Pronunciation (was Puddings)

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Mike" <mcrudele78 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff:
> > Just for the record, Worcester(shire) is the same as 
> > Leicester(shire) and Gloucester(shire) in the spelling 
> > of the "cester" bit.
> 
> Mike:
> When I lived in Boston I learned to pronounce it "Wuss-ster"
> Which led me to pronounce "Gloss-ster"
> But I also thought it was pronounced "Lie-ster"
> Am I wrong on that last one? Or the others, for that matter?

Geoff:
First two are pretty near.

Leicester is pronounced Less-ter.

You have to get used to a whole raft of odd pronuniciation over 
here - even we locals sometimes get caught out.

Some are generally known ones... A handful of examples spring 
to mind:

Belvoir = 'beever' (which just happens to be in Leicestershire!)
Milngavie = 'mull-guy' but that one is a suburb 
of Glasgow where anything goes.. :-)
Then anything with Beauchamp in it (often a double-barrelled 
place name) becomes 'beecham'.


And there are local ones. Near me, the largest National Trust 
property in the UK is the Holnicote Estate. Local pronounce it 
as 'Hunni-cut'; even Bill Bryson picked up on this one in "Mother 
Tongue". And again, down yur in Zummerzet, a number of place 
names ending in '-worthy' are spoken as '-erry'. The centre of 
Lorna Doone country, about 5 miles from where I live is around 
a river called 'Badgworthy Waterr' which in local speak becomes 
'Bad-jerry Water'.

Aren't place names fun?

That'll put you off coming over here. :-)