(Pronunciation) Re: Summer Weather / monolingual / Questions for JKR

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

Rita:
>> I can understand how SeveNOaKS
>> became Snooks,

David:
>You wha...? I've never heard it pronounced anything other than
>Sevenoaks, i.e. as the number followed by the tree. Eloise, you
>live down that way, don't you? Some wily Brit was amusing himself
>at the expense of naive Americans, methinks.
    
Sorry for not combining. Yep, sure do. Half my children are at a school there 
(which has Sevenoaks as part of its name) and I can assure you that it is 
pronounced as written, with a slight emphasis on the first syllable.

David again:

>Wrotham is a hard one, unfair on Americans. 

<hangs head> 

I'm sorry. 

David:
>I can think of six legitimate sounding pronunciations of this, of which four 
are quite
>plausible. I have no idea which is right, and if there is another
>Wrotham elsewhere in the country it could quite easily be pronounced
>differently. 

True. Were any of them right? Actually the correct pronunciation isn't that 
obscure as there's a motorway junction there, so it gets mentioned on the radio 
from time to time.

David:
>Trottiscliffe is IMO easy and I will let you all go on
>guessing.

Too late! too late! Ms Tattersall's given the game away. ;-)

~Eloise

Whose family used to have a quote,

"'Too late! Too late!' the maiden cried and waved her wooden leg. And then 
she died."

And can never hear or use the phrase 'Too late!' without coming out with it.
And thinks that curious family phrases/quotes would make another good thread.


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