Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

If your accent is RP English, how do you pronounce “Glasgow”?

388 replies

Wigeon · 31/07/2022 20:19

Settle an argument between DH and me:

YANBU: Glasgow in an RP English accent is pronounced “Glarsgow” with a long “arr” or “arh” in the middle. Like the “a” in “car” (in an RP accent).

YABU: Glasgow in an RP English accent is pronounced “Gl-ah-sgow”, with a short “ah”, like the “a” in “cat” (in an RP accent).

OP posts:
queenmeadhbh · 31/07/2022 20:52

DappledThings · 31/07/2022 20:46

Glahsgo.

Ignore the r! Yet another thread which makes no sense because it takes no account of rhotic/non-rhotic accents.

If you use "ah" to demonstrate the long a sound it makes for much better comprehension than using "ar". To me ah and ar are the same but for rhotic accents it makes no sense.

Was going to say exactly the same thing. Pronunciation threads always degenerate into “there’s no R in Bath!” because the “r” only makes sense if you’ve got that non-rhotic accent to begin with. Personally I think we should all use phonetic alphabet :-P

Live4weekend · 31/07/2022 20:52

PlanetNormal · 31/07/2022 20:44

DP is a native RP speaker and he pronounces Glasgow without the added r because that’s how the locals say it should be pronounced. Which means I, as a northerner, should pronounce Bath as Barth, but I just can’t. It feels so pretentious & wrong.

He must know different locals to me! If its ever pronounces different to Glaz-go it's Glesca

TeacupDrama · 31/07/2022 20:51

even in RP place names are pronounced how they are pronounced in the area maybe in 1950's people said glarsgo but it is incorrect and bad manners to not pronounce it in the way the locals do as if you are correcting them on not knowing how to pronounce their own location, it has smattering of snobbery and colonialism too but Glasgow has never ever been pronounced as Glarsgo in Scotland so it is incorrect. Loch Ness is not pronounced Lock Ness wherever you are from.
Not every single "A" in RP is prounonced as "AR" there is a difference in RP between cat and cart
I also don't mean shortened versions such as Brum instead of Birmingham

Wouldloveanother · 31/07/2022 20:50

Glass-go

but I’m not RP so don’t know why I’m posting really

InChocolateWeTrust · 31/07/2022 20:50

I think possibly if you are the queen it is "glez-go", with a rather clipped short vowel "a".

StatisticallyChallenged · 31/07/2022 20:48

Scottish (Edinburgh) - Glaz-go

FireworksAndSparklers · 31/07/2022 20:48

I have a kind of hybrid RP English accent (dad's side of family were properly upper class so they all had elocution lessons; mum's side very middle class and went to school in a big standard comprehensive on the outskirts of London then moved to Herefordshire for most of my secondary schooling) and learned to say Glarsgow but in my teens I think I realised the correct pronunciation was with a short a and I've said it with a short a ever since. I must only have ever heard Glarsgow growing up!

sweeneytoddsrazor · 31/07/2022 20:48

Glaz go and where i am its baf not barth or bath

CatSeany · 31/07/2022 20:47

Glaz-go

DappledThings · 31/07/2022 20:46

Glahsgo.

Ignore the r! Yet another thread which makes no sense because it takes no account of rhotic/non-rhotic accents.

If you use "ah" to demonstrate the long a sound it makes for much better comprehension than using "ar". To me ah and ar are the same but for rhotic accents it makes no sense.

ivfbabymomma1 · 31/07/2022 20:46

Glaz-go

Sandysandwich · 31/07/2022 20:45

Southeast but still say it Glaz-go,
Not everything gets the long a

Denny53 · 31/07/2022 20:45

landoflostcontent · 31/07/2022 20:24

Anyone else say Glaz-go

Me!

Confusedteatowel · 31/07/2022 20:45

It's like plastic imo. Staying it with a long a just sounds ridiculous.

PlanetNormal · 31/07/2022 20:44

DP is a native RP speaker and he pronounces Glasgow without the added r because that’s how the locals say it should be pronounced. Which means I, as a northerner, should pronounce Bath as Barth, but I just can’t. It feels so pretentious & wrong.

TheDepthsOfDespair · 31/07/2022 20:43

I say Glarz-go

Widmerpool · 31/07/2022 20:43

I’m a native RP speaker, and I am also Scottish. (Call me a freak, you wouldn’t be the first.)

I say Glahz-go. There is absolutely, definitely no ‘r’ involved.

TabithaTittlemouse · 31/07/2022 20:42

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 31/07/2022 20:26

Neither really. No r sound at all - ahhh, like at the dentist, not arr like a pirate

Glahhhs-go

Slightly more emphasis on first syllable.

This

DoingJustFine · 31/07/2022 20:42

Glars-go

Emphasis on glars

addictedtotheflats · 31/07/2022 20:41

Im from the NW and pronounce it glaz-go

frasersmummy · 31/07/2022 20:41

The bath barth thing I have heard..couldn't say it the second way without a struggle because of my Glasgow accent but I have absolutely heard my English friends say it

But i have never heard the same treatment applied to Glasgow.

GertrudeKerfuffle · 31/07/2022 20:40

Proper posh people would say Glezgow I'd have thought, they really know how to mangle the English language Smile

HavfrueDenizKisi · 31/07/2022 20:38

Glars-go. I'm definitely RP.

Topgub · 31/07/2022 20:36

If you're pronouncing it as anything other than Glazzzgo, you're pronouncing it wrong.

Oh. Except glesga

SNAFU247 · 31/07/2022 20:36

First one. Gl-ar-s-gow.

Swipe left for the next trending thread