Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 May 15 - 11:24 PM

Oh, Natchez Street on Mt. Washington is pronounced Nat Cheese street. Natchez is, normally, pronounced nat chez.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:46 AM

There's a whole page on en.Wikipedia on the Sussex dialect and how it has influenced English spoken in New England.
Alceston - Ahson (though I've heard Anson)
Selmeston - Semson etc
Ardingly - ends with an eye (as does chimney) -
then there's Dittisham - Ditsum
Names in Norman French can be quite an eye-opener or should I say an ear-opener to French-speakers, but do they reflect the original Norman pronunciation? (Jersey, for example, in Norman French is Jerri)
Beaulieu - Bewley
Beauchamp - Beecham.
I've also heard that during World War Two, American troops (perhaps from the South?) stationed in parts of East Anglia found that their drawl fitted in very well with the local accent.
Edinburgh is definitely Embrra.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 May 15 - 09:35 AM

Most people outside Australia seems to pronounce its capital as "CAN-bur-a".

In Sydney they say "can-BER-a" (middle vowel as in "them"), and I think I've heard that from someone who was actually from there.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 19 May 15 - 08:59 AM

There are three different Claughtons in the North West;

Claughton, near Lancaster, pronounced /ˈklæftən/, Clafton
Claughton, north of Preston, pronounced /ˈklaɪtən/, Clyeton and
Claughton, on the Wirral, pronounced /ˈklɔːtən/, Clawton.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Musket
Date: 19 May 15 - 04:03 AM

A village down by where I come from is called Houghton.

How ton? No.
hor ton? No.

Huffun.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 May 15 - 07:12 PM

Mr Red, now you mention it, I did go through a confused phase re Stroud/Strood when my sister moved to Eastcombe and my parents followed as far as Cirencester. It was as if my brain could only hold one pronounciation at a time, and was primarily working only on consonants. The usual error was to call Strood, which I seldom referred to, though it was quite close, by the Gloucestershire pronounciation. Odd.

Anyone got the pronounciation of Hurstmonceaux? I usually say Hurstmonsue (though the H is not much aspirated, and attempting to be dropped, and the o is more of a schwa). My mother was put out by someone who insisted the correct local version was 'urstmunzez, which she had never heard anyone say.

Penny

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: LadyJean
Date: 18 May 15 - 06:13 PM

Mr. Red, I hope your grandfather never had dealings with mine. My paternal grandfather was a district attorney and then a judge.

Things were a little lively in the mills in those days. The one and only time I was ever taken to task for not cursing, I was talking about Henry Clay Frick, Andrew Carnegie's business partner.

Carnegie,in this part of the world, is pronounced carn egg ee. There is a nice little town named after him a little north of here.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Anne Lister
Date: 18 May 15 - 05:10 PM

Mr Red, it is indubitably the case that your Welsh-familiar or speaking friends should have pronounced Caerphilly and Caerleon the way you suggest. It is also indubitably the case that, for the most part, if you pronounce the towns that way to most local inhabitants they will think you are a tourist or, at best, a Welsh speaker or learner.
I grew up on a street called Bryngwyn Road (easy enough as long as you don't panic at the lack of English vowels), near a street called Rhydepenau ..locally always Reeduhpinner, correctly somewhat different. These days, living as we do in Monmouthshire (not normally pronounced Munmuth although I suppose some people might) we try to make educated guesses as to whether it's the Cluther or the Cleyether gorge (it's written Clytha and strictly speaking should be Clutha) and I've learnt by working there that Mamhilad (should be Mamhillad) is in fact Mameyelad. But again, if I'm talking to Welsh speakers or fellow learners, I know to follow the rule book.
My late father-in-law had no truck with any suggestion of Welsh pronunciation, however, despite being married to someone with Welsh speaking family, and insisted it was Landudno in North Wales and, I believe, even Lanelly (instead of LLaneLLi, where LL makes the sound it's very hard to transliterate).
However, to digress from place names, my niece went to Welsh medium school (and is in the process of doing her A levels). Her early writing efforts all bore the traces of being taught in Welsh. "Jac and the binstoc. Jac met a jaeant and it was not fe... bwm bwm went the paerats' guns."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,George Frampton
Date: 18 May 15 - 03:50 PM

