GWR loco names - correct pronunciation

[The Stationmaster]

You must have been in either Caerphilly, or Llanbradach, judging by your response....

 

The latter

 

But then they pronounce "Yooro-star" as "Ooro-star" (with rolled first r) when speaking French.  Just as they do in Paris

Not necessarily.  The pronounciation varies considerably - in both places.  SNCB staff generally come out with the same pronounciation as in England but it does vary between Flemish speakers and French speakers.  The most common French pronounciation seems to be from reading it as spelt, i.e. ur-o-star as a result of pronouncing the 'e' in the usual French manner for the plain letter and thus rather harder than pronouncing it as 'oo' however many SNCF staff simply pronounce it, or try to pronounce it, in the English manner as do the Germans and Swiss.

 

Correct typo

[BR60103]

You'll get some odd pronunciations from Canadians and Americans trying to read English phoneticicization.

We see "er" and give the r a full Scottish roll. A couple of Germans get rendered as "Gertie" (who wrote Faust) and "Kirkel" (who numbered Mozart).

 

Can anyone give me the stresses in Llanfair P G?  I can spell it but only heard it said once.

[Gwiwer]

 

Can anyone give me the stresses in Llanfair P G?  I can spell it but only heard it said once. 

 

 

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and c/o Wikepedia (Welsh pronunciation: [ˌɬanvairˌpuɬɡwɨ̞ŋˌɡɨ̞ɬɡoˌɡɛrəˌχwərnˌdrobuɬˌɬantɨ̞ˌsiljoˌɡoɡoˈɡoːχ] ( listen))

[Martino]

My late mother in law pronounced Ruislip as 'Rooslip'. Apparently the locals used to do that. Everyone else pronounced it 'Ryeslip'

 

How about the name 'Featherstonehaugh' which I believe is pronounced 'Fanshaw'.

 

....Marylebone which confuses Americans as Mary lee bone, but us Brits term mari l bon.

 

Or New Orleans which has Brits in awful tongue twisters of New Or lea ans, New Orleons, when it's locally 'N'yorleens'

 

Slough. slow? Sluff? slouw? Sloo?

 

Funny old language, eh?

[Coppercap]

 

You'll get some odd pronunciations from Canadians and Americans trying to read English phoneticicization.

 

I used to chuckle at some on them when I used to travel on the Piccadilly Line. They often used to read off the station names as we went along..........best were Glowsester Road, Lysester Squayer. 

[Gwiwer]

My late mother in law pronounced Ruislip as 'Rooslip'. Apparently the locals used to do that.

 

Some do still.  Mostly the older families who have lived there for a few generations.  Father's side of the family had a branch there and he tells of the apparently class-based distinction between those who considered they lived in "Rooslip Manor" and the "common folk" who lived in "Ryeslip".

[trisonic]

I think it is a damn shame that the old pronunciations are disappearing (and have been since the 60's). You can see from some replies here that some people have never heard of Sisister for Cirencester for example. "Siren" sounds like the spread of "Estuary English".

 

To hear mispronunciations of East London locations on the "EastEnders" program is the ultimate betrayal...........    

 

Best, Pete.

 

PS Don't take me too seriously.........

[trisonic]

That's the way to do it!!!!!!!

 

Best, Pete.

[The Lurker]

My late mother in law pronounced Ruislip as 'Rooslip'. Apparently the locals used to do that. Everyone else pronounced it 'Ryeslip'

 

How about the name 'Featherstonehaugh' which I believe is pronounced 'Fanshaw'.

 

....Marylebone which confuses Americans as Mary lee bone, but us Brits term mari l bon.

 

Or New Orleans which has Brits in awful tongue twisters of New Or lea ans, New Orleons, when it's locally 'N'yorleens'

 

Slough. slow? Sluff? slouw? Sloo?

 

Funny old language, eh?

marylebone is often pronounced "mar- l' bun"

 

 

and when I was in New Orleans last year it seemed to be pronounced "New Orluns" with the emphasis on the "New".Maybe they were incomers!

