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Original poster

words that have non-intuitive pronunciation

136 replies

brimfull · 29/12/2007 15:30

like magdalene...who decided to pronounce it modlin or whatever it is.

There are loads of these words in UK.

Someone should make a board game of it.

Any good ones near you?

OP posts:
WendyWeber · 30/12/2007 00:47

Stop me if you've heard these before...

Hawick = Hoyk
Happisburgh = Haysborough
Oswaldtwistle = Ozzeltwissel
Yiewsley = You-zlee
Alnwick = Annick

can't think of any more but

I'LL BE BACK

fortyplus · 30/12/2007 00:51

kindersurprise - well funnily enough I used to work for a stationery manufacturer and we supplied JM - who always referred to themselves as 'Minghies' so I just assumed that was the correct way to say it!

kindersurprise · 30/12/2007 00:57

My parents were from Perth though, so Mum might have been having a Hyazinth Bucket moment. We were not allowed to speak with a Dundonian accent!

newnamefornewyearbookwormmum · 30/12/2007 00:58

Bicester - Bister, not Bi-cester.
Ditto Towcester - toaster, not tow-cester.
Worcester - wooster.

This is regional pedantry but Gillingham in Dorset and Gillingham in Kent are pronounced gill (as in a fish) in ham and Jill (as for a girl) in ham respectively.

newnamefornewyearbookwormmum · 30/12/2007 00:58

Lanarkshire - Lannaksher

fortyplus · 30/12/2007 01:08

kindersurprise I always thought 'Minghies' sounded rather posh! but I'm from the Home Counties with the accent to match so what would I know?

jura · 30/12/2007 01:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pan · 30/12/2007 01:21

yes, kerrcoobrie..idiosyncratic....

Ubergeekian · 30/12/2007 01:39

"Irish names are the worse - Siobhan & Niamh"

They're fine when you realise that Irish, like all the Celtic languages, uses mutations of consonants. It indicates that a mutation has happened by sticking an h after, and relies on you knowing what the new sound is. So b -> v (bh), m -> v (mh) and so on. Then all you need to know is that "si" is their equivalent of "sh" and "ia" is their equivalent of "ee" and you're away.

Oh, and while I'm feeling pompous and bored, "Menzies" is pronounced "Mingis" because the 'z' in the middle isn't really a z. It's a letter yogh, which was widely used in Scotland. When printing came in, the first typesets were all made in Germany, which didn't have a yogh. So Scottish printers used the long German z (the one a bit like a 3) which is fairly similar. Hence Menzies, Dalziel, Kirkgunzeon and many more.

ChasingSquirrels · 30/12/2007 11:15

Thank you Ubergeekian, you have just explained the name of my friend's new baby girl (not one of those you posted but enabled me to see the pronunciation).

Twiglett · 30/12/2007 14:16

ooo ubergeek .. you really are arent's you? .. fascinating stuff

but I thought Dalziel was pronounce Dee-el??

Twiglett · 30/12/2007 14:17

arents'?? arent's???

gah!

aren't you

UnquietDad · 30/12/2007 14:21

Some place names in Kent - Wrotham (root'em), Trottiscliffe (Trows-ley). Also the surnames Cholmondley (Chum-ley) and Featherstonehaugh (Fanshawe).

Sorry if these have been mentioned - I've not flipped through the whole thread!

TheJinglyBellsOfSeptimusQuench · 30/12/2007 14:26

I hate to roll out this old chestnut but my boyfriend mentioned "sconns" this morning.

"What the fuck is a "sconn"?", I yelped in horror. "Don't you mean scone?"

Anyway, he says that "scone" (ie pronouncing it as it is written) is poncey and akin to saying serviette. I think the opposite. He is quite posh, if that makes any difference whatsoever....

purpleduck · 30/12/2007 14:30

I've always been confused if scone should rhyme with "bone" or "on"....?

read/read

reading (act of)
Reading (crap town of)

joyfulspike · 30/12/2007 14:31

rofl, you are making me Wheeze with laughing!!

We send my Amercian aunt wer-ches-ter-shire sauce! and I live near Wiveliscombe (wiv-el-Iss-Combe), but a work mate calls it wivvels-coombe!

lol carboard, ahmond

purpleduck · 30/12/2007 14:32

Oh, spaeking of Reading, when as a child in canada, we were playing Monopoly, we would call it READing RR.

We didn't know

joyfulspike · 30/12/2007 14:33

Fowey - foy I think

serenity · 30/12/2007 14:48

Loveangel - Plahsto, to answer your previous question

Ahmond and Cardboard here, although DH says All-mond (and munster, which even after 20 years still deserves teasing over )

Vacua · 30/12/2007 15:04

argh

scone as in on

never as in bone

Sidge · 30/12/2007 15:06

We have a Beauchamp Avenue near us which is actually pronounced Beecham. Everyone laughed at me when we moved here and I pronounced it Bow-champ (like the French).

And there is Bosham which is pronounced Boz-am, and Cosham which is Cosh-am.

newnamefornewyearbookwormmum · 30/12/2007 15:16

Some of these placenames might be quite old - there was a fashion in Elizabethan times to ponce up spellings so Fanshaw was probably turned into Featherstonehaugh then.

Beaulieu = bew-lee not bow-lee-oh (although as it's French in origin, bow-lee-oh is probably closer.....)

TheJinglyBellsOfSeptimusQuench · 30/12/2007 15:22

Vacua, are you sure?

Are you posh too?

Vacua · 30/12/2007 15:23

so sure I have made a whole shiny new scone thread

do not even LIKE scones

am not even a bit posh

newnamefornewyearbookwormmum · 30/12/2007 15:24

Scones not sconns.

I think it's a north-south thing.

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