Jane Eyre- Rochester

[HollowEgg]

How do you pronounce Rochester?

Ive always read it as Roh Chester but listening to it on Audible and she pronounces it RoT Chester.

Have I been wrong all these years?

OP are you from Texas or sunnink?

@Wingsnfly
Me too! My dad was brought up on Hill Top, I was born at the bottom of Havelock Street, we moved to Lidget Green when I was very young and then Great Horton but moved back to Thornton again when I was 8 and went to Market Street School! My parents ( and grandparents ) are in Thornton Cemetery!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Rochester is never pronounced roh chester by anyone in Rochester!. Its pronounced Rotchester.

Is everyone else mumbling Rochester Rochester Rochester now?

Roh, as in Row, Row, Row your boat, Chester? That's just plain weird, OP.

That's like my American friend doing King Lear in school and saying "the Dook Of Glau-sesster

I pronounce it Roh Chester. And I really fancy him even if he was a bit of a bastard.

This nails it, I've lived in the town for over 30 years and only ever heard it pronounced this way!

You are wrong, OP, and I'm fearful that you have been pronouncing Eyre as Aiy-ree.

Rochester was ruined for me by my sister's A level French teacher, who was called Mr Rochester and was a totally tedious vanilla old man.

More Mr Collins than Mr Rochester. I should have sued him.

North West - ROTCHuhstuh

All the TV and movie adaptations use Rotch-ester too 🤷‍♀️

Roch-ester. There's no T sound because there's no T, and never has been.

(There's often no T sound in Chatham, even though there is a T, so very unlikely one would be added where there isn't a T!)

People who say Rot-chester, do you say Chit-chester, Wint-chester, Mant-chester?

Is it the Thandie Newton audiobook you’re listening to OP? She does an absolutely outstanding job, I’ve listened to it 3 times over the past 4 years!

I think the OP is asking if we say Raw-Chester or Row-Chester, not if we add a T sound.

I don’t understand how roh vs rot = raw vs row.

Really hope OP hasn’t essentially asked “do you add a T sound to this word?” when she meant something completely different. Because that would, in fact, be vvv unreasonable.

I put Rot-chester in my earlier post as that corresponded fairly closely to one of the op's alternatives and wanted to emphasise that I'd never hear the first syllable pronounced as Roe.

I don't actually pronounce the 't'.

I say RO-chester with a short o (the o in pot; not the o in go) in the first syllable.

row = roh and raw = rot

you’ll just have to make your peace with the fact that OP was not suggesting you add a T and you misinterpreted that! It’s ok!

@spanieleyes We lived on Back Lane and went to the primary on James Street (it's houses now I think). I never normally meet people from Thornton.

Your OP is unclear on how you are pronouncing it.

If you mean row (as in ‘row the boat’) then YABU!

This!

Omg mispost, no 't'

Ro-Chester

Like Man-Chester

I think this is my all time favourite Mumsnet thread.

And it’s obviously Rotch-ester.

Oh lordy.

"tch" is a fairly common spelling for the phoneme /ch/. Watch, crotch, stretch, hatch, catch, botch. Generally after a short vowel. I don't think anyone here is suggesting a separate "t" sound from the rest of the "ch", just that those letters together commonly make a hard "ch" sound.

So: Rotch-to-rhyme-with-botchester.

I desperately want MNHQ to mandate IPA on all pronunciation-related threads, though I grant it would remove half the interest and enjoyment from them...