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

[Wigeon]

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).

The a in at is a short a. So how a Northern accent would say grass. Short a is how you say "a" when learning phonics. Long a is like ah, or how a Southern accent would say grass.

The ay of tray and way is another sound altogether.

I know my DC were taught in school (in Ireland) that the long a is the sound in hay and ape as @queenmeadhbh said. There are lots of tutorials online saying much the same thing.

The long a has come up on MN threads before and also causes confusion. Is there more than one long a sound?

As an RP speaker, yes we do hear the r sound in Glasgow because it's using the same sound as the sound of car. The r in car is modifying the a with its r-ness. It's obviously not the same r sound as in rabbit or heron. And in a word like never the r contributes to the schwa sound instead of being an r.

PP is right - long a is ay - long e is ee - long i is eye etc - all of these sounds can be shown with the magic e modifier, eg. mat/mate, rob/robe, cut/cute and are the same as the letter name.

I think people are confusing the long "a" with the stressed or unstressed syllable. Glasgow has 2 syllables, both are unstressed (I am Scottish).

If you put an "r" into the first syllable, it becomes a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

Ignoring the assorted "Glas" versions, when English people say Glarsgow, we Glaswegians hear Glarsgou.
The English ow or oh sound, sounds like "ou" to Glaswegians.
Although English people saying "ou" sound like they are saying "aoo"!
Where does it stop,😁

Again (a bit like border and boarder being pronounced differently) I'd honestly no idea that other people weren't taught at primary school to say the lower case letters first and then the capitals. So yes, they are all different. Otherwise, how do teachers differentiate between capitals and lower case when teaching children how to spell?

To be honest, in Scotland, you need a lot of different vowel sounds anyway. So a lot of people here might pronoonce the sound of a letter as soond. Which again is similar to the larger number of vowels that the Scandinavian languages have.

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting the ay sound was in Glasgow @AchatAVendre.

Again (a bit like border and boarder being pronounced differently) I'd honestly no idea that other people weren't taught at primary school to say the lower case letters first and then the capitals. So yes, they are all different. Otherwise, how do teachers differentiate between capitals and lower case when teaching children how to spell?

My son has just finished Reception. He has been taught that they are called "capital letters" and "lower case letters".

As parents we were asked to learn how to make the phonics sounds and we were specifically warned not to say "buh", "cuh" "duh" etc (instead you just make the sound of the letter, without adding any extra vowel on to it, IYSWIM) so I am fairly sure that these sounds were not being taught as a way to read out the alphabet.

That was to @AchatAVendre

Old or high RP (1930s newscaster) Gl-our-ss-goh
modern RP Gl - as -go

From South West London. Glars go.

Glars-go- from Cambridge area with typical RP accent

Glasgow rhythms with. "cars go" for me. Home counties.

I’m from Hampshire and have always said Glasgow with a short a but always a long a in glass, grass, castle etc. My wife, who says castle with a short a tells me I’m inconsistent.

Glahhhsgoe (Home Counties here)

With a short 'a' as in cat. I also say Newcastle with a short 'a'.

My accent is RP and I live in the south of England. But I'd say 'Barth' for Bath. don't know why - it's illogical! I suppose I try to approximate to the locals' pronunciation of their hometown.

Btw - can any Salopians tell me for certain whether it's Shroesbury or Shroosbury? I always say Shroosbury....but you hear both said in the town.

How odd to revive a thread from 2022 about the pronunciation of Glasgow. 😕

Yes, everybody who lives in Glasgow!

I say this but then all my family are from Glasgow! I didn't even know "Glars-gow" or however people are saying it was even an acceptable way of saying it. I'm just chuckling at the thought of any of my Glasweigan relatives or myself for that matter pronouncing it like that!

Anyone else say Glaz-go
Yes, everybody who lives in Glasgow!

Don't they say Glaz-gie or Glaz-ga?

I'm amused by the thread title. Is "received pronunciation" spoken by more that about 100 aristocrats and social-media wannabee-aristocrats? I guess a lot of southerners think they speak RP, but they actually just speak with a southern accent. I'm not suggesting there is anything good about speaking RP, though: aristocrats are not positive role-models.

RP is just shorthand for bog standard middle class Southern accent, not just ex-public school kids.

RP is the generic accent of people from south east of England. So yes, many more than 100.

There’s no such thing now, thank god.
And it’s Glazgo.

It should be pronounced the way its residents pronounce it.

Yes this. Reminds me of the people visiting Edinburgh and pronouncing it as "Eh-din-berg".

Yabu but I'm from Cornwall if that makes a difference ..