Pronunciation of Lodz / Wroclaw

[airbolt]

I know that many UK towns are not pronounced as they look ie Leicester, Loughborough etc. While talking about this the subject turned to Towns in europe that were pronounced differently from how you would expect.

As a result , someone said that LODZ in Poland was pronounced VOOSH and no-one could agree on how WROCLAW was pronounced.

Anyone know how these towns are pronounced or have other good examples of towns pronounced differently from their spelling?

[jno]

googled this. Here are the first few finds for Wroclaw:

Vrotz-warv
Vrats-vrov
Vrots-Laf
Vrahts-woff
Vrossloff
Wrots-varf...

Better wait for a Pole to answer you, I think.

[kempie]

The following links have Ogg soundfile pronunciations

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

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

[airbolt]

Wow - Quick Response! Thanks!

Have tried the links - Great!

[bernardo]

I am slightly confused by your question. Lodz is pronounced Wooch, and Wroclaw is pronounced Vrotswaf. But neither is pronounced "differently from how I would expect"; both of them are pronounced exactly according to the spelling and exactly how I would expect.

[jno]

bernardo on the other hand is pronounced jo-ni-dep, as you would expect

[airbolt]

Thanks bernardo , the question was merely the result of an amiable conversation and not intended to confuse.

[lilyfrog]

how would you pronounces fastidious bernardo?

[Peter Pedant]

Lodz is pretty obviously woodge

the el has a line through it.

We used to have a good laugh about someone called waganofska - didnt spell it anything like that of course.

[amron]

a few days late but there is a town called Milngavie but it is pronounced Milguy..

just thought i'd share that with you

[ianess]

Kilconquhar in Fife is pronounced Kinnucker.

[mightyWBA]

leominster - lemsta

alrewas - error wash

alcester - ulster

brewood - brood

wolverhampton - dingle town!

made the last one up,boing boing!