Disagree with one of the above correspondents.
Leigh near Tonbridge is definitely pronounce 'Lye'
Mereworth is merryworth

Alan Major once claimed that anything ending in -den is stressed, but after 28 years of life in Marden, anyone calling it Mar-DEN would get an odd look. Definitely MAR-don.
The _DEN rule seems only to apply to HorsmonDEN, Spelmon-DEN and CowDEN, but not FRITTEN-den.
Mundy Bois near Pluckley, I assume to be Mundy BOYS.

Theydon Bois??

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: thnidu
Date: 18 May 15 - 12:17 PM

Someone way upthread wrote «It's not "MISS-ur-ee" but "MISS-ur-ah."» But it's neither of those. It's "miz-OOR-uh" /mɨˈzʊrə/ locally, and often "miz-OOR-ee" /mɨˈzʊri/ elsewhere.

Rapparee, you just barely beat me to it, but I somewhat disagree. AFAIK, Baltimore, Maryland is locally "BALLmer" /ˈbɔlmɚ/ — just two syllables) — in, I think, "MERRilind" /ˈmɛrəlɨnd/. And New York, where I grew up, is "noo YAWK" /nuˈjɔk/ if you're R-less*, but I'm R-ful* (that's what my sister always tells me) and "noo YORK" /nuˈjɔɹk/ is also OK.

* arrhotic, rhotic

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 May 15 - 10:57 AM

In the US there is also:

VerSAILS (Illinois, Indiana)
San JOSIE (Illinois)
AYEthins (Illinois)
Nu YAWK (New York)
Ballimore (Maryland)
WARshington (DC)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 18 May 15 - 10:46 AM

Lomeshaye in Burnley is known locally as ... Lummersher.

We've just returned from Flora Day in Helston, Cornwall. We stayed in Porthallow, the halfway point on the South West Coastal Path. Locally, it's called Pralla.

And outside Whitby we had a cottage in Aislaby, pronounced Aiselby. It's not far from Ruswarp, pronounced Russup.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 May 15 - 04:30 AM

Penny S
consider favouritizing (sic) one of these web pages, devized specifically for fancy text on Mudcat, and for 'Catters generally.

Mr Red's HTML fancy text generator &
Mr Red's HTML fancy symbol generator (hash codes)

Stroud - I should have qualified it - on the phone I am always having to qualify it as Gloucestershire not Kent - what is that saying about peoples' expectations in the Sarf East, innit? And Streetmap offers 4 towns around the UK - I never look at the others.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 18 May 15 - 04:24 AM

Guest, I didn't include Avonmouth because I have not (yet) heard it pronounced as AvONmouth. You may not have been so lucky.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 15 - 12:38 AM

Strange the River Av'n and the Gorge got a mention, though not the port of Av'nmouf... :-)

Just across the river is the town of Port'zed, as the locals used to call it prior to the popularity of a certain pop band who seem to have influenced the townfolk's pronunciation to something closer to the way it is spelled.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 May 15 - 05:35 PM

OldNicKilby - I bow to your orthography of Shipbourne - mine was only an attempt at something with the r not very much apparent at all.

Steve Gardam, I was told about Eboracum by a member of the English Place Names Society who had studied under John Dodgson, the doyen of such matters. I couldn't remember the exact details, but it, I now think, involved the dropping of the ending, not as far as the present bishopric, but as far as Eborac. This was interpreted and mangled by the Anglian settlers as Eoforwic, or boar-place, which would have given an initial Y sound, with the central r and the final c sound, which was subsequently re-interpreted and mangled by the Vikings who formed Jorvik, which, as you say, slides into modern York. The intermediate forms exist in writing. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York

Can't get into the clickymaker and have forgotten how to do it manually.