 

Greenwich often gets pronounced Grinidge by the good folk of South East London, and other local classics are Trottiscliffe ("Trossley"), Mepoham ("Mepam") and Wrotham ("Rootam"). The last three are understandably mispronounced. Less expected was the mangling of Chatham on a London radio station...the th had the same sound as in Path

[Adam]

Norfolk, or course has dozens of these (mostly a function of the accent and placing of stress on the first syllable). Hence:

 

Happisburgh (as already mentioned) = Hazebro'

 

Hunstanton = Hunston

 

Lakenham = Lay'num

 

Stiffkey = stooky (and even the k sound isn't really there) - that one's been around since at least the sixteenth century.

 

Garboldisham = Garblesham

 

Deopham = Deefum

 

Wymondham = Wymdum (basically the stress lumps the 'Wym' together so contrary to what most outsiders reckon the pronunciation does make sense)

 

King's Lynn = Lynn (no monarch here - even when it was Bishop's Lynn or Lynn Episcopi before 1536 Lynn was still the preferred usage).

 

Norwich = Naarch

 

I never will understand how Costessey became Cossey though. I know 't' in the middle of a word is an option eschewed by most Norfolk folk, but that one is baffling...

Adam

[Happy Hippo]

5013 Abergavenny Castle

 

Or as it is known in my family....Ah venny

 

It just slips out when you say it quickly!

 

Regards

 

Richard

[Bernard Lamb]

To hear mispronunciations of East London locations on the "EastEnders" program is the ultimate betrayal...........    

 

The London area news readers are just as bad.

Many of them think that last and past do not have an r in them.

Bernard

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

The best story of mispronounced station names by our American cousins was an anecdote I heard that in the late 1970s / early 1980s, a couple ended up at Chartham, having got off the last train of the day, asking which way to go to the place they were staying which was somewhere near the Royal Navy dockyard...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

 

For those that don't get it try this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartham

 

And then this:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham,_Kent

[Bernard Lamb]

Before we come to the locomotives we need to clarify the builders.

Stothert & Slaughter, Nasymth Gaskell & Co for a start.

As for the machines, let us try these.

Actaeon

Beaconsfield

Achilles

Colonel Edgcumbe

Haughton Grange

Steropes

Going back to my previous post SWMBO, who is not from these isles let alone from the north eastern home counties, has just asked me to "parss me my glarss".

Just for fun ask a German to read this. Fun for you, but they will probably not see it that way. David and Goliath asked St Michael for a guinea.

Bernard

[figworthy]

I think it is a damn shame that the old pronunciations are disappearing (and have been since the 60's). You can see from some replies here that some people have never heard of Sisister for Cirencester for example. "Siren" sounds like the spread of "Estuary English".

 

20 odd years ago, I worked with a guy who lived in Cirencester, and he always called it "Siren", he would have been in his late 50s early 60s then and I think he was a local lad.

 

 

Adrian

[Ozexpatriate]

Or New Orleans which has Brits in awful tongue twisters of New Or lea ans, New Orleons, when it's locally 'N'yorleens'

and when I was in New Orleans last year it seemed to be pronounced "New Orluns" with the emphasis on the "New".Maybe they were incomers!

Or even "nawlinz". NOLA is easier and increasing in usage.

 

From wikipedia:

New Orleans (pron.: /nuː ˈɔrliənz/ or /ˈnuː ɔrˈliːnz/, locally /nuː ˈɔrlənz/ or /ˈnɔrlənz/; 

 

Los Angeles is one people interpret differently as well.

 

Hispanic Americans might pronounce it as Los An-Gel-ez (emphasis on the hard G)

Most Americans will pronounce it as Los Anne-jell-ez (emphasis on the beginning)

Australian tourists will pronounce it as Los Anne-jell-eeze (emphasis on each syllable)

[Ozexpatriate]

Not from the GWR, but I am led to believe the "Rough" in the SR West Country Rough Tor sounds like bough, and not 'ruff'.

 

As a foreigner, the pronunciation of English place names is truly confounding.

 

Of course, it is the same everywhere.  I would suggest that to the non-Australian, pronunication of the Anglicised versions of Australian aboriginal names gets equally butchered. (Equally, as a youngster reading about Chief Seattle, I had no idea it wasn't pronounced 'seetle'.)

 

The "ough" sounds in English thoroughly* perplexed a Finnish colleage of mine. The fact that "ough" has five distinctly different pronunciations is a minefield and other than by custom, there is no way to tell.

