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

hexagon789 · 18 Mar 2018

fowler9 said:
Not a clue. Ha ha.

The pronunciation is pretty far removed from the spelling

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hexagon789 · 18 Mar 2018

I'll give people a chance to see if they can figure it out or guess it.

fowler9 · 18 Mar 2018

hexagon789 said:
Sounds like an actual Polish town!

Ha ha. It is how I would pronounce it if it was a Polish place name.

adrock1976 · 18 Mar 2018

Is it Kin-cadow?

hexagon789 · 18 Mar 2018

adrock1976 said:
Is it Kin-cadow?

Sadly not, the Kil is as spelled (kill)

GusB · 19 Mar 2018

Having served time working for Directory Enquiries, I thought I'd heard 'em all, but never have I come across Kilncadzow.

Wikipedia suggests:

The name 'Kilncadzow' is pronounced kill-caig-eh; for the unintuitive spelling, see yogh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilncadzow

oldman · 19 Mar 2018

I am afraid my anecdote about the Liverpool airport barrista was unclear. I was the one who said Embra, he was the one who said 'Never heard of that. What airport do you fly to to get there?'

And to be uberdooberpedantic (and OT), Kilncadzow would be Kintsadzuf or perhaps Kintsondzuf (with a squiggle under the a) in Polish

.

nottsnurse · 19 Mar 2018

Has Dolgellau been mentioned yet?

How about the Nottinghamshire town of Southwell?

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

oldman said:
And to be uberdooberpedantic (and OT), Kilncadzow would be Kintsadzuf or perhaps Kintsondzuf (with a squiggle under the a) in Polish .

These are assuming that the L is barred and that there's an accent above the O?

I agree with you that the W would be pronounced as F rather than V, since a W at the end of a word is devoiced.

oldman · 19 Mar 2018

There are enough place names ending -ów (Kraków being the best known), so I would say that was the default. Whether the l is barred is a problem - on reflection I can think of some words with unbarred l followed by n, so maybe it would be unbarred in Kilncadzow.

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

oldman said:
I am afraid my anecdote about the Liverpool airport barrista was unclear. I was the one who said Embra, he was the one who said 'Never heard of that. What airport do you fly to to get there?'

Ah I see, understand you know. I wouldn't have said it was unclear what you meant as such - I have a bad habit of half-reading things anyway

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

GusB said:
Having served time working for Directory Enquiries, I thought I'd heard 'em all, but never have I come across Kilncadzow.

Wikipedia suggests:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilncadzow

Oi, that's cheating! :lol:

Wiki is actually pretty spot on there - Kill-cay-geh. Not at all easy to figure out

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
These are assuming that the L is barred and that there's an accent above the O?

I assume this is a barred Ł (?) and isn't it roughly equivalent to W in English hence the Polish currency the Złoty is pronounced zwo-ty?

nottsnurse · 19 Mar 2018

Are two people really debating in depth how a Scottish town would be pronounced if it were, in fact, a Polish one?

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

hexagon789 said:
I assume this is a barred Ł (?) and isn't it roughly equivalent to W in English hence the Polish currency the Złoty is pronounced zwo-ty?

That's right.

Also, the pronunciation of 'dz' changes if the Z has a dot or an accent above it.

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

nottsnurse said:
Are two people really debating in depth how a Scottish town would be pronounced if it were, in fact, a Polish one?

No; three or four of us are.

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

nottsnurse said:
Are two people really debating in depth how a Scottish town would be pronounced if it were, in fact, a Polish one?

It would seem so, but I actually found it an interesting debate at that!

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
That's right.

Also, the pronunciation of 'dz' changes if the Z has a dot or an accent above it.

Hence the city of Łodz becomes something like Woodge if I recall correctly

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
No; three or four of us are.

And why not? I've found it interesting how different languages would pronounce the same set of letters in totally different ways.

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

hexagon789 said:
Hence the city of Łodz becomes something like Woodge if I recall correctly

I think the more correct pronunciation is Wootch, because the dź is devoiced at the end of a word.

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
I think the more correct pronunciation is Wootch, because the dź is devoiced at the end of a word.

I see, I'm going off memory from when Portillo visited the city in GCRJ.

Calthrop · 19 Mar 2018

hexagon789 said:
Oi, that's cheating!

Wiki is actually pretty spot on there - Kill-cay-geh. Not at all easy to figure out

"Polish-ery" quite aside: I'd thought that the weirdest bit of Scottish-place spelling vis-a-vis pronunciation I'd come across, was Kilconquhar in Fife -- pronounced "Kin-yew-cher", I believe. However, Kilncadzow = Kill-cay-geh, quite puts that one in the shade.

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Calthrop said:
"Polish-ery" quite aside: I'd thought that the weirdest bit of Scottish-place spelling vis-a-vis pronunciation I'd come across, was Kilconquhar in Fife -- pronounced "Kin-yew-cher", I believe. However, Kilncadzow = Kill-cay-geh, quite puts that one in the shade.

Milngavie pales in significance compared to Kilncadzow!

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Calthrop said:
"Polish-ery" quite aside: I'd thought that the weirdest bit of Scottish-place spelling vis-a-vis pronunciation I'd come across, was Kilconquhar in Fife -- pronounced "Kin-yew-cher", I believe. However, Kilncadzow = Kill-cay-geh, quite puts that one in the shade.

Kilconquhar is more Kin-yukh-er (short u as in cup). On a similar note Sanquhar is Sang-ker.

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

Despite the omission of Kilncadzow, these pages on the pronunciation of Scottish place names are worth a look:

http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/pronounce.htm

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
Despite the omission of Kilncadzow, these pages on the pronunciation of Scottish place names are worth a look:

http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/pronounce.htm

Indeed, a very good reference despite a few omissions. They even managed to get Mallaig correct, so many people (Scots included) get that one wrong.

GusB · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
Despite the omission of Kilncadzow, these pages on the pronunciation of Scottish place names are worth a look:

http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/pronounce.htm

I noted that the article refers to Culter as being pronounced as Cool-ter. I don't think I've ever heard any Aberdonians saying it that way - it was always "Cooter".

Railsigns · 19 Mar 2018

hexagon789 said:
They even managed to get Mallaig correct, so many people (Scots included) get that one wrong.

This is very apparent every time I take a train from Glasgow to Mallaig. During the first half of the journey, the Glasgow crew announce it as "Mal-AIG", while for the second half it becomes "MAL-ig".

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

GusB said:
I noted that the article refers to Culter as being pronounced as Cool-ter. I don't think I've ever heard any Aberdonians saying it that way - it was always "Cooter".

Peterculter, Aberdeenshire is Peter-cooter
Culter, South Lanarkshire is Cooter

The L is silent in both, the article is thus incorrect for Culter

hexagon789 · 19 Mar 2018

Railsigns said:
This is very apparent every time I take a train from Glasgow to Mallaig. During the first half of the journey, the Glasgow crew announce it as "Mal-AIG", while for the second half it becomes "MAL-ig".

Mall-aig always grates with me!

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

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