And I can't feel much difference in the mouth between idge and itch, just in the voicing, and what I hear around Greenwich is less voiced. It may even be the difference between what men say and women say.

Will, my mind passed over Bozzum, and decided to leave it to someone else.

Mr Red, Strood, Kent, is spelled Strood, so no problem.

And I've remembered the place in Sussex signed as Terrible Down, with a tale of the cutting down of brave Saxons by the Normans in 1066, but which is said Turbledown, and etymologically can be shown to originate from a four letter word beginning with t and rhyming with word.

Penny

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 May 15 - 03:08 PM

Avon (as in River Avon and Avon Gorge) is pronounced Av'n.

Avonn is just for Avon ladies and their wares.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 17 May 15 - 11:56 AM

My parents were married at Poughill Steve.
They thought of naming our Hertfordshire house that, but decided no-one would ever know how to say it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,Derrick
Date: 17 May 15 - 06:24 AM

Teignmouth in Devon is commonly pronounced as Tinmuth,the river Teign is the Teen.
Yealmpton also in Devon is Yamtun,the river Yealm is usually pronounced as Yelm rarely as Yam.
Tideford in Cornwall used to be pronounced as Tiddyfurd as it was a fording place on the river Tiddy,in recent times the incomers have taken to calling it Tide Ford and the change has taken root.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Ged Fox
Date: 17 May 15 - 05:24 AM

There was an old fellow from Cosham
Who took out his false teeth to wash'em etc.

But those who find that limerick vulgar would tend to call the place Coss'm, as they went off to their yachts at Bozz'm.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 May 15 - 05:09 AM

I remember trying to direct an Italian driver (towing) with two squabbling kids in the back, how to get to Carl-is-lee, I sent him on another circuit of Lancaster inner ring road. He had come off the M6 too soon, his map must have been out of date. And I was amused by his pronunciation and did not think fast enough. Sorry mateo.
Carlisle (car-liel).

I have heard Uttoxeter referred to as Uchester - being a Staffordshire man meself, but not from that end of the county.
Lilleshal - lillyshawl
Stroud (as in proud) in Gloucesterhsire (Glostersheer) and Stroud (Strood) in Kent (as in bent)
Shelsley Beauchamp (shellslee beechum)
Powick (po-ick)
Tewkesbury - (chooks-burree - emphasised as "chuck" if you are from Evesham (eevs-sham not evee-sham))
Tweeksburg as one American had it, but then it gives me permission to use that pronunciation regularly.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 May 15 - 04:56 AM

one house wher i used to live is wunnus.
billy anthonys bottom is billy antonis bodum, if anyone wishes to discuss billy anthonys bottom or argue the toss on the correct prononunciation of this amusing name, carry on billy anthonys bottom/
theydon bois, locals call it theydon boys.
posh people call it theydon bwa

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 May 15 - 04:41 AM

near Dursley (which ex-wifey pronounced Durzle) there is an area called Cam (pronounced Cam), and just to confuse down the road where the river runs is Cambridge (came bridge)!
Eynsham near Oxford (pronounced Oxford!) is pronounced En-sham

And as for Welsh pronunciations - Gog Gymraig (or is that Cymraig Gog?) would pronounce with accents that can remind you of a Teutonic Tinge, whereas in South Wales (look-see) it is a bit more to the lyrical end of the spectrum. I have heard Cymraigophones pronounce Caerphilly and Caerleon distinctly Cai-r-lee-on etc. I know not whence the pronouncers originated.
And my Aunt married a Knighton-ite (pronounced neye ton) which is almost as English as Monmouth which I was assured by a lass there was pronounced Munmuth (two short close syllables) and she insisted they didn't say "look you" it was "look see"

So the Machynlleth interpretation comes from Knighton.

