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Mr Portillo does not know proper pronounciation of a town


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No, it's definitely Shrowsbury, whether or not the locals agree!

 

In Leicestershire, we liked to maximise the chances of outsiders getting it wrong, presenting them with the double-jeopardy of Hoby and Groby.

If you want to discuss it with Portillo in person he is giving a talk at my son's school - not too far for you.

 

http://www.thepaaonline.org/

 

Mike Wiltshire

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...

Some sources, including Ronald Blythe (1964) and Matthew Parris (1998), maintain that the village name is pronounced "Stewkey". Davidson's principal biographers Cullen (1975) and Tucker (2007) found that the locals pronounced the name as spelt. ...

Well exactly - Parris is a South African and, therefore, an incomer, whereas Blythe is even more furrin, being from Suffolk. :)

 

Paul

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You even get people living in places that can't pronounce the town name. Or change it to sound posher.

 

 

Shrewsbury for example. It's Shrews Bury, not Shrows Bury. The clue is in the football teams nickname.

 

 

Or Bache near Chester. It used to be pronounced Backer, now it's Bayche as in face.

 

 

Jason

It's SHREWSbury for me, or to avoid confusion salop

 

As for bache I used to know a very camp hairdresser who lived near there on 'the lache' as he didn't want people knowing he lived on one of the more 'colourful' estates he used to say he lived in la-ché, similarly blacon, bla-cón

 

Euxton jn is another regualarly mispronounced one (pronounced Exton)

 

the one I can never get my head round is alrewas, is it al-re-was or ald-was

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The GWR had the best answer to the pronounciation of Shrewsbury by using the Salop diminutive whenever possible - so then no arguments or misunderstandings about how it was pronounced ;)

 

The GWR had the best answer to everything Mike, as I'm sure you well know...!

 

Should anyone wish to counter the above missive, I shall be aboard the first class dining vehicle of the 4.15 from Peddington.... :smoke: 

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Sorry to those who have read it before, but this puts me in mind of my Morningside accent joke.  I only have one Morningside accent joke, so I tend to make it work for a living.

 

As I am sure you know, Morningside was traditionally a rather refined part of Edinburgh in a sort of Miss Jean Brodie way:

 

First Edinburgh Lady:  I hear you've moved to Morningside, the Rates there must be terrible

 

Second Edinburgh Lady:  Och no, the odd wee mouse mebbie.

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I read somewhere an American airline pilot when asked by air traffic control to report his position replied "Currently 10 miles west of Looga Booga". ATC replied Ah that will be 10 miles west of Loughborough sir. !!

 

Brit15

 

 

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I read somewhere an American airline pilot when asked by air traffic control to report his position replied "Currently 10 miles west of Looga Booga". ATC replied Ah that will be 10 miles west of Loughborough sir. !!

 

Brit15

 

As someone who grew up less than 10 miles from Loughborough, we cherished the story that an Australian had once pronounced this Loogabarooga, but later in life I was assured that this was apocryphal.

 

I still feel that, in some profound way, it should be true.

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Sorry to those who have read it before, but this puts me in mind of my Morningside accent joke.  I only have one Morningside accent joke, so I tend to make it work for a living.

 

As I am sure you know, Morningside was traditionally a rather refined part of Edinburgh in a sort of Miss Jean Brodie way:

 

First Edinburgh Lady:  I hear you've moved to Morningside, the Rates there must be terrible

 

Second Edinburgh Lady:  Och no, the odd wee mouse mebbie.

 

I lived in Edinburgh for a wee while (though being of rather modest means I was in Bruntsfield, rather than Morningside) and a friend who was refurbishing her kitchen told the story of going to Jenners and asking for directions to the kitchen tiles department, only to find she had been directed to the towels.

 

Paul

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As someone who grew up less than 10 miles from Loughborough, we cherished the story that an Australian had once pronounced this Loogabarooga, but later in life I was assured that this was apocryphal.

 

I still feel that, in some profound way, it should be true.

