Pronunciation of railway associated words.

[pete_mcfarlane]

14 hours ago, pH said:

Govan - pronounced Guv’n, not (as pronounced by an English newsreader on his first night reading the local news) Go-van

 

Those of us of a certain age know how to correctly pronounce Govan thanks to Rab C Nesbit. 

 

13 hours ago, Wheatley said:

York station had an announcer a few years ago who never did get her head around Ker-nairs-borrow.

ECML stations used automated announcements when I used the trains regularly in the 90s, all recorded by the same lady. At Stevenage she announced that the train was calling at Don-carster, but at Grantham she'd changed it to Donkasta. 

 

[Gareth Collier]

I live a couple of miles from Herstmonceux, famous for its castle and observatory. It's Hurst-mon-zoo but I have heard so many variations, Hearst- mon-see-uks and Hurst-mon-see-uks, Hurst-mon-see-ooks and many more I can't work out how to spell!

[Compound2632]

19 hours ago, melmerby said:

Back down here in the midlands, railway station.

Alcester: All-sester, Al-sester or Allsta?

 

Ulster. A friend of mine who had northern Irish connections was rather confused by this, when doing her teacher training in Leamington.

 

Has anyone mentioned Uttoxeter? pr. Uch-etter.

 

50 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I come from that part of the world, indeed my great grandmother was born in ‘orsted Kaynes, but now live in Milton Keynes, which is of course Keenz.
 

The two villages were owned by the same family at some stage in the dim and distant, I think after the Norman conquest*, so were presumably pronounced the same way, and Milton Keynes was written in some medieval documents as Middletun (its Saxon name) Canes or Kaynes (name of landlord) which suggests that the Sussex version is closer to the original.

 

So also Norton Canes, on Cannock Chase?

 

As to "clerestory", the pronunciation rule is clear: it is pronounced "clear-story" in the architectural context and "cler-es-tory" in the railway carriage context; usage has made these pronunciations correct, in their contexts. However, I suspect that the pronunciation "clere-es-tory" does result from only seeing the word written, not spoken.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Compound2632

[Nearholmer]

Yes, probably, there’s a whole string of Keynes/Canes villages dotted across the country, so they must have spent a lot of time buttering-up kings.

[Welchester]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ulster. A friend of mine who had northern Irish connections was rather confused by this, when doing her teacher training in Leamington.

 

Has anyone mentioned Uttoxeter? pr. Uch-etter.

 

 

So also Norton Canes, on Cannock Chase?

 

As to "clerestory", the pronunciation rule is clear: it is pronounced "clear-story" in the architectural context and "cler-es-tory" in the railway carriage context; usage has made these pronunciations correct, in their contexts. However, I suspect that the pronunciation "clere-es-tory" does result from only seeing the word written, not spoken.

 

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, probably, there’s a whole string of Keynes/Canes villages dotted across the country, so they must have spent a lot of time buttering-up kings.

 

Norton Canes is probably a corruption of 'Norton under Cannock'. It has no royal connection.

[wombatofludham]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Has anyone mentioned Uttoxeter? pr. Uch-etter.

 

It's a very localised pronunciation.  You would rarely hear it past Abbot's Bromley!  A bit like "'Edgefud" for Hednesford.

Despite me being born in Walsall and coming from generations of "Yam-Yams" I have always pronounced "Wednesbury" and "Wednesfield" as "Wednzbri" and "Wednzfield", putting the "D" and using three syllables.  I also add the "R" in "Feb-roo-ary". I'm a bit anal like that.

When it comes to Norfolk though, all bets are off.  I once got pulled up on calling "Costessey" "Cozzi".  Somewhat miffed that I was being pulled up having not called the place "Coss-tess-y" like most blow ins, I was told "It's Cossi.  A cozzy is what you wear on the beach"

Welsh by comparison is a doddle to pronounce correctly.

[The Stationmaster]

18 hours ago, br2975 said:

What about Welsh place names ?

.

Where there is

.

(i) The correct Welsh pronunciation

(ii) The 'bastardised' local pronunciation

(iii) The way the poor saes (English) visitors try to pronounce it

.

