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American's Guide To Pronouncing British Place Names

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You all know there's some minor (though understandable) differences between British and American spelling. For example, we have 'colour' for 'color', 'favour' for 'favor' and 'harbour' for 'habor'. We have 'centre' for 'center', 'fibre' for 'fiber' and 'litre' for 'liter'. And so on.

These don't usually cause us any problems, especially since they are normally pronounced the same (although with differences in accent, which is an entirely different subject!). But, British spelling idiosyncrasies go far beyond these simple examples, and never more so than in our emotive and quaint place names. British place name spelling is about as intuitive as the 'many worlds' interpretation of quantum mechanics - for the non-scientists among you, that means 'not at all'. Actually, it's not the spelling that's odd (they usually retain a perfectly logical spelling based on their original meaning), it's the way that Brits pronounce them that's strange. It's something very peculiar to the Brits and causes no end of confusion and frustration (on both sides of the Atlantic).

Now, I understand that if you've never heard a place name pronounced it's easy to get it wrong. I've made the mistake myself many times by pronouncing British-derived place names in the US as if I were still in ol' blighty! But it is perhaps more difficult for the American to get the pronunciation right when in the UK. I mean, how would you pronounce 'Woolfardisworthy'? It's actually pronounced 'WULL-zer-ree' or sometimes 'WULL-zee'. How weird is that? Now, I'm a very forgiving person, but not everyone is! So, in the hope that I can help prevent you sounding foolish (or maybe get you understood where you otherwise wouldn't) here's my quick and dirty guide to British place name pronunciation for my American cousins.

One of the basic rules of British place name pronunciation is 'laziness'. Rather than being precise, Brits tend to squash words into as few syllables as possible, often replacing long vowels with short ones, and cutting out any extraneous sounds. London isn't really pronounced 'LUN-dun' but 'LUN-dn'. Accent the first syllable and just suggest the second! And definitely don't pronounced it 'LAN-dan' - that's how Cockneys (Londoners) pronounce it but it's almost impossible for Americans to get this right and you'll just sound like Dick van Dyke on a really bad day. Note the other important rule in the above examples - (usually) only the first syllable is stressed or 'accented'. So, Manchester is 'MAN-chester'.

So, let's look at some examples of laziness which will get you closer to the actual British pronunciation. In modern British usage the word 'shire' does indeed rhyme with 'hire'. But it never does when it's part of a shire (or 'county') name. The 'ire' is pronounced like the 'u' in 'up', shortened so as to be just suggested. Thus, Berkshire is not 'burk-shire' but 'BARK-shuh'. Similarly, Hertfordshire is 'HART-fud-shuh' and Derbyshire is 'DAR-bih-shuh' (notice all those county names pronounce the 'er' as 'ar'). And by association Hertford is 'HART-fud' and Derby is 'DAR-bee'.

The place name ending 'mouth' (usually denoting the mouth of a river) is pronounced 'muth'. Hence Plymouth is 'PLIM-muth', Portsmouth is 'PORTS-muth' and Bournemouth is 'BORN-muth'. But watch out, there are one or two exceptions. Tynemouth is pronounced as it's spelt - 'TINE-mouth'.

And then there is the dreaded 'ough' letter combination which in British English can be pronounced in many different ways (or not at all) - just think about these words; 'tough', 'through', 'though', 'thought', 'thorough' and 'trough'! It can also represent the 'ch' sound found in the Scottish word 'loch'. Let's take a few examples of its use in place names.

The Old English word 'burg' or 'burh' meant a castle and survives in place names in a number of forms, including 'burg', 'burgh', 'bury' and 'borough'. Apart from 'bury', these are normally pronounced 'buh-ruh'. Try pronouncing the letters phonetically, like kids do when learning the alphabet. Say 'b' and then 'r' and you've just about got it. It doesn't sound like 'burrow', 'borrow' or (heaven forbid!) 'berg'. So, Edinburgh is 'EDN-buh-ruh' - accent the 'e', then merely suggest the rest. Other places pronounced the same way are Peterborough ('PEE-ta-buh-ruh') and Scarborough ('SCAR-buh-ruh').

Things are a bit more complicated with other occurrences of 'ough'. You will often just have to learn which pronunciation to use (even Brits get some of them wrong), although as a native Brit it often (though strangely) seems intuitive to us which one is correct. Hence, Loughborough is 'LUFF-buh-ruh', Loughton is 'LOW-tun', Brough is 'BRUFF', Broughton is 'BRAW-tun' and Slough rhymes with 'cow'. But watch out for Marlborough which has two syllables ('MARL-bruh'). I said it was weird!

The Old English word 'caester' (originally from the Latin 'castrum') meant a fortified town. It survives as 'chester', 'cester' and 'caistor'. The first is easily pronounced, as in Manchester ('MAN-chester'). The second, which is normally a suffix, is often shortened to one syllable, as in Leicester ('LESS-ter'), Gloucester ('GLOSS-ter'), Worcester ('WUSS-ter'). Hence, we then have Leicestershire ('LESS-ter-shuh'), Gloucestershire ('GLOSS-ter-shuh') and Worcestershire ('WUSS-ter-shuh'). Of course, there's always an exception to the rule, so Cirencester is pronounced 'SIREN-sess-ter'. A similar dropping of syllables happens with the old word for a monastic church, 'minster'. Hence Leominster is 'LEM-ster' and Beaminster is 'BEM-ster'.

There are many derivatives of the place name suffixes 'wick' or 'wich', which can mean a village, a farm or a salt producing area. In almost all cases the 'w' is unpronounced. Hence Norwich is 'NOH-rich' (or more correctly 'NOH-ridge'), Harwich is 'HAH-rich', Warwick is 'WOH-rick', Berwick is 'BEH-rick', Alnwick is 'AN-ick', Postwick is 'POZZ-ick'  and Keswick is 'KEZZ-ick'. Again, there are exceptions. Thus Nantwich is 'NANT-witch' and Hawick is 'HOYK'.

So, the rule of thumb is to be lazy and shorten everything. All in all, if the vowellar sound in a syllable can be shortened, it will be. Thus 'ham' is pronounced 'um', 'sham' is 'shum', 'ton' is 'tun', 'don' is 'dun' and so on. 'bury' is often shortened to 'BREE' and the 'h' in 'ham' is often dropped after 'ing', hence Whittingham is 'WITT-ing-gum' and Bellingham is 'BELL-in-jum'. And don't forget to accent ONLY the first syllable.

I realise this advice will only get you so far. There are thousands of place names that are pronounced completely illogically. Here's a few examples; Reading ('RED-ing'), Belvoir ('BEE-ver'), Fowey ('FOY'), Southwell ('SUTH-ull'), Oswaldtwistle ('OZZ-ull-twizz-ull'), Wymondham ('WIND-um'), Cholmondeley ('CHUM-lee'),  Groby ('GREW-bee'), Godmanchester ('GUM-ster'), Keighley ('KEETH-lee'), Eyam ('EEM'), Barnoldswick ('BAR-lick'), Edensor ('EN-zer') and Happisburgh ('HAZE-bruh').

Of course, the UK also includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We won't even go there since even the native English haven't a clue how to pronounce Celtic place names (by which I mean Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Cornish). So, if you're an American in Wales, Scotland, Ireland or Cornwall, just point at the map and grunt. You'll be fine!


Comments

  1. Unknown16 December 2014 at 17:23

    Torpenhow = Truh-PEN-y
    Ulgham = UFF-um

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous16 December 2014 at 17:33

    All very nicely put. I say this as an American who lived in London SW 1 for five years

    ReplyDelete

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