 

'uf'

enough / rough / tough / slough

cuff / huff / muff / tuff

 

'ow'

bough plough slough

bow / cow / how / now / plow / row / sow / vow / wow

thou

 

'oh'

dough though thorough

bow / know / mow / row / sow / slow / tow / throw

doe / foe / hoe / roe / sloe / toe / throe / woe

 

"off"

cough / trough

doff / scoff

 

'ew'

slough / through

dew / few / hew / new / mew / slew / threw

 

* now is that thur-oh-ly or thurrerly?

[Ozexpatriate]

The best story of mispronounced station names by our American cousins was an anecdote I heard that in the late 1970s / early 1980s, a couple ended up at Chartham, having got off the last train of the day, asking which way to go to the place they were staying which was somewhere near the Royal Navy dockyard...

At least they were still in Kent.

 

That anecdote sounds quite plausible.

[Gwiwer]

 

Not from the GWR, but I am led to believe the "Rough" in the SR West Country Rough Tor sounds like bough, and not 'ruff'.

 

 

That is correct.  "Rowter" or "Row Tor" are most commonly heard with the "row" pronounced to ryhme with 'bough'

 

 

 

 

Australian .....

 

 

It's been an education coming from what is referred to as the "Old Country" to hear just how altered familiar place names have become.  Anything ending "mouth" or "bourne" has the element fully pronounced rather than the abbreviated "m'th" or "b'n" typical in the UK.  Derby (which logically should not be "Darby" anyway) has become "Derr-bee" and Sandringham is fully pronounced with reversed stress as well becoming "SAND-ring-HAM" as opposed to HM's estate of "SAND-ring'm".  There are as many pitfalls for the unfamiliar as anywhere else in the World with places such as Wagga Wagga being correctly "Wogger" (and only ever in the singular - never doubled up) and Wee Waa is "Wee Worr".  There isn't a rule that double a becomes "orr" however as "Baan Baa" is "Barn Borr" or sometimes "Bain Borr".  

 

The Welsh might find difficulty with "Illawara" which is simply "ILL-a-WORR-a" just as "Illogan" back in Cornwall does not have the Welsh double sound and is "Ill-UG'n".  I was once stopped by a truck driver obviously unfamiliar with the area and asked "Look you, tell me the best way to Ith-logan, will you boyo?"  In fairness I'd have just as much difficulty with Llanwrda.

[Ozexpatriate]

It's been an education coming from what is referred to as the "Old Country" to hear just how altered familiar place names have become.

That must be a Victorian thing!

 

I jest of course. 'Strine is ubiquitous across the continent and there are no real regional dialects. I always thought that Bathurst was an interesting pronunciation, given that Australians pronounce 'bath' as baath. I sniggered when I heard Jeremy Clarkson call it "baath-hurst" rather than bath'ist (with the short 'a' like cat) that I was familar with.

 

Not all the endings (ham v. 'm) are sounded out. Melb'n and Brisb'n come to mind, which confounds American tennis presenters, until they have visited often enough.

[Gwiwer]

We could argue the toss as to why it isn't "Bat-hurst"

[BR60103]

Since we're no strictly on GWR locos anymore,

 

Toronto loses the second T and usually one or two of the vowels -- Tronnuh (Eng:  Tronner)

 

One media fellow joked that he thought he knew how to say Versailles until he went to Ohio: Ver sale ees.

 

Somewhere on my bookshelves is Dr. Seuss The Tough Coughs as he Ploughs the Dough. (and Seuss, strictly, should be pronounced as the German, but nobody does so why should you?)

[New Haven Neil]

Manx is just as bad.  The common Manx surname 'Killey' is pronounced 'kill-yerr'.  No idea why.

 

Barro-garoo (spelling varies even locally!) is B'garrow.

[trisonic]

20 odd years ago, I worked with a guy who lived in Cirencester, and he always called it "Siren", he would have been in his late 50s early 60s then and I think he was a local lad.

 

 

Adrian

Even Wiki mentions Sisister (in pronunciation spelling) - along with Cicester. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirencester

 

Best, Pete.

[david.hill64]

I was once asked for directions to 'Loo - gah - ba - roo - gah' by a friendly American gentleman. I wondered if he planned on visiting the Great Central Railway when he arrived.