Trivia: Place names that you're not sure how to pronounce

[61653 HTAFC]

I once had a friend who pronounced the 'g' in Rowley Regis as a hard consonant.

Rowley Ree-giz

Idiot.

Wootton Wawen always feels like you're saying it wrong, even when you're not!

 

[plymothian]

The one I was never sure of was Cirencester, but I was told by a friend of mine it's as obvious as I thought it was.

Actually it can also be pronounced 'sister' as well as 'siren-sester' but 'sister' has fallen out of fashion.

 

[whittlesfordok]

Manea is the best around here and if Wisbech comes back the amount of radio/tv presenters that get that wrong

 

[DelW]

The one I was never sure of was Cirencester, but I was told by a friend of mine it's as obvious as I thought it was.

Actually it can also be pronounced 'sister' as well as 'siren-sester' but 'sister' has fallen out of fashion.

My mother (who was born in 1920 and went to college in that area in the late 1930s) used to pronounce it 'sissiter', though I don't know how widespread that was. It's quite a time since I heard it pronounced as anything other than 'siren-sester' though.

 

[PHILIPE]

I thought it was pronounced Salop personally, most of the 'e's and 'w's must be silent

Salop is a "short" way of saying Shropshire, the County.

 

[Calthrop]

Much of the following, about "now-closed" places; anyway -- West Hoathly (former station on the Bluebell Railway's route, north of Horsted Keynes, not reopened): Hoath-LYE (not -LEE).

Towcester: most favoured pronunciation, I gather, is like "toaster"; but "Touster" (to rhyme with "jouster"), and "TOSS-et-er", are also known.

And Uttoxeter -- standard pronunciation is as spelt; but I gather that many locals tend to say "UT-chet-er" (to rhyme with "put wet fur").

Some other Scottish ones that are not pronounced quite how they are spelled...

One which causes English me to boggle, is Kilconquhar on the long-closed Fife Coast line: if I'm right, pronounced "Kin-YOU-khar".

A long-since disused light railway station admittedly, but Cawood near Selby in Yorkshire is pronounced "kay-wood" (not car-wood, caw-wood or any other variation).

Thank you ! I've always wondered about that one.

Hunstanton (another tenuous disused station) in Norfolk is pronounced "Hun-ston" by locals, not Hun-stan-ton as many would expect.

I grew up not very far west of those parts; and according to my parents and others in our home territory, the general and correct pronunciation, including by the locals, was "Hun-stan-ton"; it was only "posh, precious and pretentious twits" who said "Hun-ston". Maybe, though, my elders were mistaken on this point.

I've noticed that Barnstaple is often pronounced Barnstable, as in Whitstable.

On Cape Cod, Massachusetts, there's a town supposedly named after the one in Devon; but actually spelt and pronounced "Barnstable". (Oh, well, those Yanks -- they can never get anything right .)

 

[DelW]

And Uttoxeter -- standard pronunciation is as spelt; but I gather that many locals tend to say "UT-chet-er" (to rhyme with "put wet fur").)

A university friend of mine (in the 1970s) came from there and certainly insisted on 'Utchetter' as the local pronunciation.

it was only "posh, precious and pretentious twits" who said "Hun-ston".

Which might lead on to sarf London, with Clarm Junction and St Ockwell!

 

[Bill EWS]

Avon is French for a river, therefore you really shouldn't say "The River Avon" as that is like saying the "River river". It's similar with the Dundee Law. Law is old word word for a hill therefore it should simply be "The Dundee Law".

 

[37 418]

2 in the Highlands many, especially lowland Scots get wrong are Aviemore and Alness - they are pronounced Avie-MORE and AL-ness, usual, but incorrect pronunciations are AVIE-more and al-NESS

 

[37 418]

Avon is French for a river, therefore you really shouldn't say "The River Avon" as that is like saying the "River river". It's similar with the Dundee Law. Law is old word word for a hill therefore it should simply be "The Dundee Law".

Afon is actually Welsh for river, compare Gaelic Abhainn. French is Rivière

 

[37 418]

Anyone know how to pronounce Caergwrle? Station on the Wrexham-Bidston line.

I would say Kire-GOOR-le 'W' in Welsh is usually pronounced 'oo' unless it's followed by a vowel e.g. Gwent

 

[Calthrop]

Anyone know how to pronounce Caergwrle? Station on the Wrexham-Bidston line.

I would say Kire-GOOR-le 'W' in Welsh is usually pronounced 'oo' unless it's followed by a vowel e.g. Gwent

"Kire-GOOR-le" is about how I'd pronounce it, too -- reckon I have a fair grasp of Welsh spelling / pronunciation. (Incidentally, a lot like Western Australia's second city !)

 

[davetheguard]

The one I was never sure of was Cirencester, but I was told by a friend of mine it's as obvious as I thought it was.

Often shortened to "Siren" according to a nephew who lives there.

 

[gg1]

Alcester is another, Ive heard it pronounced as:

Al cess ter
All cess ter
Ulster
Al ster
All ster

 

[AlterEgo]

Alrewas (as in the junction) is pronounced "Awl-ree-was", but I've heard it pronounced "Allrus" and "Al-roo-us" before.

