Prounouncing place nameswrong

[saxy_jag]

Prompted by a question in Arts & Lit, I should like to know, what are the most annoying pronounciations of placenames, in particular, those near where you live?

For instance, BBC reporters always refer to a nearby village, Groby, as 'Grow-by', and we're sick of telling them it should be 'Grewby'. And please note, Stoughton and Houghton (in this county, at least) are pronounced 'Stoe-ton' and 'Hoe-ton' not Stout-on, Hou-ton, Storton or Horton.

Perhaps the funniest was when a biker at a set of traffic lights (but he was German, so I'll let him off) asked me if he was heading in the right direction for 'low borow'. I leave you to guess what he meant. And yes, bless him, I did put him right.

[Quizmonster]

The list of British place-names is awash with pronunciation difficulties and the errors strangers make are invariably found hilarious by locals. They're not specifically 'near me' but I believe Happisborough is pronounced 'Haysborough', 'Uttoxeter' as 'Uxeter' and so on. It's all rather like the surname business whereby 'Featherstonehaugh' is pronounced 'Fanshaw' and 'Cholmondeley' is 'Chumley'. All part of the rich pageant of English and not in the least annoying.

[Quizmonster]

It's probably of little interest to anyone else, but I've just noticed...the response above is my 8,000th answer here on AnswerBank. Couldn't simply let it pass unremarked.

[warpig1]

Congratualtions Quizmonster pop open the Champers.

[annavc]

There are so many but one of my favourites is the place in Scotland called Milngavie - pronounced Mulguy.

Oh and congrats Quizmonster! That must qualify you for Grand Master status or something!

[unruliejulie]

saxy_jag, lol Grow-by gets me too, as does Roth- Ley!
Loughborough is a funny one i suppose if you're not from Leicester.

[dogfish]

A favourite of mine was a BBC reporter pronouncing Dundee United's football ground Tannadice as Tannadeechay, obviously thinking it was some far-flung post in Eastern Europe.
Hats off to the Blue Toon Monster.

[shaneystar2]

Lots of funny pronunciations in my part of the world not least Happisborough which is just up the road from me and mentioned by the esteemed QM ..congratulations by the way.
Cottessy which is Cossey
Acle which the American oil workers used to pronounce Acklee.
Stiffkey ..home of the infamous vicar....Stewkey.
Postwick .....Possick and of course good old Wymondham ...Windem.(as in wind that blows not wind as in wind up)

[CT]

So many dodgy English pronunciations which are fine until you turn up somewhere else. Lived in Leicester for a few years so I know about some of the strange names from there. (Belvoir for one). Also heard about Wymondham from a friend who lives near Norwich. Up here in the North East there's one called Cowpen, pronounced something like 'Coopen'

[Quizmonster]

How kind of you all...thank you. And imagine someone remembering the Blue Toon connection! Cheers

[dogfish]

Chillum in a previous life QM.

[Quizmonster]

Ah! So that's what happened to you. Good to know you're still around, C - or D - albeit under another moniker.

(My apologies, Saxy_Jag, for hijacking your thread in this way.)

[CheekyChops]

Just to mention that Uttoxeter is near me and is pronounced 'you-tox-eater' and not Uxeter as QM says!

[Quizmonster]

You may well be right, Cheekychops. When providing my earlier answer about Uttoxeter, I was trying to recall my partner's way of pronouncing the place's name and I came up with 'Uxeter'. When she got home, I asked her what she'd said and it came out this time as 'Utcheter'. She's not a local exactly, coming from Derby, but that's pretty well next door. I can only assume, therefore, that she had heard somebody in the area pronouncing it thus.
So, it certainly seems I got it wrong but I'm not at all sure about her having done so. Besides, are you sure about the 'eater' pronounciation? Is that as in "He's a Beefeater in the Tower of London"?

[Quizmonster]

Click here, Cheekychops, for an interesting website. It seems to have been written by a rabid English nationalist, but - if you just look at the paragraph which opens: "But we English..." you will see the words, "Who will remember how to pronounce Uttoxeter?" Further down the page, in the Paragraph which opens: "Children should be allowed..." you will see the words, "It's Uxeter or Utcheter, by the way."

So, it seems my lady is not alone in thinking she knows how to pronounce the town's name and - so it seems - even my effort is acceptable, too!

[spudqueen]

There's Barnoldswick in Lancashire which is pronounced Barlick.

[CheekyChops]

Quizmonster, I was not doubting you in anyway, merely pointing out that folk that live in and around Uttoxeter certainly don't pronounce it any other way than 'you-tox-eater'. Possibly not exactly as in 'beef-eater' but I can't think of another way to spell it (not far off though).

The common variants mentioned in that excellent link are obviously just ones I've never heard!

[joko]

theres a few big ones like norwich, worcester, and keswick

[chakka35]

The opposite sometimes happens. Some of you may be old enough to remember a BBC newsreader called Frank Philips. He was telling me once that after D-Day he and all his colleagues were very concerned to pronounce properly the names of all those French villages and towns that the Allies were passing through. After one report involving several such names, around which he had successfully steered his tongue, he came to the next item. This is what he said:
"Four prisoners escaped today from Parnt-orn-vee. I beg your pardon, that should be Pentonville."

[lankeela]

Well I might not be a true Norfolk person, but I did used to live at Happisburgh, and although it is pronounced Hazebra
it was certainly never spelt Happisborough!