I give you a few for starters

.

Penycoedcae

Ynysybwl

Radyr

Tondu

Gelli Tarw

Gwaun cae gurwen

Pontyclun

.

Then there's the dodgy one.....Portmadoc

Well you know which one where I used to work but you might not know the one where I lodged for a while.  So on being approached by the Conductor as the 'bus left Ponty it was best to be explicit about one's destination.  So I always asked for 'second stop in Robert St'.  And as you might know the locals had a very simple approach and simply called it 'the bull'.

 

Lofe in a Welsh booking office might have been thought a trial for an interloper from the other side of the Severn but as long as you knew what Care-deeth meant you'd not have any problems.  On the other hand working in an English booking office in a town with a sizeable Welsh ex-patriot population (Slough for those who didn't know) and cheap weekend tickets across border  you very quickly learnt how Troedyrhiw was pronounced and the station someone was really travelling to when they asked for a Weekend Return to Aberfan (in the days before it became know for all the wrong reasons).

 

The only problem I found was that working in Swansea after a year in Radyr I had to re-learn a lot of pronunciations a they talked very different by there.

[The Stationmaster]

4 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

Both Shrewsbury & Shropshire are from the same root word, something like Scrobbesbyrig (sir)

In modern English Shrubsbury (shire)

The county name is simple - just look at a photo 😇

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sydhank/34156372515

 

[New Haven Neil]

Uh, just drove past one in the village on my way home - Leodest Road - pronounced Loudest.  

[The Stationmaster]

Fortunately this hamlet never had a railway station (it used to have two different pronunciations - the posh one and the normal one.

 

[Nearholmer]

I’m trying to think of a workable posh pronunciation, because the obvious one, something like “pizzle” was itself slang for a specifically male part of the anatomy in the C16th/C17th.

[Hroth]

17 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Fish and chips?

 

You'd be lucky, the only shops there are in Station Approach, with not a chippy in sight...

 

[pH]

3 hours ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

ECML stations used automated announcements when I used the trains regularly in the 90s, all recorded by the same lady. 

When it was first introduced, all the automated announcements for the Skytrain (automated transit) system here were done by a secretary from the project office. She did the recordings one afternoon, apparently having been given a couple of brandies at lunch time to settle any nerves.

[TheQ]

If it was daylight I could look out of the window and see Haisboro light house, and not ten feet from me is a document signed by John Maynard Keynes, it stops all claims on this house and lands by Kings College Cambridge.

 

Not far from Coltishall station is Hautbois, as spoken Hobbis.

Wroxham Station is Pronounced Hoveton. Well Hoveton is the village it's in not Wroxham, like Roy's of Wroxham that's in Hoveton as well, and Wroxham miniature worlds a model railway exhibition is in Hoveton too. Oh and Hoveton is pronounced Hov'ton or as I say Effin clown town, after all the idiot tourists who think wandering across in front of traffic on an A road is ok because they are on holiday.

Then there is Tacolneston station pronounced, Tacolstun but you won't get a train there its a BBC transmitter .

Somewhat further away, I have a connection with Borrowstouness, that's Bo'ness or more often these days Bo'ness.

 

[The Stationmaster]

23 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I’m trying to think of a workable posh pronunciation, because the obvious one, something like “pizzle” was itself slang for a specifically male part of the anatomy in the C16th/C17th.

It used to be Pish'll.  You no doubt don't need guidance for the other form of pronunciation😄  It used to be good fun in (this) one's teenage years (and later) if you came across a stranger or visitor seeking out how to get there (it isn't signposted from the Henley direction) and they would inevitably very carefully use what we regarded as the posh pronunciation.

 

So you could have a bit of fun by looking puzzled and then getting an obvious light bulb moment and replying 'Oh you mean Pis-hill?

Edited November 26, 2022 by The Stationmaster
Typos

[wombatofludham]

42 minutes ago, TheQ said:

...or as I say Effin clown town, after all the idiot tourists who think wandering across in front of traffic on an A road is ok because they are on holiday.

 

When I lived in Ludham I hated driving through Hoveton for that very reason.  We also get the "cars can't hurt me when I'm on holiday" types in Barmouth, the town with three names (Barmouth, Abermaw, and the corruption of Abermaw which BR used to name the 37 after the bridge, Y Bermo).  On that point, Network Rail have recently been addressing letters to us locals on the works to the bridge, which they now call "Traphont Abermaw" rather than Bont Y Bermo.

Trouble is although "Traphont Abermaw" is more correct and purist, it doesn't really have the jolliness of "Bont Y Bermo" and if TfW name one of the new 197s "Traphont Abermaw" it won't nicely mutate into "Bunty Bermo". 

 

Nice girl, Bunty, but a bit wooden.

[The Johnster]

As my regular readers know, The Squeeze is Polish and occasionally delights me with the sheer magnificence of her mangling of English.  Shevving (chewing) gum is her latest wonder, along with the buckermackarray shop, kudos to anyone who can guess what this is; even with the context to hand it took me a while!
 

We’ve also had powza (pause) and Booregger King.  Volkswagens are shortened to ‘voowoo’, and Beamers to ‘BM voo’.  The local JW pub is ‘Waterspoons’, and we go shopping in ‘Home Berreguns’. 
 

I love her so much…

Edited November 25, 2022 by The Johnster

[APOLLO]

Heard on the train the other day.

 

This is the eyt furty free Northern service from Wiggin Wallgate to Bowtun, cawling at indley, cow yed city and bowtun. Keep thy blimmin feet on the floor and not on't seats or thall get a clip ath back of thy yed. If you see anything suspicious give it a kick and leave nowt on't train as you gert off or thall loyze it.

 

Cow yed city - explained at the station.

 

 

An old tale !!

 

 

And Wigin speyk is explained for the newly arrived in the the underpass at Wigin North Western station.

 

 

Eeeee by gum !!!

 

 

 

Brit15

[Wheatley]

Appleby booking office this time, some years after my Barnsley sojourn. The phone rings, it's the legendary Aussie Bob at Settle station on the other end. 

 

"Hey boss, what the **** is an anti kew shop ?"

"A what ?"

"It's just opened across from the station. I went for a look but it's just full of old s***"

 

Clearly they don't have antiques in Australia. 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Wheatley

[Hroth]

40 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

And Wigin speyk is explained for the newly arrived in the the underpass at Wigin North Western station.

 

 

Eeeee by gum !!!

 

 

 

Brit15

 

Gawd!  They've tarted the place up from when I had to pass through it!

 

I see the mirrors are still there to stop muggers hiding around the corners...

 

 

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

The county name is simple - just look at a photo 😇

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sydhank/34156372515

 

 

Oh, I'd put that down to post-war brass shortages. 

[rogerzilla]

Best place names for this:

 

Theydon Bois

Herstmonceux

Gillingham (depending which one)

Alnmouth

New Alresford

 

There's a weird local one in Swindon: the locals pronounce Eastcott with a silent "a".  No-one knows why.

Edited November 25, 2022 by rogerzilla

[csiedmo]

1 hour ago, APOLLO said:

Heard on the train the other day.

 

This is the eyt furty free Northern service from Wiggin Wallgate to Bowtun, cawling at indley, cow yed city and bowtun. Keep thy blimmin feet on the floor and not on't seats or thall get a clip ath back of thy yed. If you see anything suspicious give it a kick and leave nowt on't train as you gert off or thall loyze it.

 

Cow yed city - explained at the station.

 

 

An old tale !!

 

 

And Wigin speyk is explained for the newly arrived in the the underpass at Wigin North Western station.

 

 

Eeeee by gum !!!

 

 

 

Brit15

Is Westhoughton what happened after Wesley was told to “think on”?

[APOLLO]

58 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Gawd!  They've tarted the place up from when I had to pass through it!

 

I see the mirrors are still there to stop muggers hiding around the corners...

 

 

 

M is for muggers !!!!!

 

Brit15

[melmerby]

Wemyss = Weems

 

7 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Just as the Russians pronounce  Moscow as Moskva and spell it Mockba.

Being pedantic the Russians do spell it Moskva as what you see as a Cyrillic "c" is a Roman "s" and "b" is a "v"🙂