Wales must be fun - all sign posts and place names are in both English and Welsh

Jo xxx

 

Indeed! Here in Scotland, bilingual (Gaelic+English) roadsigns are largely confined to the Gàidhealtachd (the NW of the country where Gaelic is still spoken).

Interestingly however, ScotRail are now in the process of replacing all station nameboards with bilingual (Gaelic+English) ones throughout the whole country.

teuchter

 

Leicester - Lester
Leinster - Lenster (in Ireland)
Warwick - Worrick (not War-wick as in US soul singer)
Uttoxeter - Yutoxiter
Shrewsbury - As written, but some outsiders call it Shrowsbury
Leominster - Lemster
Ruislip - Ricelip
Worcester - Wuster
Gloucester - Gloster
Durham - Daram or Duram depending on regional accent

 

A few English ones:

Loughborough - LUFFburra
Loughton - LAOtin
Mousehole - MAOzill
Norwich - NORRitch

teuchter

 

A friend in Devon lived near Woolfardisworthy

pronounced Woolsery

 

And in Dorset there's this:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/samhaysom/which-of-these-ridiculous-dorset-place-names-are-real#.doXZLmnd7

 

LOL!!!! I need to bookmark this thread for future reference! I'm constantly asking my husband how to pronounce different locations, because I'm never sure what letters are pronounced and which aren't. I totally surrender when it comes to Welsh!!!

 

Hi,
Welsh is actually very easy - you just need to learn the rules!
Cheers
Steve

 

A few more:

Alyth - EHlith
Colquhoun - koeHOON
Corstorphine - korSTORfin
Dumyat - dumEYEat
Glamis - glamz
Irvine - IRRvin
Kincardine - kinCARdin
Stranraer - stranRAHR

teuchter

 

We took our honeymoon canal boating on the Llangollen canal. As long as I said "lang-goth-len", I was close enough to not get funny looks from the locals.

Frankly, I think they would just look at you with amusement if you strung together a bunch of L's.

 

In more English-speaking parts of Wales, such as Cardiff, a Welsh name like Llandaff is pronounced more like landaf, rather than thrunduf.

 

Teuchter, you wrote, "And the capital of Scotland is pronounced "Edinburra", never "Edinboro". You forgot the most common incorrect pronunciation which is to pronounce it as it is spelled 'Edin- burgh'.

My favourite is a little place just outside Lanark (pronounced as spelled for a change). The place name is Ravenstruther and is pronounced by the locals as Rain-stree.

Adding to the confusion, are local dialects. It wouldn't be as bad if everyone pronounced words, not just place names, in the same way. But trying to understand what someone from any one of a hundred different parts of the UK is saying is not only difficult for an ex-pat it's difficult for any other Brit as well.

Schools do not teach pronunciation to a standard. In fact there is no such thing as 'standard English'pronunciation. Standard English - Definition and Examples

A child attending school in Aberdeen will learn to say a word differently from a child attending school in Manchester etc. Written English does come closer to being taught to a standard.

I would disagree with the Oxford Dictionary which says, "The form of the English language widely accepted as the usual correct form: ‘children often use native forms at home and speak standard English at school’.

I'd say they may write in standard English at school but they may not speak standard English at school or at home.

I'm reminded of Greek kids, many of whom learn second and even third languages. They speak English with the same accent as their teacher has, every single time.

 

How about in the opposite direction just for fun?

I don't know how many times I have heard a Brit TV announcer refer to Houston, Texas incorrectly and for some unknown reason it always irks me. It is pronounced Hew-ston as in a hewer of wood. You would think that a news presenter would have a responsibility or interest at least in pronouncing a name correctly. Seems kinda insulting somehow when they don't.

Toronto, Canada seems to be pretty simple and yet a native can always tell if someone is really from Toronto or not. It is pronounced 'Trono' by native Torontonians, not Tor-on-to. That's actually a good example of 'lazy pronunciation'. Being lazy pronunciation, hearing it pronounced Tor-on-to by others doesn't irk me at all. It's the Torontonians that are being lazy, not anyone else. ;-)

 

A couple of American places I've heard pronounced here

Pasadena - Pa-sade-na............should be -a-dena
Yosemite - Yo-se-might................should be Yo-sem-eh-tee

And this one irritates me that the eastern half of the US can't seem to say

Oregon - Or-e-gone.............should be Or-e-gun

 

A village in Barnsley called Penistone is always good for a giggle (it's pronounced Pennisten BTW)

 

Where's the giggle in 'Penny stone'?