 

[Smitham]

Coulsdon South and Coulsdon Town (spits) are now almost always pronounced Cools don but must of the local elders always pronounced it as Coals don.

 

[EM2]

And also furthet down the line at Bearsted, pronounced 'Bear-sted', not 'Beer-sted' as I hear some say.

That provokes heated debate even among locals. In fact, one of my best friends met his wife when she butted in on such an argument in the pub!

 

[Thebaz]

Me too. Just to sound a bit clever. Sadly it's 'boys'

And of course close by Hainault is not pronounced 'ay-no'

 

[Dr_Paul]

A now dead aunt of mine, born around 1900, came from Tolworth (between Kingston-on-Thames and Epsom), and pronounced it 'Tal'uth'. An old OS map I have spells it 'Talworth'.

When I went to Lowestoft back in the mid-1960s, people there pronounced Norwich as 'Narge' (rhymed with 'barge'); they also pronounced their hometown as 'Lowstarft'.

I guess it's a matter of chance whether local pronunciations become the generally used ones on, for example, the telly news or announcements on the railway, or stay purely local.

 

[Dr_Paul]

And of course close by Hainault is not pronounced 'ay-no'

But we Londoners are rather like the French in that we don't tend to recognise the 'h' at the start of words. Hainault is usually pronounced something like 'Ay-nort', with a barely-sounded 't' at the end, so it's not that far from the French. Unlike Bois, as in Theydon or Chesham, which to my knowledge has always been pronounced 'Boys'.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

...
c) Outwith Scotland, Milngavie is pronounced in many ways. Within Scotland, it is pronounced "Mul-guy"

"Mil-guy" for those of us who buy pints of milk. There are those, of course, who buy mulk instead.

 

[Calthrop]

If I might be a bit cheeky, and expand operations to the Irish Republic: Irish place-name pronunciations can be tricky for a “Saxon”. Many such places, I first became aware of through reading railway publications a good many decades ago; with, among other things, never visiting Ireland until much later: my mental sounding-out of the names had often been -- as I discovered when first hearing them spoken by an Irish person – thoroughly wrong.

Howth, the branch-line terminus a little way north-east of Dublin, rhymes with “both”; not with “south”. Places in Ireland ending in “-es”, have that suffix pronounced as a separate syllable, with approximately equal stress on the name’s different syllables. Clones, the one-time nerve-centre of long-closed Great Northern Railway of Ireland secondary routes, is pronounced “Cloh-ness” – not in the manner of “a bunch of Dolly-the-Sheep’s”. Similarly Thurles, on the Dublin – Cork main line, is “Thur-less”, as opposed to rhyming with “pearls”.

A certain prominent four-way junction way out west, is pronounced “Ath-en-RYE” – not my imagined “Ath-EN-ree” (on the model of the name of various kings, and the Green Engine). Though that name and its proper pronunciation have become widely known in recent decades, thanks to the large-scale catching-on of a particular song. And in the North, Fintona – once of horse-tram fame – is “FIN-tuh-nah”: not, as the uninitiated might read it, “Fin-TOE-na”.

 

[Thebaz]

I think it's time this made an appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOd3lwluQIw

 

[trainophile]

I found out at the weekend that Witham in Essex is pronounced Wit-ham not With-am.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

My mother was born in Marylebone and always pronounced it ''Marry-le-bone'' and I don't believe she so much as visited anywhere in the Midlands in her life. Could be a class thing, may I suggest.

The narrators in Video 125 videos all say Marry-le-bone.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

But we Londoners are rather like the French in that we don't tend to recognise the 'h' at the start of words. Hainault is usually pronounced something like 'Ay-nort', with a barely-sounded 't' at the end, so it's not that far from the French. Unlike Bois, as in Theydon or Chesham, which to my knowledge has always been pronounced 'Boys'.

That's funny because I'm a Londoner too and always say Hay-nolt I'm sure the announcer on the Central Line trains pronounces it that way too.

 

[Scotty]

I found out at the weekend that Witham in Essex is pronounced Wit-ham not With-am.

The river Witham round Lincolnshire is pronounce Wivvum.

 

[Busaholic]

Which might lead on to sarf London, with Clarm Junction and St Ockwell!

Or Battersea Rise and Clapham Far North, as we call them. If you want to annoy a Camdenite, refer to West Hampstead as East Kilburn.

 

[anti-pacer]

Welsh places names always got my mum in a tizz.

Penmaenmawr she pronounced as "Pen-am-mwah" rather than "Pen-mine-mawer" (I think I got that right). She pronounced Betws-y-coed as "Betsy-coa-id" rather than "Betoos-u-coyd".

She once laughed at me when I pronounced Bangor "Ban-gore" and not "Ban-ger".

 

[urbophile]

Reminds me of Snozzle, Snerth and Snives in Cornwall!

Or Snellens in Merseyside.

Re the Hoathlys: am I right that one of them is Hoathlye and the other Hoathly? Ardingly is certainly Ardinglye.

Esher always used to throw me: unless you knew you would think it rhymed with fresher, not freesia. (which of course it doesn't, but I couldn't think of a word that did. Freesher of course)

Euxton looks as if it should be a near rhyme to Euston: actually it is Exton.