British place names

[Little Jack Horner]

A little while ago, I heard an American pronounce the name of the capital of Scotland as “EEdinberg” and I experienced a pleasurable frisson of superiority. A few days later, I discovered that the small village called Puncknowle, less than an hour’s drive from the home I have lived in for many years, is pronounced “PUNNel”.

I find it odd that anyone should be so wrong about the pronunciation of a place so well known as Edinburgh but nearly as odd that, as a word nerd, I hadn’t learned the correct pronunciation of a local village. Of course, there are many British place names that will fox even natives of the UK. Three often quoted examples are Kirkudbright ( ker-KOO-bri ), Greysouthern ( gray-SOON ) and Happisburgh ( HAYZ-bruh ) but there are many places that few Brits would mispronounce but which may confound non-natives. Here are a few examples:

Leicester = LESStuh
Leominster = LEMstuh
Beaminster = BEM-instuh
Gloucester = GLOSStuh
Worcester = WUSStuh
Shrewsbury = SHROOZbri (or) SHROES-bri
Keswick = KEzik
Keighley = KEETH-li
Salford Quays = SOLL-fud KEEZ

There are many places ending in Burgh or Borough which, so far as I can think, are always pronounced BRUH. Other places end in mouth, and, with the exception of Avonmouth, are I think always pronounced MUTH. There is a location near my home called Ower but I have yet to find anyone who is sure how it is pronounced (rhymes with tower or lower?).

The pronunciation of the names of many Scottish towns and villages are nearly impossible unless one has the Gaelic.

In Dorset, there is a village called Melcombe Bingham. Less than a mile away there is a settlement called Bingham’s Melcombe — two places with only one name (almost). We also have two coastal hills, both called Swyre Head, barely eight miles apart. We also have individual places with two names: Iwerne Courtney/Shroton, for example, as well as Martinstown/Winterborne St. Martin and Chaldon Herring/East Chaldon. And, of course, most larger places in Wales have both English and Welsh names. Double barrelled names are very common in Dorset — have a look at the map.

We also, in Dorset, we have strange names such as Scratchy Bottom, Happy Bottom, Shitterton, and the River Piddle (or, sometimes, Trent) on the banks of which are Piddlehinton and Piddletrenthide although the “trent” element here apparently derives from the French “trente” (thirty) referring to the village being assessed at thirty hides of land and has nothing to do with the alternative name of the river.

Do we want a conversation around this topic? How common is this diversity elsewhere?

[Twoddle]

For many years I lived in the village of Woodnesborough, in Kent. Newcomers and visitors to the village pronounce it phonetically ("WOOD-ness-burra") but, after one has lived there a short while, one adopts the more familiar "WOOD-'ns-bruh". A few years later one may attempt the local pronunciation of "WOONS-bruh", but only if one's ancestors have lived there continually since the middle-ages dare one use "WINS-bruh".

Nearby is the parish of Goodnestone. There's another Goodnestone at the other end of Kent but that one's pronounced "GOOD-ness-stone", whereas the one near Woodnesborough is "GUNSt'n". Also in Kent we have Wrotham ("ROOTum"), Teston ("TEESTon"), Trottiscliffe ("TROZlee") and Meopham ("MEPPum").

I once lived in a Kent parish in which there were two farms called Silverden, but one was pronounced "SILVER-d'n" and the other was "Silver-DEN".

The best way to make a fool of yourself - as I did - in the Norfolk town of Wymondham is to pronounce it phonetically. As everyone (in Norfolk) knows, it's "WINNDum".

Gatwick, home to London's second airport, is pronounced phonetically but, before the airport arrived, it was "Gattik". I doubt there are many who call it that nowadays.

Talking of London's airports, towards the end of the Second World-War a small, rural hamlet existed to the west of London, on Hounslow Heath in the county of Middlesex. It consisted of a row of agricultural-workers' cottages and went by the name of Hounslow Heath Row. It was demolished at a few weeks' notice to make way for a new airfield that was built in preparation for the D-Day landings and, after the war ended, the airfield grew into London Heathrow Airport. That's sad.

[Verbivore]

In Oz we have some difficult place names, some of which have indigenous origins. They catch visitors, domestic and foreign alike. A few are:

Murwillumbah – mer-will-m-bar
Uki – youk-eye (Americans always pronounce it ooki)
Goonoo Goonoo – gunny-g-noo

and some non-indigenous:
Brisbane – bris-b-n (Americans usually call it Bris-bayne)
Melbourne – mel-b-n (Americans usually call it Mel-born).

There are others, but I'm at work awaiting more pages to proof and my brain is shot.

[Trevor]

Two things. I recall in one of Bill Bryson's books (I forget which one) a discussion about pronunciation of British place names and he cites his favourite as Oakford Fitzpaine, which is - apparently - traditionally pronounced as "Fippeny Ockford".

Also, many of you might enjoy this poem by the masterful Brian Bilston:

NAME CALLING

Some names like Beauchamp,
get mispronounced
unless you teauchamp,

thought Niamh Cholmondley,
glolmondley.

He recently posted this on twitter and the replies have brought forth a whole load more related word-play on pronunciation of both personal names and place names, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. Click through to see the replies:

(No, you don't have to have twitter account to read this.)