Presteign? Press-teen and Penmaenmawr Pen-mine-mou-er (ish) where there was a boot maker in the 20's. Uncle had a shoeshop.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 May 15 - 01:23 AM

And the English university city near which I live, and its Mass namesake, of course cannot be pronounced as they are by any possible rule of spelling --

'came-bridge', forsooth; with the long 'a' preceding, not one, not two, but THREE whole consonants...

≈M≈


...(unless Child #2 is going to be about a came-brick shirt instead)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 15 - 11:34 PM

Two of my favorite Atlantic Coast towns are Beaufort, South Carolina [BEW-fert]; and Beaufort, North Carolina [BOH-fert]. I guess the South Carolina town is a bit prettier, but the North Carolina town is gateway to the spectacular Cape Lookout National Seashore. Cape Lookout has an Argyle-patterned lighthouse, dontchaknow....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 16 May 15 - 07:31 PM

Newly arrived reporters on TV or Radio in Washington State were given news reports from Sequim or Puyallup. Sequim pronounced skwim and Puyallup pronounced pyoo-AL-up.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Mark Ross
Date: 16 May 15 - 06:23 PM

When I lived in Wichita Kansas I found that the river running through town was pronounced R-Kansas, none of the locals called it the ArkanSAW River.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 May 15 - 03:33 PM

Surprised nobody has so far mentioned Arkansas -- or did I miss it?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 16 May 15 - 11:58 AM

Gillingham in Kent - Jillingham
Gillingham in Dorset - Guillingham

Whenever I've been to Wiveliscombe it was pronounced Wivel-ISScombe (or just Wivvey), none of that Wivelscum business, which reminds me of the American dipplemat (diplomat).

And then there is Congresbury in North Somerset, pronounced Congsbury, not the mealy-mouthed Coomsbury you get from elderly aunts.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: PHJim
Date: 15 May 15 - 10:24 PM

"Toronto" is more often pronounced "Trawna" and one of the major east west avenues "Eglinton" is almost always pronounced EglinGton".

A village between Oshawa and Bowmanville in Southern Ontario is called "Courtice", but is pronounced as "Curtis".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 May 15 - 08:04 PM

Launceston in Cornwall is pronounced Lanson, contrary to what some others here have said.

Also in Kernow we have Polzeath ("Polzeth") and St Teath ("St Teth"). My house overlooks Widemouth Bay ("Widmuth"). A bit further down there's Bosinney ("BosINNey"). Just outside Bude there's Poughill ("Poffle"). You could go for a nice walk up Kernow's second highest bill, Rough Tor ("Rowter").

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Tangledwood
Date: 15 May 15 - 07:18 PM

There is an area north of Brisbane which was populated by soldier-settlers after WW1. Most of the districts have French names, one giving its name to the highway. I wonder how French speakers feel about D'aguilar being pronounced Dee-ag-you-lah.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Janie
Date: 15 May 15 - 06:07 PM

CupofTea is in Ohio, USA, and as she said, she lives near Cleveland, up on or near Lake Erie.   The name of town in Ohio spelled Lima is pronounce LIE-ma.

In the UK, all lima beans may perhaps be referred to as butter beans. Not sure. In the USA, only some varieties of lima beans are called butter beans, or possibly broad beans. In the southern USA, the big, tougher varieties that are sold as dry beans as well as canned beans, and occasionally frozen, are called butter beans. They are a pale greenish tan to yellowish tan in color and taste very different from what we call lima beans, which are small, tender, green and not as starchy in taste and texture. In the southern USA, what we call lima beans are never sold dry, may be available fresh, but more likely available frozen, occasionally canned.

In the USA, the differences in regional accents result in some variation, but the differences in accents have to do almost entirely with regional differences in how vowels are sounded, or whether or not consonants get dropped or softened at the end of a word. (goin' vs going, for example.) A long vowel spoken by a person from New England will sound different from a long vowel spoken by a southerner, but both are recognized as the long vowel sound for that region, as another example. Regardless of what a dictionary may say, in the USA, the local regional pronunciation regarding the accented syllable, and whether it is a short or long vowel, is generally considered the correct pronunciation of the place name, regardless of what the dictionary says.

