Well, today I have finally decided to post in
and about English. And a simple and practical entry it will be.
It is an obvious yet necessary claim that
English is famous for the loose relation between the spelling and the
pronunciation of a word; looser in some cases than in others. We all remember
the famous GHOTI, popularly attributed to G. B. Shaw; a word that should be
theoretically pronounced fish (<gh>as in laugh, <o> as in women,
<ti> a in nation). This nonsensical example was devised to represent the
aforementioned irregularities, although it does not actually adhere to basic English spelling rules and so dies in the attempt.
There is yet another, more preposterous version of
this language play as exemplified in the following meme by Grammarly.
A couple of years ago I was working
as a group leader on a summer camp in Exmouth /ˈeksməθ/, Devon, with a group of teenagers from all around Europe. I remember most of them would get
the pronunciation of the place name wrong, saying –mouth as if it was
a word, oblivious of the fact that, although etymologically the suffix –mouth does derive from mouth (where the river flows into the sea), it is no longer pronounced with its original full vowel but it is
now unstressed and reduced to a schwa (the neutral vowel that lends its name to this blog). We soon started to jocularly pronounce
Plymouth as if it was a mixture of ply /plaɪ/ and mouth /maʊθ/ instead of the
standard /ˈplɪməθ /.
Proper names are notoriously troublesome as
their spellings tend to be quite conservative following the rules of English in its previous stages or foreign language rules. In this brief entry, I will propose a list of some commonly mispronounced
proper names; names whose pronunciation might be a cause of a serendipitous surprise or those
which are noteworthy for some other reason. Of course, a great deal of
arbitrariness was at work in the selection process and the list is by no means
an exhaustive one. It is ineed my personal semi-useful repertoire. Another whole entry could be devoted to extremely odd names, some of which are mentioned at the end.
All the items on the list are transcribed in RP
British English. The General American pronunciation can normally be obtained by
applying simple correspondence rules. (Nearly) All transcriptions have been taken from John
Wells’s Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. <> are used to represent the spelling as opposed to transcription //.
7 KEY SUFFIXES IN PLACE NAMES
- - borough is often pronounced /brə/ (especially in British English) although the noun borough is actually /ˈbʌrə/. AmE /-ˌbɝːə//-oʊ/. Cf. Edinburgh (-burgh is a variant of -borough) or Marlborough.
- - cester /stə/ – Worcester, Leicester /ˈlestə/
- - ford /fəd/ Unlike in ford/Ford /fɔːd/
- - ham as in Buckingham /ˈbʌkɪŋəm/ Forget about the <h> in all place names ending in <-ham>
- - mouth as in Exmouth /ˈeksməθ/ Wells gives a version with the full vowel, but at least the Exmouth in Devon would never be pronounced this way. The same goes for Plymouth /ˈplɪməθ/. There are other place names which are indeed pronounced with a full vowel (e.g. Tynemouth).
- - shire /ʃə/ Although the noun shire is indeed /ˈʃaɪə/.
- -wich, -wick (Greenwich, Norwich, Keswick, etc.) The <w> is normally left out.
37 SELECTED PLACENAMES
- Arkansas /ˈɑːkənsɔː/ No /s/ at the end, although Kansas is /ˈkænzəs/.
- Asian /ˈeɪʒə/ /ˈeɪʃə/ Both British and American English prefer the first one. The second is very limited in the US and in Britain it is becoming outdated.
- Cologne /kəˈləʊn/ For both the city (Köln) and the perfume.
- Connecticut /kəˈnetɪkət/ It is substandard to pronounce the second <c>.
- Czech /tʃek/ Here the interesting thing is that the spelling actually is the same as in Polish (Czechy). It is also the old Czech spelling and that is (probably) its origin.
- Danish vs Denmark /ˈdeɪnɪʃ/ and /ˈdenmɑːk/.
- Ecuador /ˈekwədɔː/ Stress on the first syllable, unlike in Spanish.
- Edinburgh /ˈedɪnbrə/ The original way this place name should be pronounced, although there exist other correct versions. Americans pronounce it with the ending /-ˌbɝː ə/-oʊ/.
- Gibraltar /dʒɪˈbrɔːlt ə/ Bengal, Senegal are pronounced with the same vowel, although stress patterns vary.
