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#111427 09/05/03 07:00 PM
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Blackley, pronounced Blay'lih
Bacup, pronounced bay'cup
Whalley Range, pronounced wolly rainj, as opposed to the beginning of Whalley, pronounced waily
London, pronounced either landan ( south) or lundun (north)
Mousehole, pronounced mowzull
Gloucester, pronounced glostuh
Llangollen, I spose that doesn't really count seeing as it is a different language.
Beswick, pronounced bezzik
Durham, pronounced durrem
Shrewsbury, pronounced shrozeb'ree ( there is some debate about this though)
Happisburg, pronounced hazeburra
Derby, darbee
Leicester, lestuh ( cester is is just stuh almost always)
Salisbury, sorlsbree
Greenwich, grennich ( and a thousand others, basically, one never prounces the w, although there are exceptions)
Scone, scoon
Wymondham, win dum
Yarmouth, pronounced yarmuth ( any mouth endings are usually uth, and ton endings usually tun, er is usually ar- Berkshire=Barkshuh, and that's another thing, shire is never shire but shuh **edit, or sheer in Yorkshire**unless it is at the beginning of the name ,bury is usually berry or bree apart from Bury which is Burry to everyone from around Bury and Berry to those from the place)
Wapping, pronounced woppin ( there again you see, if the first vowel is an a then it is often prounced as an o)
Wilbraham pronounced willbrum ( nearly all names have dropped the a-ham business as most of them have dropped or merged en le, except of course Chapel-en-le-Frith)
Have you noticed that all these pronounciations are pretty much what you get if you say the name quickly a few times. I think in England at least it is more unusual to find places that sound exactly as they are spelt. I thought of a few ( a very few), listed below:
Chorlton-cum-Hardy ( well maybe the ton is more like tun)
Manchester
York
Blackburn





#111428 09/05/03 08:33 PM
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I have heard Ballyvaughan (Ireland) pronounced both Bally-vuh-hon and Bally-von, but I'm not sure which is correct.


#111429 09/05/03 10:55 PM
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Greenpoint(brooklyn) NY-is gr*n purnt
green is sort of grin, but the vowel really just a schwa, purnt to rhyme with burnt
looking at burnt, i am unsure? is that a correct spelling/ or just how i say burned?...no am sure burnt is a word.. at least in my idolect!


#111430 09/05/03 11:14 PM
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He burned it so now it's burnt. (at least in my idiolect)


#111431 09/06/03 08:21 AM
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Add:

Beaconsfield (Beckonsfield)
Wycombe (Wickum)
Reading (Redding)
Slough (rhymes with cow)

Bingley


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#111432 09/07/03 02:31 PM
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This brings up another name related thing...

Here there is a major road called René Levesque that is called Dorcester by English people over 30.

A town named Lac Moreau by the government and Lac St Paul by it's inhabitants and anyone knowing the place.

And an autoroute called "the 10" by everybody but actually named "Autoroute of the Eastern Cantons"

(oh and our Beaconsfield is actually pronounced Beacon's field :-) )


#111433 09/07/03 06:51 PM
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Oh NY is like that too, locals always call the avenue --6th Avenue, (its been avenue of the americas of 30 odd years or more) and we take the 59th Street brigde (not The Queensboro bridge)

125th Street is still the main drag of harlem, no matter that its offical name is Martin Luther King Blvd.

and don't even get started on the subways! old timers like me know the BMT, the IRT and IND lines, and where they cross. These name are from the old privately owned companies that built and ran the lines-they officially went bankrupt, and those names officially went away before WWII!

They are finally beginning to disappear, and only old timers know and refer to them.
the newest NYer's and tourist do things like refer to the 'red line' (the west side irt line in manhattan is coded red on the newest maps) i might call the line the 1 (and 9) or the broadway local, but the 'red line'? where do they think they are?


#111434 09/08/03 01:16 AM
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In reply to:

(oh and our Beaconsfield is actually pronounced Beacon's field :-) )


So's ours by people who don't come from round there.

Bingley



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#111435 09/08/03 02:53 AM
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and NY's (Long Island NY!) Hempstead Turnpike is
Hemp stead (hemp like the fiber, and stead as in 'good stead')

NYC's Houston Street is HOW ston, but that city in Texas is Hue sten.(YARTING, i know)


#111436 09/08/03 03:27 AM
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I recalled this classic from my stay in England:
"Featherstonehaux", pronounced "Fanshaw."
When I did a quick search to confirm the spelling, I found this web entry that says the word "fanshaw" is used to define words which are pronounced differently than spelled.

http://www.langmaker.com/db/eng_fanshaw.htm


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