So, regardless of where one is from, to pronounce Lima, Ohio the same as Lima, Peru, would be a pronunciation, albeit understandable and forgivable the first few times one pronounced it incorrectly after being corrected. Ditto places like the place I mentioned upstream, Canaan Valley, WV. To pronounce it the same way one pronounces the biblical referenced place after which it is named, is an incorrect pronunciation. The USA is full of such place names.

There is a quite populated unincorporated area near me named Bahama. When I moved here many years ago, I pronounced it the same as I pronounce the Bahamas (as in the southern Atlantic islands.) Wrong, wrong, wrong. Bahama, NC is pronounced ba-HAY ma. Founded circa 1750, it's name was made from three prominent families who settled there, taking the first two letters of each of their surnames. (Ba)ll, (HA)rris, and (Ma)ngum.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: bubblyrat
Date: 15 May 15 - 05:01 PM

Growing up in West Sussex,I went to primary school in Easebourne , pronounced "Ezzbourne ". Near Henley -on-Thames ,where I was born, is a village called Pishill , but known locally as Pishle , not, sadly, Piss Hill. In Somereset ,near Yeovilton, lies Tintinhull, pronounced "Tintnull"; sadly, Herge had no say in the matter.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 May 15 - 09:52 AM

Lima, pronounced like lima beans, not Lima, Peru.

I'm not quite sure what lima beans are, but I've seen the word in print many times and always assumed it was pronounced lee-ma, like the capital of Peru. The OED agrees with me and says the name of the bean is derived from the name of the city.

Where are you, and how widepread is whatever different pronunciation you use?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: CupOfTea
Date: 15 May 15 - 09:46 AM

My favorite Ohio place name peculiarities are:

A-thens, downstate home of Ohio University sounding nothing like Greek

and

Lima, pronounced like lima beans, not Lima, Peru.

I'm fascinated by the vernacular pronounciations of English place-names as most of the streets in my suburb are distinctly English (Scarborough, Essex, Oxford, Dartmoor, Canterbury, etc) and I wonder how much that was part responsible for my own Anglophile tendencies.

Joanne in Cleveland Heights

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 15 May 15 - 05:53 AM

Place just north of Wolverhampton, BREWOOD, I used to pronounce BRIE WOOD, until I found it was simply pronounced BROOD Bit like when first came to England, I though Leicester was pronounced LIE SESSTER

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 May 15 - 05:44 AM

Anstruther = AIN-stur

I tried that when I went there once and they looked at me like I was from Mars.

Hawick = Hike

Not quite. I'm not too sure how to write it, though; more like "HOY-ick", with the second syllable vowel almost inaudible.


Newtongrange = NITT-in

People from other villages in Midlothian call it Nitten. I live there, and locally it's nearly always "Newtongrange", exactly as spelt.


Corstorphine in Edinburgh, pronounced, Ker-stof-an

It's kor-STORE-fin, the second r is clearly pronounced.

They named a suburb of Dunedin in New Zealand after it. The locals there call it "CORE-ster-fine".

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 15 May 15 - 05:29 AM

Michael Marra used to joke about the mis-pronunciation of Dundee United's football ground at Tannadice. He'd heard someone (Italian?) ask for Tannadeechay!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Anne Lister
Date: 14 May 15 - 06:04 PM

