Try Norfolk. Wymondham,pronounced Windham.
Pronunciations
- Thread starter LaxScrutiny
- Start date
I'm thinking the "r" is silent, and the second "o" and "l" is pronounced "uh." Maybe always followed by "y'all".
ETA: Sorry. I was thinking Norfolk Virginia. So just remove the y'all if you mean UK.
Meanwhile, I'm from Toronto, pronounced as "Terawna". (Rhymes with "Donna" and "Wanna".) Although kids these days pronounce it "The Six."
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Which is a pretty standard joke--that people from Tor-On-Toe don't know how to pronounce the city's name. And non-Canadians don't know how to pronounce Newfoundland.
Hey. Terawna is pronounced how we pronounce it dammit!! And "Dammit" is pronounced "Dammit' godammit!!
I was teaching ESL for a few years and started losing my accent and speaking "academic grammar" a la CBC news announcers. Then I'd get back to hanging out with my cousins in Barrie and remembered how to talk right.
I was teaching ESL for a few years and started losing my accent and speaking "academic grammar" a la CBC news announcers. Then I'd get back to hanging out with my cousins in Barrie and remembered how to talk right.
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Yeah, that kind of threw me too.
Go to the Texas Folklife Festival sometime at the Institute of Texan Cultures. (The food is fantastic) The Museum gives a bit of the background on the issue. Texas was a huge melting pot of cultures with immigrants from all over the world with English, Spanish, French, German, Native American speakers (plus a lot of other languages) all having to come together and communicate. A German name could be pronounced in French, Spanish or Chinese. It's all a big cultural mixup and coming together.
Like California, just don't expect one set of pronunciation rules to work.
(UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures:
https://texancultures.utsa.edu/ )
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I still can't figure out why "Saint John" is pronounce "Sin Jin," or "Beauchamp" is pronounced "Beechum."
Here in northern NJ we have a lot of towns and streets with Native American names, but at least "Mahwah," "Ho-Ho-Kus," and "Campgaw" are pronounced the way they're spelled. Though we usually fudge "Iroquois" from the French "Ira-kwah" to anglo-friendly "Ira-koy."
Here in northern NJ we have a lot of towns and streets with Native American names, but at least "Mahwah," "Ho-Ho-Kus," and "Campgaw" are pronounced the way they're spelled. Though we usually fudge "Iroquois" from the French "Ira-kwah" to anglo-friendly "Ira-koy."
I think some of these entirely depend on what the population of an area is made up of and the types of accents available. For example, for your second example, my area having a large centre of French speaking population, would speak it as spelled, even when English speakers are speaking the word. I've actually never heard the other pronunciation until I came across it while watching Outlander. Saint John would also be pronounced in full over here.
Speaking of native names, a fun one is Mackinac, such as in Mackinac Island in Michigan's UP. It's fun to hear people unfamiliar with it get tripped up. It's pronounced Ma-ki-naw. I recently saw a TV personality get tripped up by it on live TV.
Or Colonel is "Kernel"; Lieutenant (in the UK) is "Leftenant"; etc.
Probably from the French," St. Jean" which was the language of the ruling class in England for quite awhile .
Lou Costello said:
Well, there ya go, I've always said Mak-in-ack.
Ack ack.
And then there's Arkansas, which is pronouced Are-kan-saw. Huh??
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