- Glasgow / Glaswegian /ˈɡlɑːz ɡəʊ ˈɡlæz-, ˈɡlɑːs-, ˈɡlæs-; ˈɡlɑːsk əʊ, ˈɡlæsk-/ Unbelievable phonetic variety on the syllable boundary: the vowel quality and the voiceless/voiced consonant!
- Greenwich /ˈɡren ɪtʃ ˈɡrɪn-, -ɪdʒ/ It isn’t “green” and the <w> is left out.
- Guinea /ˈɡɪni/ As in guinea pig. A useful word to know if you have pets.
- Illinois /ˌɪləˈnɔɪ/ You should normally forget about the <s>.
- Arab / Arabian /Arabic /ˈærəb/ /əˈreɪbiən/ /ˈærəbɪk/ Mind the stress!
- Cadiz /kə ˈdɪz/ Yes, curiously. Mind the stress! Bilbao /bɪl ˈbaʊ -ˈbɑːəʊ/; Malaga /ˈmæləɡə/; Granada /ɡrəˈnɑːdə/; San Sebastian /ˌsæn səˈbæstiən/ Mind the stress here as well.
- Celt /kelt/ The same for the derived term Celtic. Not a place name, yet interesting.
- Florida /ˈflɒrɪdə/ There is a stress shift between Spanish and English.
- Izrael /ˈɪzreɪəl ˈɪzriəl/.
- Jamaica /dʒəˈmeɪkə/.
- Lincoln /ˈlɪŋkən/ So forget about the <l>.
- London /ˈlʌndən/ The first vowel is that in “hut”, not the one in “hot”.
- Los Angeles /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz -ɪ-, -lɪs, -ləs/ Americans prefer the reduced pronunciation of the ending.
- Louisiana /luˌiːziˈænə/ It’s a fascinating place name that includes five syllables and a lot of vowel-to-vowel syllable boundaries. Surprisingly, it would only be 3 syllables in Spanish.
- Marlborough / Marlboro /ˈmɑːlbərə/ /ˈmɔːl-/ In American English (so for the company itself) the pronunciation is /ˈmɑːrlˌbɝː oʊ/, which follows the general rule for place names ending in –borough. The -l- may be left out in rhotic accents as well.
- Melbourne is /ˈmelbən/ for Australians but a strong vowel in the ending is also possible.
- Michigan /ˈmɪʃɪɡən/ Pronounced with a <sh> sound, just like Chicago. Apparently it came into English via French.
- Midlands /mɪdləndz/ Reduce the second vowel, please. The same way as in the Netherlands /ˈneð ələndz/ and most country names ending in <land>. It can be three syllables only in British English where the first schwa may be dropped.
- Moscow /ˈmɒskəʊ ǁ ˈmɑːskaʊ/ The first pronunciation is British, the second – American.
- New Orleans /nju: ɔː ˈliːənz/ Also /ɔːr ˈliːnz/ or even as pronounced by some Americans and the locals /’ɔːlənz/.
- Norfolk /ˈnɔːf ək/and Suffolk. Please forget about the <l>.
- Reading /ˈredɪŋ/ Suprise! Although they read in Reading, they don't read it as reading. A university city in Britain.
- San Diego /ˌsæn diˈeɪɡəʊ/ There must be a diphthongized pronunciation of <e>.
- Seoul should be pronounced like “soul”.
- Stockholm /ˈstɒk həʊm/ Again, the <l> isn’t pronounced. The same goes for the surname of Sherlock Holmes.
- Thailand /ˈtaɪlænd -lənd/ The <th> is pronounced as if it was spelled with a mere <t>. The same obtains in names such as Thames /temz/ and Theresa /tə ˈriːz ə/.
- Trojan /ˈtrəʊdʒ ən/ Beware of viruses on your computers.
- Worcester /ˈwʊst ə/ This one is particularly tricky. Even Americans struggle to correctly pronounce the name of the Worcestershire /ˈwʊstəʃə/ sauces, as my experience dictates.
This list could be expanded infinitely.
So remember: next time you end up strayed in Belvoir, Leicestershire, Cholmondely, you're actually in Beaver, Lestersher, Chumly. And don't be afraid to venture into Woolfardisworthy /wʊlzəri/ either. That monster is in Devon.
