Hoorah once again for Colonial mispronunciation!
No, I'm not going to start insulting my friends from across the water again (ha! That took you by surprise, didn't it?); instead I intend to provide help with pronouncing some English place names that are frankly illogical and at best silly, but are part and parcel of the charm of English vernacular that has built up since Saxon times.
I bring up the subject in response to Maria's comment yesterday in which she relates :
"I had a delightful talk today with a physician from Hartfordshire (sp?...he pronounced it something like Herfersheer) who charmed me by telling me that "for a yank" I seemed to have quite a "smarty" brain …"
This reminded me of the sharp pains in the head I experience when a Colonial opens his or her mouth and out of it tumbles:
"War - sesster-shy're sauce".
For your information, it is pronounced "Wooster sauce".
That is "Woo" as in "Wood", not as in "Food".
The Shires (The English "Home Counties" within easy reach of London) are pronounced "Shyre", but as soon as you say the full word, such as Worcestershire it becomes "Sheer".
Worcestershire is pronounced "Woostersheer", with the same "Woo" as above.
Leicestershire is pronounced "Lestersheer".
Similarly, Gloucestershire is "Glostersheer".
Maria's Hertfordshire becomes "Hartfudsheer".
And Katie ("Kaydee" in Californian) lives in Berkeley … Berkeley Square in London (where the nightingale allegedly sang) is pronounced Barkly; in the States they use "Berk", which to the English reveals a lot about our lost Colonies.
Individual towns can also be a nightmare for tourists.
Here are three within a ten minute drive from my house:
Lynn's parents live in Wymondham. It is pronounced "Wind'um", with the "Wind" as in "Windmill".
Costessey is "Cossy"
And Happisburgh is "Hays'bru".
This is from the language that pronounces the name Featherstonehaugh "Fanshaw".
I had written a big rant to go with this but I'll save that for another day. I'll restrict myself to being helpful for once.
15 comments:
I'm from Haisbro but I live in Japan. I do believe old Dive has turned green. Lovely blog.
Do you keep a-troshin'!
Whenever I see the Norfolk accent written down I think "Holy Crap! Do I really sound like that?"
Regrettably the answer is "Ooo-arr, bor!"
Thank goodness I'm only visiting London (which I think I pronounce correctly); I would have a doozy of a time learning all these town name pronunciations. At least now I won't pronounce Berkeley Square wrong (Barkley huh?). When I lived in Kentucky it took a while to learn the town name pronunciations. I lived in Danville, which wasn't pronounced Danvihl, it was Danvl. And Louisville was Loovl. I can't wait to hear your accent Dive! I won't laugh at you if you don't laugh at me (unless I start pretending to be a valley girl, in which case outright mocking is allowed).
Oh, my! Now I'm going to have to listen to Moon Unit Zappa for a couple of weeks so I'll be able to understand you!
You forgot Norwich! Don't you just love it when they say Nor-wich? :D Or there's always Edinburgh or as people say Edinberg :D But you have to be forgiving. One won't know how to pronounce may of these words/places until they've been there.
Hee hee, Joy. I had forgotten "Norridge."
Or as my native Norwich friend Melanie says: "Naaaruj".
What a horrible accent the Norwich accent is!
But do you know where I got the post title from?
Thass a rum ol' mardle gorn on hare, but do you juss hold you hard bor'! The Narfuk accent spoke proper is poe-tree to sum airs!
Dive
Very,very thanks to help my very,very poor English.
(Sorry I know you don't like
..."anonymous"but it is so)
Jaydublu, 'at sart'nly is, bor.
And I'm glad to be of help, anonymous.
I pronounce it
Leicester 20 Gloucester 8.
He he he !!!
Accents abound in the states as well. I often have to ring up physicians in different states to ask them pertinent questions about their patients who somehow end up on the prairie. I always dread calling down south as the accents are so thick that I find myself rubbing my eyes. (Bing is actually from Louisiana and can't understand why I find that accent so difficult to decipher.)
Even those from Minnesota have a distinct accent and New Yorkers and other easterners are a bit dicey too.
Of course, we here on the prairie...well...we sound perfectly fine.
When i was in England last I had to point to place names because whenever I said them people would either fall about laughing or say they had never heard of such a place.
I'm sure you guys pronounce them in the most unrelated way to their spelling so that no one will ever be able to say them properly and the tourists will spend their 3 week holiday wandering aimlessly around the country looking for Wind -on-ham.
Phil: Hee hee hee! Excellent.
Yay Tigers!
Maria: I love the concept of confused patients wandering the prairie. I have an image of vast herds of them, their gowns open at the back, shuffling across huge grassy landscapes like bewildered buffalo.
I have a particular soft spot for the Minnesota accent, in fact most US accents have their own individual cuteness, but I must confess I have no idea what a prairie accent sounds like.
Point me at a movie where I can hear one (like Fargo with Minnesotan).
I even like accents some snobby Americans look down on, like the backwoods trailer trash cadences of Neko Case (her accent actually turns me on, as does the girl on The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" that I posted a while back).
Jules: Shh! Don't tell everybody!
Of course we do it deliberately. As soon as the Colonials left the country bound for Australia or the Americas we moved all the signposts and changed the language so that they couldn't move back in.
As a New Yorker, I can tell you there are several distinct variations of the Noo Yawk accent: Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Joisey, Lawn Guyland (just to name a few).
Most of New York State has accents more similar to nearby regions than to those of the City. In Buffalo and western New York, for example, you start to hear elements of the Midwest variations. Northern New York generally sounds closer to a New England (or "Yankee") accent, which has its own sub-classifications. Thus, my friends from Syracuse are often told, "But you don't sound like a New Yorker!"
For years my mother old me to change my "horrible Bronx accent", which she claimed I picked up from my second grade teacher. Then came the telephone answering machine (or answer phone, as I believe you call it). She played back the greeting she'd recorded and heard "my" voice through the speaker! She's from upper Manhattan and believed her accent was more refined than mine. And, yes, she called me with an apology.
Linguistics is facinating, isn't it?
Wow, Lulu; I'd always assumed Noo Yawk was Noo Yawk or possibly Noo Yoik. I am amazed at all the variations.
Thank you for filling me in. I'm going to have to visit the place and walk around listening to people.
And hee hee hee to your mother! What a great story. Hoorah for her for having the grace to apologise, though.
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