-mouth pronounciation

[Sybarite]

one of the oddest is Beaulieu river, I think there is little doubt about the French origin of the word "beau - beautiful, lieu - place" where it would sound like "bawlieuh", though I once met a boat from there and I had to make them spell it a couple of times before understanding what it was, how can bewlee be written "Beaulieu"

It's the same with Beauchamp Place : pronounced Beecham.

PS. Did you get your sabots?

 

[Roberto]

PS. Did you get your sabots?

hi John!

see PM

 

[macd]

So now you're becoming a sabotaggio, you shameless man?
I think a literal parallel in English would be Luddite, which perhaps doesn't sound quite so exotic.

 

[mjcoon]

example for the 1st; anyone who pronounces house to rhyme with arse is probable both an arse and an upper class twit.

I think you should take that up with Ian Mcmillan, who I'm sure is not upper class, or at least does not sound so - http://linguistlaura.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ian-mcmillan-and-arse.html

Mike.

 

[macd]

I think you should take that up with Ian Mcmillan, who I'm sure is not upper class, or at least does not sound so - http://linguistlaura.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ian-mcmillan-and-arse.html

Full of upper class twits, is Yorkshire. Noted for it. After all, where there's muck, there's brarse.

 

[Lodesman77]

thank you, I begin to see some logic after all


from outside the UK, English is often shown as an easy to learn language, grammar is rather straightforward, one does not have to learn the spelling of fifteen different tenses multiplied by six "I - you - he/she - we - you - they", regular verbs are all -ed -ed, add an "s" for plurals except for funny animals like goose mouse and their friends... then one discovers English has about 600 000 words whereas the average neo-latin language has about 300 000 (I stand to be corrected but I think I am not very far from reality)

fascinating subject

A point of view from Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest writers in the English language, even though it was not his first or second tongue - his indictment of the English language was this:-

"that no English word is a word; that all English words arc instruments for exciting blurred emotions. Oaken in French means 'Made of oak wood,' nothing more. Oaken' in English connotes innumerable moral attributes; it will connote stolidity, resolution, honesty, blond features, relative unbreakableness, absolute unbendableness - made of oak. The consequence is that no English word has clean edges; a reader is always, for a fraction of a second, uncertain as to which meaning of the word the writer may intend. Thus all English prose is blurred..."

 

[stevebrassett]

Try Happisburgh.

Pronounced "haze-bruh".

 

[Sandgrounder]

Try Happisburgh.

Pronounced "haze-bruh".

I did; and very nice it was too providing you like collapsing cliffs and so on.

The words/ names that have always troubled or amused me are: - Featherstonehaugh (Fanshawe) and Cholmondley (Chumley). I imagine they were a sort of class trap along with almost everything else in England.

 

[Lakesailor]

Full of upper class twits, is Yorkshire. Noted for it. After all, where there's muck, there's brarse.

I think Yorkshire shares pronunciation of brass and grass with the Queen. As it's spelt.

 

[nigelmercier]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/18565/debunking-grammar-myths

Nice to get a reference for this, thank you.

And the book is now at the third edition: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003YL4AHG/dolcetto-21

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Sorry, Roberto. English placenames are like the English language: a zillion different pronunciations and no rules at all to guide you. I'm afraid the only foolproof way is to learn each one individually (and you'll still find alternative opinions on occasions). I didn't know Tynemouth is pronounced like the hole in my face.

East Anglia, especially Fenland, is full of tricky ones - after living here for over 30 years, I still get caught out. And some pronunciations change depending where you are - the River Nene is variously Neen and Nenn for example. Manea is a fun one (Maney, with a long "a"), and so it goes on.

 

[nigelmercier]

I think Yorkshire shares pronunciation of brass and grass with the Queen. As it's spelt.

Or perhaps spelled, unless you are talking about wheat.

 

[prv]

the River Nene is variously Neen and Nenn for example.

...but never the "Nee-Nee" as apparently once used on telly

Pete

 

[AntarcticPilot]

A linguist I once met was of the opinion that English is relatively easy to learn well enough to communicate - if you say "I runned" then people will know what you mean even though it's not correct. But because it has a lot of irregular words, a completely chaotic orthography, and a large vocabulary in which apparently synonymous words carry different connotations to native speakers, it's a hard language to really master.

Pete

My wife, who has been through all of the post-GCSE British Education system to post-Doctoral level, and has lived here for about half her life, would completely agree with you. She communicates perfectly well - but often uses words inappropriately, but I can't explain why to her! Her mother tongue is Cantonese, which has even less grammar than English (or so I am given to understand), and her main problem with English grammar is the tense of verbs - Cantonese doesn't have past, present and future tenses; time binding is done in other ways.

English is really a "pidgin" language, formed where different linguistic groups met and needed to communicate. It has taken on vocabulary from all the contributing languages (Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norman French, Latin, Greek and to a lesser extent the languages of the former Empire), but has trimmed the grammar. The same thing is true of equivalent modern trade languages such as Solomon Islands Pidgin, which is based on English, but has many words from local languages, and grammar that is a simplification of that of the component languages.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

On a vaguely related note, the main shopping street in Rothesay is Montague Street, pronounce Mon-TAIG.

In Cambridge, Magdalene (street or college) is "Mawd-lin". In other places it is "Mag-Dal-ane"

 

[DanTribe]

I did; and very nice it was too providing you like collapsing cliffs and so on.

The words/ names that have always troubled or amused me are: - Featherstonehaugh (Fanshawe) and Cholmondley (Chumley). I imagine they were a sort of class trap along with almost everything else in England.

Don't forget Captain Mainwaring.

Monty Python did a sketch about this. "my name is Rupert Luxury-Yacht, that's pronounced Smythe"

 

[mjcoon]

Full of upper class twits, is Yorkshire. Noted for it. After all, where there's muck, there's brarse.

I thought that "upper class twits" were often short of brass. The class war can be about old money (if any left) and new money (nouveau riche etc).

No doubt the Cleese/Barker/Corbett class sketch "I look down on him..." is on YouTube somewhere...

Mike.

 

[macd]

I think Yorkshire shares pronunciation of brass and grass with the Queen. As it's spelt.

Then you perhaps didn't check out the link in post #64 that elicited my response.

 

[elton]

English is really a "pidgin" language, formed where different linguistic groups met and needed to communicate.

No, English is a creole language, not a pidgin

 

[laika]

IMHO one of the finest explanations of British place name pronounciation was delivered by Will Hay in "The Goose Steps Out". Sadly from the reviews on amazon, that and another of the best bits of the movie have been cut from the DVD release, so you may just have to take my word for it.