Loogabarooga is an entirely believable Australian place name, though. Woolloomooloo is a suburb of Sydney, after all.
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Some of my Father’s family lived in Cirencester (the others came from Ludlow) and he said they all called it Sisister - this was back in the Twenties. I think Cirencester is in a state of denial as many people now call it Ciren, which sounds chavlike to me.

 

Best, Pete.

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Loogabarooga is an entirely believable Australian place name, though. Woolloomooloo is a suburb of Sydney, after all.

 

Indeed, which is precisely why we all believed it!

 

If I ever build an Australian outline layout, no prizes for guessing what it will be called!

Some of my Father’s family lived in Cirencester (the others came from Ludlow) and he said they all called it Sisister - this was back in the Twenties. I think Cirencester is in a state of denial as many people now call it Ciren, which sounds chavlike to me.

 

Best, Pete.

 

Well, my nearest towns nowadays are "Barney" and "Darlo"!

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I read somewhere an American airline pilot when asked by air traffic control to report his position replied "Currently 10 miles west of Looga Booga". ATC replied Ah that will be 10 miles west of Loughborough sir. !!

 

Brit15

He was probably from Toad Suck, Arkansas (yes, it is a real place - no country has weirder place names than the USA).

 

Best, Pete.

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Indeed, which is precisely why we all believed it!

 

If I ever build an Australian outline layout, no prizes for guessing what it will be called!

 

Well, my nearest towns nowadays are "Barney" and "Darlo"!

Sat in my classroom in soggy Darlo at the moment. Soon off to Monkey Hanger to pick up a E98 etch via Boro.

 

Mike Wiltshire

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As someone who grew up less than 10 miles from Loughborough, we cherished the story that an Australian had once pronounced this Loogabarooga, but later in life I was assured that this was apocryphal.

 

I still feel that, in some profound way, it should be true.

 

a friend of mine who used to live in Loughborough used to call it 'Low-brow'...

 

not that I would concur! (me being from Coventry, glass houses, stones and all that)

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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a friend of mine who used to live in Loughborough used to call it 'Low-brow'...

 

not that I would concur! (me being from Coventry, glass houses, stones and all that)

 

cheers,

 

Keith

 

I always remember a comedian saying that she grew up in a town so dull that it couldn't even find a European town with which to twin, but had to make do with a suicide pact with Loughborough.

 

The Lough of Despond, perhaps?

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How do they pronounce "Lough" in Northern Ireland? They seem to use the term like "Loch", but it doesn't look like it should be said that way. I think of Loughborough as "Luff-borough", which may be wrong and wouldn't work in my mind for water features in NI either.

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How do they pronounce "Lough" in Northern Ireland? They seem to use the term like "Loch", but it doesn't look like it should be said that way. I think of Loughborough as "Luff-borough", which may be wrong and wouldn't work in my mind for water features in NI either.

 

Lough as in 'Loch', ie it's pronounced the same as the Scottish word, but just different spelling.

 

'Lagan' (the river in Belfast) catches visitors out here, in 'English English' we'd more likely say 'Largan' for this, but for folks from Norn Iron it is a very definite 'La-gan'! I found out the hard way...

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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Go on Bri I'll bite, what's the ' local' way with Cathays and Canton ? Mind being Whitchurch mine might be different !

 

Cathays - pronounced Kerttays or Cuttays (not as in the air line Cathay Pacific)

 

Canton - pronounced Cantun (not as the Chinese province of Can-tonn)

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Living in Canada things get frustrating, even without the French thingy:

 

One of Ottawa's peripheral towns is Gloucester.  Although officially it is pronounces correctly (Gloster) a remarkable number of folks pronounce it Glosester!  AArgh!

 

But the worst one concerns Cambria.  It is commonly pronounce Came- bria the logic(!!) being that it is similar to Cambridge, and therefore the 'a' is long.  Also, AAARghh!

 

JF.

Yes - a street two over from us is 'Elgin', pronounced 'Eljin'. And there's always 'Worsestershire' sauce.

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Some of my Father’s family lived in Cirencester (the others came from Ludlow) and he said they all called it Sisister -.

Yep !! at school our geography teacher was from there, we regularly wound him up by asking how Cirencester is. :sungum:

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