Pity the poor person stuck with an awkward family name Made in Sheffield. For Example:
https://www.houseofnames.com/semon-family-crest

How would you pronounce that name pray tell?

 

Se'mon, pronounced with a French accent?

One of England's greatest goalkeepers was called David Seaman

 

Lots of English place names end in "cester", which denotes that it was once a Roman settlement (from Latin castra, camp). As a rule this is pronounced "ster":

Leicester = Lester
Worcester = Wooster
Bicester = Bister
Gloucester = Gloster
Towcester = Toaster

An exception is

Cirencester = Syrencester

The suffixes "ton" and "ham" denote Old English settlements - for example Birmingham, Southampton. These are never stressed, so don't pronounce "ham" like the meat - it's a sort of mumbled "um" at the end. Birmingum.

 

The 'cester' to 'ster' rule makes some sense but it does not explain the pronunciation of the other part of the names. For example, why is Lei pronounced Le or Wor pronounced Woo? Why not Lyster, Worster, Glouster and Towster?

The example of Cirincester which you site as an exception indicates that there is in fact no real ryhyme or reason very often. Most likely is 'lazy pronunciation' which has become the accepted norm over time.

 

There's no rhyme or reason to the English language full stop! It's a mish-mash formed by many different influences over the centuries - Vikings, Angles, Saxons, Romans, Normans etc. That's why it's so hard for foreigners to speak it, when it comes to pronunciation there no rules!

 

About a third of town names in southern New England are English place names, but they have developed different pronunciations and sometimes spellings.

Coventry... the Co is pronounced to rhyme with cob
Warwick is pronounced phonetically as War wick (as Joppa mentioned)
Rhode Island spells their Gloucester as Glocester (no 'u')

In Massachusetts,
Haverhill is Havrull
Woburn is Wibin
Harwich is Har witch

We always know who the new radio or tv announcer is when they pronounce place names incorrectly...

I would love it if someone would tell the BBC news people that Maryland is pronounced Marilynd, not Mary Land.

 

I would love it if someone would tell the BBC news people that Maryland is pronounced Marilynd, not Mary Land.

Believe it or not the BBC have their own Pronunciation Unit. You should write to them and put them straight!

BBC - BBC Archives Pronunciation Unit - BBC Archives

 

Greenwich = Greenich
Marylebone = Marlibon

Wait! I just ed I watched a video about this...

Here it is (Love Anglophenia by the way! ):

 

Wait! I just ed I watched a video about this...

Here it is (Love Anglophenia by the way! ):

How to Pronounce UK Place Names - Anglophenia Ep 23

Massauchusetts has a Leominster, which is pronounced Leminster as opposed to Lemster in the video. I never knew that one.

 

I always heard Los Angeles as Angeluhs on US TV. Over here they've decided it's Angelees.

 

Using the local pronunciation I encountered...

Leicester - LESS-tah
Loughborough - LUFF-bra
Heather (village in Leicestershire) - HEE-tha
Whitwick - Wittick
Derby - Darby

My boyfriend was surprised to learn that some Americans pronounce Louisville as "LOO-uh-vull" and New Orleans as "New OrLEENS". He says them as "Loo-EE-ville" and "New Orleon".

I can't think of any more at the moment, although I know there's plenty!

 

Re UK announcers mispronouncing USA place names, they do the same thing with names around the world. You would think that a TV announcer would have the common courtesty to learn how to pronounce a place name. They seem to make an effort to learn how to pronounce a person's name properly (even appologizing if they are not sure they got it right) but make no effort to get place names right.

Besides Maryland and Los Angeles, my pet peeve is Houston. They pronounce it 'Hoos-ton' rather than the correct 'Hew-ston.'

 

My husband and I have huge arguments over the correct pronouncation of Los Angeles... he says it the "British" way (ie incorrectly) and I say it like a Los Angeleno)... he says that he says it the British way (?!?) to which I counter that with that logic, he cannot comment on or correct me if I pronounce UK place names differently to how he does, especially since I've not heard of a good many of them, so I don't know how they're supposed to be pronounced, yet he knows better in regards to LA, given that he's actually been there.

Oh well, the struggle continues.