How do you pronounce "Leicester" as in Leicester Square, from the song "long way to Tipperary" ?????
 

From the song "it's a long way to Tipperary"

It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go;
It's a long way to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I know;
Good-bye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square, (???????????????)
It's a long, long way to Tipperary, but my heart's right there.

lester

gracias!

Unless you're from Leicester, MA - in which case, it would be Lestah !

I learned in Grade 9 Latin (1964) that English names ending in -chester or -cester were all derived from "castrum", Latin neuter singular noun, meaning "camp" (military).

Examples: Chichester, Chester, Doncaster, Lancaster, Cirencester and (I suppose) Leicester......Isn't there even a Bicester, pron. Bister?

There is indeed.

And in French, nouns ending in "tion" are feminine: Latin derivative also.

There once was a pigeon in Leicester
Chicks gone, now an empty neicester
So to pass the hours
It gave tourists showers
And for food would relentlessly peicester

Well done! (Remember when we used to say that instead of "good job"?)

It is also used in a Jethro Tull song.
Jeffery goes to Leicester square.

ttt

I can't resist.

BTW, Salisbury is locally called Sarum and Hampshire for postal purposes is abbreviated to Hants.

There was a young curate of Salisbury

Whose manners were quite Halisbury-Scalisbury

He wandered round Hampshire

Without any pampshire

Till the Vicar compelled him to Warisbury

Good job, Sylvia.

And to really confuse you:

Frome in Somerset is pronounced as Froom

Gillingham in Dorset is pronounced with a hard G as in Gilligan, whereas Gillingham in Kent is pronounced as Jillingham.

And Hunstanton in Norfolk is known as Hunston by the locals!

And how about Beauchamp? Greenwich?
Gloucestershire? (I heard an American in the tube asking about going to Glow - ces - ter - shire street).

Lestah, MASS is right between Spencah and Woostah!

by the locals in UK towns -

Leicester - "less-toh"

Worcester - "Wuss-ter"

Cirencester - used to be "sirenster" now "siren-cester"

and Exeter

Castrum was usually used in the plural - "castra" - so that's how you get the "er" sound at the end.


BTW - missed out Manchester!

How about "Belvoir"?????

Beauchamp....funny story....in the mid 1960's, there was a major league baseball player named Jim Beauchmp pronounced the way they do in England (Beechum).....so the first time I ever visited London as a student in 1971, we came to the street and the guide asked I bet nobody knows how to pronounce the name of the street (Beauchamp)...when I got it right, using the baseball player's name, she said I was the first Yank who ever got that right!

Of course, the other great mystery of English (as opposed to American) is the pronounciation of the word lieutenant....of course in English English (and believe it or not Canadian English) it's leftenant....we Yanks say lootenant...I always wondered where the pronounciation came from.....it was explained to me at one time the letter "u" really never existed in the past.....it is a modified "v" so the real word is lievtenant which would jive with the way it is pronounced. Just another way we American love to be contrary (like calling the last letter of the alphabet zee when everybody else calls it zed yada yada yada!)

Gloucester is Gloster
Cholmondelly is Chumley
Greenwich is Grenitch

And in NYC Houston is house-ton (not hus-ton as in Texas). (And Greenwich is Grenitch here too - tourists saying Green-witch Village drive me mad).

OK - khunwilko I am curious (honestly curious) how on earth did you find this 6 year old thread to top?

(I'm not complaining -- just curious how it happened. We've had similar threads over the years and several since the date of this one -- so HOW/WHAT did you search for to find this particular one?

You mean Worcester is not warcester?

...and to a New Yorker, long island is lon gisland....we talk funny here!

We seem to have skipped Beaulieu, which becomes Bewley.

I had a reverse confusion in NY with a cabbie, I asked to be taken to the Warwick Hotel - pronouncing it worik. After some confusion he said Oh you mean the War-wick. It never occurred to me to ask for that!

I got all excited when I saw a post from Capo, then I realized this was years old. I miss Capo!

This reminds me of a town on highway 99 (or is it 97) in California called "Artois." I never stopped there, but I always pronounced it in my head as "Art wah," but I'll bet the locals called it "Ar tois."

And let's not get started on Kirkcudbright, Milngavie and Kirkcaldy.

Ok - Patrick -- them other two I know -- but how IS Kircaldy pronounced??

More like Kuhkoddie.

How about "Belvoir"?????>>

we missed this one too - it's "beaver" as in the animal.

my fave Cornish ones:

Illogan = illUgun

Maranzevose = MarANzevose

Perranzabuloe = PerrENbulo [i think]

Mousehole = MOU'sel

Porthoustock = