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

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DunsBus

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Has Stow, on the Borders Railway, been mentioned yet? I remember ScotRail falling down massively on the pronounication of this one when the railway opened, as it was incorrectly pronounced as "Stoh" on the automated on-board announcements until it was corrected - it should be pronounced to rhyme with "cow".
 

AndrewE

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Has Stow, on the Borders Railway, been mentioned yet? I remember ScotRail falling down massively on the pronounication of this one when the railway opened, as it was incorrectly pronounced as "Stoh" on the automated on-board announcements until it was corrected - it should be pronounced to rhyme with "cow".
Isn't that "Cooh" in Scotland? Perhaps bough (of a tree) would be a better comparison
 

61653 HTAFC

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It's in the news for the wrong reasons, but a friend of mine just referred to Streatham in London as "Streeth-'am"... and he's a Southerner by birth. I was always under the impression that it was pronounced "Strett-'am".
 

mirodo

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It's in the news for the wrong reasons, but a friend of mine just referred to Streatham in London as "Streeth-'am"... and he's a Southerner by birth. I was always under the impression that it was pronounced "Strett-'am".

You are correct.
 

hexagon789

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It's in the news for the wrong reasons, but a friend of mine just referred to Streatham in London as "Streeth-'am"... and he's a Southerner by birth. I was always under the impression that it was pronounced "Strett-'am".

Definitely Strett-am.

I am reminded of the line from The Chaos:

"Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget 'em-"
 

bearhugger

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It's in the news for the wrong reasons, but a friend of mine just referred to Streatham in London as "Streeth-'am"... and he's a Southerner by birth. I was always under the impression that it was pronounced "Strett-'am".
If I remeber the episode in Only Fools And Horses correctly, uncle Albert calls Streatham 'Saint Reathams' and it takes Del a few seconds to work out where he means.
 

urbophile

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'Th' in the middle of words can be confusing. I know Eltham in SE London is Elt-am, but it's definitely Wal-tham-stow, isn't it? Any more similar examples?
 

hexagon789

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'Th' in the middle of words can be confusing. I know Eltham in SE London is Elt-am, but it's definitely Wal-tham-stow, isn't it? Any more similar examples?

Yes, Wal-thum-stow

Examples of a 'th' pronounced as a 't', or something else?
 

MarkWiles

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If I remeber the episode in Only Fools And Horses correctly, uncle Albert calls Streatham 'Saint Reathams' and it takes Del a few seconds to work out where he means.

I must admit to referring to a certain airport in Essex as Saint Ansted.

Reference the pronunciation of Morfa Mawddach, having lived in Fairbourne for 14 years and having learned Welsh, I must admit I physically cringe at some of the attempts to pronounce local place names on TV. I can forgive visitors pronouncing places in the way they do, but when you get actors like Bill Nighy doing a voice over for a TV programme mangling the Welsh pronunciation, I have to say it's inexcusable for a production team not to find out how to say it. I'm sure Huw Edwards at the Beeb would be only too happy to help.

I suppose it's a bit of a curse as a Welsh learner to notice these things more than local "mamiaith" Welsh speakers.
 

krus_aragon

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I suppose it's a bit of a curse as a Welsh learner to notice these things more than local "mamiaith" Welsh speakers.
That's an interesting thought, and one I'd never considered. (I have no idea how accurate it may be, but it's really got me thinking...)
 

DavidGrain

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If there is a -tham at the end of a place name I would always pronounce the 't' and the 'h' separately as I would assume that the -ham signified a village or settlement in Anglo Saxon times. However if it is not at the end of a place name as in Northampton, I would pronounce the 'th' as a single sound. OK I realise that there may be exceptions.
 

duncanp

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I moved to the West Midlands a while ago, and live just on the border of Smethwick and Edgbaston.

To a local, Smethwick is pronounced Smethick, with the emphasis on the first syllable, the W silent and a hard "th" as in then or there

But in dealing with people over the phone, I have heard it pronounced Smeth - wick, with the W pronounced fully, and a soft "th" as in theory or Thanet.

But like when we in the UK call the capital of Belgium Brussels, whereas to a local it is either Brussel or Bruxelles.
 

PeterC

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If there is a -tham at the end of a place name I would always pronounce the 't' and the 'h' separately as I would assume that the -ham signified a village or settlement in Anglo Saxon times. However if it is not at the end of a place name as in Northampton, I would pronounce the 'th' as a single sound. OK I realise that there may be exceptions.
Same here but there are examples where a large number of incomers have changed the pronunciation.

Chesham is a good example (in 35 pages I may have posted that already), with expansion it is generally Chesh-'m now but used to be Chess-'m. I blame electrification of the Met Line.

I am told, but wouldn't vouch for it that there was a similar pronunciation shift in Walthamstow when the area was developed in the nineteenth century.

Witham in Essex is Wit-am but the river in Lincolnshire is With-am.

I remember an announcer at Romford in the 60s who couldn't manage Prittlewell and always announced that Southend trains called at Pretty-well
 

duffield

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I moved to the West Midlands a while ago, and live just on the border of Smethwick and Edgbaston.

To a local, Smethwick is pronounced Smethick, with the emphasis on the first syllable, the W silent and a hard "th" as in then or there

But in dealing with people over the phone, I have heard it pronounced Smeth - wick, with the W pronounced fully, and a soft "th" as in theory or Thanet.

But like when we in the UK call the capital of Belgium Brussels, whereas to a local it is either Brussel or Bruxelles.

I was raised in Berkshire and from then lived in the East Midlands for 35 years and it always seemed obvious that the W was silent. But that might be because the first time I heard it pronounced was by a Birmingham area guard. :E
 

thejuggler

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Despite what the new Northern 331 auto announcements may believe, Frizinghall (fry-zing-hall) has never and never will be Frizzinghall (Frizz-ing-hall).
 

Marvin

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The pronunciation of Alvechurch on automated announcements irritates me. They always say Al-ver-church, but it should be Alf-church.
 
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