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Last night, while waiting for my goodwife to finish her usual interminable ablutions or whatever in the bathroom, I was channel-surfing on the TV and came across the BBC news. It was being read by a handsome young black man in a euphonius accent, not as plummy as one is accustomed to associate with the BBC, and he introduced a story about Nelson Mandela receiving an honorary degree at Magdalene College Cambridge, which was pronounced by the news anchor and also by a college official interviewed as 'Mawdlin'. I was already aware that Magdalen College Oxford (I believe I am correct with the two different spellings) is pronounced that way, but I thought that was a peculiarity of Oxford.
How does this pronunciation come about, if there is an explanation? Is the church of St. Mary Magdalene pronounced St. Mary Mawdlin?
Are there other wierd examples of Britspeak (other than names like Worcestershire and Cholmondely which would be a YART) that would be informative?
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maud'lin môd lin
adj.
after Maudlin, Magdalene < ME Maudeleyne < OFr Madeleine: Magdalene was often represented with eyes red from weeping6
1 foolishly and tearfully or weakly sentimental
2 tearfully sentimental from too much liquor
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Are there other wierd examples of Britspeak (other than names like Worcestershire and Cholmondely which would be a YART) that would be informative?And they rag on US'ns for our "Reader's Digest spelling"! 
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How about "Pall Mall" = pell mell
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"weird examples" = redundant  & [affectionate nod-across-the-Pond e] On a tangent: Any examples of Brits Anglicizing foreignisms while us benighted US'ns attempt an approximation? "Don Juan" comes to mind.
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"Don Juan" comes to mind.
Not to mention Don Quixote.
In general I think US'ns are better at Spanish and the Brits are better at French (Hi E!)
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maud'lin môd lin
adj.
after Maudlin, Magdalene < ME Maudeleyne < OFr Madeleine: Magdalene was often represented with eyes red from weeping
Thanks, Dr. Bill. I used the magdalen spelling in a post a week or so ago, intending it as a lame pun, and did not realise that it was, albeit weakly, defensible. 
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In general I think US'ns are better at Spanish and the Brits are better at French Quite likely, though did you mean Mexican?  . I must admit that Don Juan is pronounced by most brits with the "J" ("joo-anne" approx) though the throat clearing "hoo-wahn" or a softer "whahn" is also regularly heard. I have only heard Quixote as "hee-o-tay" with varying degrees of throat clearing. Have you heard it as it is spelt? Apart from in "quixotic" or do US'ns pronounce that as in Don Quixote? Rod
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When not going out of our way to use good Spanish, we always say Juan as WAHN. A lover is called a Don Juan, Don WAHN. The pronunciation JOO-'n is exclusively used for Byron's hero, and probably very few people these days know they should say JOO-'n, not WAHN.
KWIKS-'t is also dying out. Almost everyone except me now says ke-HOAT-ay or ke-OAT-ay. (Unless they go for holidays on the Costa Brava and imagine they can trot out a KH.)
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Magdalene college pronounced Mawdlin at Oxford not CambridgeMy son and daughter went to Cambridge and Oxford respectively, though neither to Magdelen, Oxford or MagdalenE, Cambridge and I believe both are pronounced Maudlin. Condensed from the Cambridge Magdalene website: =================================== One of the Benedictine abbeys involved in the College, Walden, came into the possession of Thomas, Lord Audley as a consequence of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Having thus acquired Audley End, the Garter and his peerage, he then re-founded Buckingham College as the College of St Mary Magdalene in 1542. The dedication probably attracted him as providing a pun on his own name, since the usual contemporary pronunciation of Magdalene(e) was then ‘maudlyn’ (as it still is here); ============================ Interestingly, the Magdalen Oxford website gives no clues on pronunciation, presumably as a first test of admission elegibility! However various Oxford tourist guides state: Magdalen College, (it should be pronounced "Maudlin") is another of Oxford's most famous University Colleges Are there other wierd examples of Britspeak Doesn't sound at all wierd to me so I probably won't notice any. Rod
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