Pronunciation of railway associated words.

[Oldddudders]

5 minutes ago, scottystitch said:

OT, but just wait until the topic broadens and we get to Mr Dalziel (Dee-ell) and Mr Menzies (Maing-is) from Milngavie...(Mull-guy) 😉

Implausibly for a Surrey Sassenach, I have been aware of those two for some years. Tam Dalziel was a politician, I think, and Anne Menzies was a colleague of Deb's at Travellers Fare, so a railway connection, even!

[pH]

14 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Tam Dalziel was a politician, I think …

Having met the man, I can confirm that he was a politician. 

[Wickham Green too]

20 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Implausibly for a Surrey Sassenach, I have been aware of those two for some years. Tam Dalziel was a politician, I think, and Anne Menzies was a colleague of Deb's at Travellers Fare, so a railway connection, even!

Then, on't telly, there was a chap called Dalziel worked with a bloke called Pascoe ( cops ? ) and Captain Main-waring was pointedly corrected about the pronunciation of Menzies before he had to pipe in the haggis ! ( I think it was that episode )

[scottystitch]

There are (at least) two Scots pronunciations of Menzies, depending upon what part of the country you are from; Maing-is and Ming-is.  Being from Perth, where we tend to elocute a little better, don't you know, I would use the former.

 

Best

Scott.

Edited December 2, 2022 by scottystitch

[Tom Burnham]

9 hours ago, scottystitch said:

OT, but just wait until the topic broadens and we get to Mr Dalziel (Dee-ell) and Mr Menzies (Maing-is) from Milngavie...(Mull-guy) 😉

 

Best

Scott.

Don't forget Sir Davidson Dalziel who played a prominent part in the Britishisation of the Pullman Car Company.  Was there not even a car named Lady Dalziel?

[Wickham Green too]

Hmm ..... just heard a BBC report about Heathrow baggage handlers going on strike - employed by a company called Menzeez ...... hmmmm !

[Wheatley]

On 27/11/2022 at 11:05, Hroth said:

Odd pronunciation is just used to filter out the strangers.

 

Say it as you think it should be said and if they beg to differ say "Thats bl@@dy stupid"!

 

 

When I first moved to York I used to drive past the sign to Acaster Malbis every morning, wondering how it was pronounced. I went through various possibilities up to and including Ayk-ster Maybe. Eventually I asked a local at work. 

 

"Ay-kaster Mall-biss. Exactly 'ow it's spelt".

 

Have we had Church and Oswaldtwistle yet ? (Ozzle twissle). 

[br2975]

On 01/12/2022 at 02:21, britishcolumbian said:

Lemme take a try:

 

Penny cood kye - Pen-coy-ker

Innis a boole - Unniss-uh-bull

Ruh deer - Radder (rhymes with ladder)

Tone doo - Tonn-dee

Gethli taroo - very good

Gwan kye garoon - Gwine-kai-gerrwhen - but, if you want to sound really local, it's referred to as simply G-C-G

Pon tee kloon - Pont-uh-clean

?

 

Edited December 2, 2022 by br2975

[Bittern]

14 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Hmm ..... just heard a BBC report about Heathrow baggage handlers going on strike - employed by a company called Menzeez ...... hmmmm !

That is how the Australian politician Robert Menzies pronounced it, but Australians are nearly as bad as Americans for mangling names.

 

EDIT: the only clip I've heard of him saying his own name was him quoting someone else, and even when opening a building named after himself or being sworn in to offices he didn't have to say his own name. I did do a trawl through videos of him through, and noticed that his accent changed a lot: in the 1930s he spoke pure RP, in the 1950s it was a bit more Australian and he had typical Melburnian short vowels here and there, and in the late 60s he was speaking with the kind of soft Melbourne accent someone of his background would have today.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Bittern
Correction

[Hibelroad]

One which is railway related is the pronunciation of Burntisland. The number of people who get it wrong must be a constant irritation to the the modellers of the superb layout, I have to admit that for a long time I thought it was “Buntis Land” . However , split the word in half and all becomes clear. 

[Oldddudders]

18 minutes ago, Hibelroad said:

One which is railway related is the pronunciation of Burntisland. The number of people who get it wrong must be a constant irritation to the the modellers of the superb layout, I have to admit that for a long time I thought it was “Buntis Land” . However , split the word in half and all becomes clear. 

Once again I seem to have been lucky. In the mid-60s several Scots were relocated to Southern Controls and one, David Veitch, mentioned Burntisland as having had a Control of its own. The arrival of Scots didn't impress all those with whom a Control has to work. I think it was the signalman at Gomshall who, on hearing David's accent said "Oh no - I'll need an interpreter!" "No problem" replied David "I can understand you just fine!" 

[hexagon789]

1 hour ago, Bittern said:

That is how the Australian politician Robert Menzies pronounced it, but Australians are nearly as bad as Americans for mangling names.

I thought he insisted on it being pronounced the traditional Scottish 'ming-iss' way; hence his nickname - 'Ming the Merciless'

[rogerzilla]

I think John Menzies, probably part of WH Smith these days but once a competitor on railway concourses, is "Men-zees".

[hexagon789]

Just now, rogerzilla said:

I think John Menzies, probably part of WH Smith these days but once a competitor on railway concourses, is "Men-zees".

No, it's 'ming-iss' as well.

 

John Menzies himself was an Edinburgh-based bookseller.

[br2975]

1 hour ago, rogerzilla said:

I think John Menzies, probably part of WH Smith these days but once a competitor on railway concourses, is "Men-zees".

.

Whereas Scots athlete and politicuian Menzies Campbell was "Ming-iss" not "Men-zees"

[Mark Saunders]

1 hour ago, rogerzilla said:

I think John Menzies, probably part of WH Smith these days but once a competitor on railway concourses, is "Men-zees".

They were all renamed and Menzies became the distribution arm; hence the vans.

 

The high street branches became a disaster area and a lot of them combined with the former Crown Post Office branches as they too were a loss maker.

[Wickham Green too]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

... "No problem" replied David "I can understand you just fine!" 

In those days he'd have been exposed to a 'traditional' BBC accent on the media so would have been familiar with southern pronunciation .............. nowadays, I struggle to understand what half the continuity people are trying to say !

[Oldddudders]

David was a fun (rather than funny) sort of colleague. One of his compatriots on Area 3 was a very English chap called David Jones. David V insisted on calling him a druid, despite no known Welsh connection. David Jones came in one night turn, relieving David V, and found a note addressed to David Jones BD, followed by instructions on how to find what BD stood for. The Croydon Control, newly-opened in 1969, had Heugafelt floor tiles, both comfy to walk on and inclined to damp sound. The instructions simply stated that David J should lift a certain tile. On doing so he found instructions to move to another tile and lift that. More instructions and on it went. Eventually he lifted a tile to find, writ large "Bloody Druid!" 

[JeremyC]

Pronunciation can be a strange thing. Marine Scotland (who I worked for) have a ship called the Minna. We all pronounced it Min-a with a short 'i' as in bit. All the Rolls Royce techs who came from the Portsmouth area to carry out repairs to the computer control system insisted in calling her the Meena.

[EddieK]

Have we arrived at Slaithwaite yet?

 

The "speak and spell" station announcements used in modern times cannot cope with stations in Wales. One evening I was awaiting a train that was on its way to Cardiff via the Central Wales Line, and it was due to call at Lanner-Lye (Llanelli). A train on the Conwy Valley line was going to call at Pont-Why?-Pant (Pont-Y-Pant).

 

Ten years ago, give or take, West Coast Railways used to run steam train rides on the Cambrian Coast line. When I rang their booking office in Carnforth (presumably) the booking agent confirmed my ticket from Mac-KIN-leth.

 

Twelve years ago, we almost bought a house in Froncysyllte, which actually looked down on the famous aqueduct. Good job we didn't, as ordering things over the phone could have become tedious. In the end, we bought a house near Ruabon Station , Ruabon is a lot easier to spell...

 

A 1990s BR training video about communication featured a Class 153 on the Central Wales Line, and the non-Welsh driver was unable to pronounce Llanwrtyd while on the phone to the signalman. He said "Llan-diddy-doddy" until the training video showed him spelling the station name with the phonetic alphabet. 

 

Thirty years ago, my wife (as she is now) was attempting to buy a train ticket to visit me, wanting to get to How Wood station, on the St Albans branch from Watford. The ticket clerk kept trying to sell her a ticket to Harold Wood in Great Eastern land....

 

Not railway related, but a local radio presenter I once heard was promoting a special offer at a local Curry House, the Viceroy. Presenter called it "Visser-roy". A stand-in presenter on Radio 2 once called a place with a dockyard near the Forth Bridge as Ro-zith.

 

Finally, a question: do you suppose that Curry Houses all over the country obtain their rice from that place near South Shields?.......Pelaw

 

Oh, look, my taxi has arrived.

[Wickham Green too]

9 hours ago, EddieK said:

Have we arrived at Slaithwaite yet? ...

I raised that topic on page 2 ..... but nobody bit ! 😮

[wombatofludham]

I suppose we should be grateful Scottish TV haven't yet got round to making Flash Gordon Highlander, the one where the Emperor Menz crashes his space ship in Wemyss Bay and ends up escaping in a Mercedes Bing.

That would cause a few headaches for the Sassenachs.

[frobisher]

35 minutes ago, wombatofludham said:

That would cause a few headaches for the Sassenachs.

 

Technically, that's all Sassenach speak as it's not from the Highlands.

[The Lurker]

I once read the summary of study that showed that the highest proportion of population of pure Anglo-Saxon descent was the Scottish lowlands.

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

I once read the summary of study that showed that the highest proportion of population of pure Anglo-Saxon descent was the Scottish lowlands.

ISTR Edinburgh Scots claim to speak the best English.