Welsh pronunciation could be (and is) the subject of a book rather than a post on a thread, but the place names are frequently pronounced in ways you wouldn't expect unless you were local. Near here we have Blaenavon, for example, which should be Bl-eye-navon but which is normally Bluhnavon for locals. Similar things happen to Caerphilly (Kuhfilly instead of K-eye-rfilly ...and for those who can pronounce the ll in Welsh please note the Welsh spelling of the town name puts a single l in there, so no need to show off!) and Caerleon (Kuhlee-on instead of K-eye-rleeon). But my personal favourite is the village of Fleur-de-Lys which is normally known simply as "Flower". Another village is Beddau, which should be Beth-eye with a hard "th" but which is generally known as "Baythuh".
When I lived in London (in Wapping, pronounced of course Woppping and for all lovers of Burger King the real home of the Whopper ... as convicted pirates were hanged and then left on Wapping Old Stairs for three tides of the Thames to wash over the corpse and make it swell up to a whopping size ..or so we were told) I knew friends who delighted in attempting to convince tourists of the wrong pronunciations. So that Keyappsiddee was Cheapside, for example, instead of the way you might normally pronounce those two words separately and Vozeall was Vauxhall (sorry - Voxhall is how it's normally said).

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 May 15 - 03:02 PM

Of course all of the above 'examples' may be a conspiracy to get tourists to out ourselves by using Mudcat pronunciation! ;-)

~S~

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST,Guest: Wordless Woman
Date: 14 May 15 - 02:15 PM

Contrary to what some (ahem) comedians would have you think, New Jersey is not pronounced New Joisey.   However, some longtime residents across the river in Philadelphia pronounce their home town Fluffya.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Michael
Date: 14 May 15 - 12:48 PM

Where I hail from in Derbyshire,Bolsover: posh = Bolzover, proper = Bo'zer
Pleasley= Plezley and Houghton = Hufton or Huf'n
Whaley = Warley
Tideswell = Tidser, Ashover = Asher.
And Bolsover has Castle Estate,built as Council and NCB houses in the 50's and known as 'Wimps' as it was built by George Wimpey

Mike

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 May 15 - 12:38 PM

towcester is toaster, wymondham is windham, uttoxeter is utoxiter, southwell is not south well but suthall.
anyone that calls it south well is some posh jockey, like that stupid hayley turner, everyone in nottinghamshire when i lived there called it suthall, apart from that silly jockey.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 14 May 15 - 12:10 PM

I was brought up in Suffolk, where o sounds get turned into oo. We lived near Stoomaaak't. (Stowmarket).
Felixstowe was something like Filixstoo.
Also, Suffolk people don't do anything with a "yoo" sound in it such as tube (tyoob): they would say toob. They couldn't pronounce our son's name, Ewan - Ooan to them Yooan to us!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Will Fly
Date: 14 May 15 - 11:15 AM

Bosham in Sussex is pronounced "BOZZ-am", but Cosham in Hampshire, just down the coast, is pronounced "COSH-am".

As for Burwash - "Burrush" or "Burrish" - very similar if said quickly! :-)

Going back to my Lancashire teens, Great Harwood used to be known colloquially as "Snuffy Harrod"...

... and folks from "Westhoughton" in Lancashire were known as "Hofners" - and sometimes "Cow-yeds". The latter because a farmer in Westhoughton had a cow whose head got stuck in a gate. The gate was worth more than the cow, so he cut the cow's head off to free it.

By, we had a reet gradely do in them days!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 15 - 10:09 AM

There's a tiny hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire named Aike. Of course that's pronounced Yakka. To further identify it (it is very small) people will tell you it's just beyond Arram. So its known as Yakka bakka Arram.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Thompson
Date: 14 May 15 - 08:44 AM

Ah, but then in Dublin the rare oul' times tea was rhymed with tay, sea with say, key with kay - an 18th-century pronunciation that hung on later in Ireland than in England.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 May 15 - 08:37 AM

I always thought the wiches were idges.
Grenidge,

I don't think Eboracum evolved into anything. The Vikings named it Jorvik (Yorvik) which slides easily into Yorrik and then York.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Local place names - local pronunciation
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 14 May 15 - 08:10 AM

Quay is key in England, but in "Dublin in the rare auld times" it is rhymed with stay.