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I'm bemused by the inability of TV presenters to pronounce the letter "x" as in "six", introducing a "k" in its place (so six is pronounced as "sick", sixth as "sickth"). The same also tend to omit entirely the second "f" in "fifth", making do with "fith". The presenters are all British.

I find this irritating. Is there any good reason for it?

tchrist
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Trampas
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    What nationality do you think the presenter is of? What channel or show are you referring to? – NVZ Mar 01 '17 at 13:21
  • I've never noticed this – Chris M Mar 01 '17 at 13:23
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    What do you mean by "introducing" a "k"? The standard pronunciation of the word "six" already contains a /k/ sound. Do you mean they drop the /s/ after it, making it sound like "sick"? I've never heard that, although I have heard people drop the /s/ from "six*th*" – herisson Mar 01 '17 at 13:24
  • Six is pronounces as sick, sixth as sickth, fifth as fith. The presenters are all British. – Trampas Mar 01 '17 at 13:31
  • @Trampas- these presenters may all be British, but, maybe, not English as a native language I know of one ITV presenter whose native language is Welsh., and, clearly, there are a wide range of dialects and accents on UK TV, in contrast to US TV which tends to use announcers and hosts that use a "neutral" form of US English. – J. Taylor Mar 01 '17 at 19:16
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    The slurring may be deliberate to balance speed with clarity. By the time the broadcaster slows down for sikSth and fiFth, most viewers will have changed channels. So a quick flick may do the trick. – Yosef Baskin Mar 01 '17 at 20:10
  • I've never heard six pronounced as sick, but in sixth the /s/ sound is likely to be very brief or elided, because it's cumbersome to move the tongue so much between the /k/ and /th/ sounds. – Barmar Mar 02 '17 at 21:07
  • Yes, there is a good reason, and that reason is the one explained in the duplicates listed above that treat with the matter of the suppression of parts of complex consonant clusters particularly under fast-speech rules. See in particular this duplicate’s answer by our resident linguistics professor, John Lawler, about this particular phenomenon. All pronunciations alter in casual and rapid speech. The sort of speech you might hear in a spelling bee or a Supreme Court justice reading a decision from the bench is the exception, not the rule. – tchrist Mar 05 '17 at 19:05

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