a big story in a Hispanic country, it’s time for National Public Radio reporters to indulge their most annoying affectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During standard NPR newscasts, we get a steady diet of reporters and anchors with otherwise traditional “Public Radio accents” – mild-mannered, neutral and and unobtrusive in a way that still bespeaks upper-middle-class roots, the sound of an Oberlin College graduate who interned in DC – abruptly switching out of their public radio lack-of-brogue to wrap their tongues around words like “PWAIR-toh RRRREEEE-koh”, rolling the “R” like Ricardo Montalban in his prime, dare I say *appropriating* a Puerto Rican via “West Side Story” accent [1]…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…and then back to the NPR accent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for some reason, it’s ONLY Latino words (or the occasional South Asian one like “POCK-ee-stawn”) that prompts this affectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You never hear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pick one affectation and stick with it, I say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SNL did in fact nail it, back when SNL was still capable of nailing, well, anything:<\/p>\n\n\n\n