Stower or Stir

[LONG_KEELER]

Perhaps you locals can help to decided how the River Stour is pronounced .

My mate pulls me up when I call it the Stower .

He states that when in Suffolk it's known as the Stir .

How do you pronounce it ? I'm happy to go with the majority.

 

[pvb]

It's pronounced store.

 

[pyrojames]

Stoo-er

 

[TomW]

Stooer

 

[Cantata]

I concur. The one in Kent (near me) is pronounced st-ow-er. Don't know how the one in Hampshire is pronounced though.

 

[LittleSister]

Yer takes yer pick!

"According to Brewer's Britain and Ireland the Stour is pronounced differently in different cases: the Kentish and East Anglian Stours rhyme with tour; the Oxfordshire Stour is sometimes rhymes with mower, sometimes with hour, and the Worcestershire Stour always rhymes with hour.[5] Locally, the River Stour dividing Essex from Suffolk does not have a uniform pronunciation, varying from stowr to stoor.[6]" (From Wikipedia)

 

[Champagne Murphy]

I worked 200yds from it for thirty years and it was 'stoor' there. What it is in the next county I don't know though.

 

[MikeBz]

I concur. The one in Kent (near me) is pronounced st-ow-er. Don't know how the one in Hampshire is pronounced though.

Ah, but is that as in 'power' or as in 'lower'? I would pronounce stower the same way as lower but I pronounce Stour as in 'hour'.

 

[Cantata]

Ah, but is that as in 'power' or as in 'lower'? I would pronounce stower the same way as lower but I pronounce Stour as in 'hour'.

Stower as in power, sorry, should have made it clear.
So whoever wrote that bit in Brewer's Britain probably didn't ask a Man of Kent!

 

[PeterWright]

Don't we have a wonderful language, with such flexibility in the relationship between the written and spoken word. A Spanish friend, with a very good command of English, once left me flummoxed by declaring that we English should spell fish "ghoti". When I asked him to explain, he replied: "gh as in cough, o as in women and ti as in motion, isn't it obvious?" Ever since, my respect for foreigners, who manage to master our mother tongue, has been that much greater.

Peter.

 

[Hydrozoan]

I pronounce it Stoor, and the Worcestershire one Stower, though I'm a native of neither place.

 

[Marmalade]

ough - how do you pronounce that?
cough (off)
though (oh)
through (ooo)
enough (uff)
bough (ow)
thorough (uh)

we have a weird and wonderful language - no wonder people from other countries find it hard to learn!

 

[snowbird30ds]

The river nene is pronounced differently depending on wether upstream or downstream of thrapston town bridge.

 

[Leighb]

And the River Ore changes it's name entirely half way up.

Re the OP's original question, living here on the Shotley Peninsula I have heard it called the Stooer and Stower - rhyming with flower, I have never heard Stir, but perhaps that is to be heard in darkest Essex?

 

[westhinder]

ough - how do you pronounce that?
cough (off)
though (oh)
through (ooo)
enough (uff)
bough (ow)
thorough (uh)

we have a weird and wonderful language - no wonder people from other countries find it hard to learn!

(Pedant mode from a non-native speaker) There is also lough(loch) although many Englishmen may struggle with the -ch, which is very natural in my native Dutch(Flemish)

 

[johnalison]

(Pedant mode from a non-native speaker) There is also lough(loch) although many Englishmen may struggle with the -ch, which is very natural in my native Dutch(Flemish)

Also 'up', as in hiccough, even though the spelling is possibly spurious.

 

[Gunfleet]

I'm involved in a little festival on the Stour and have made it my business for my own education to ask the experts I come into contact with how they pronounce it. The result of this unscientific poll is about 50/50, stoor/stower. I just pronounce it the same as whoever I'm talking to. What's a real mystery is how some people in rural Essex pronounce going 'gooing.'

ps and then of course there's Muldon and Chumsford.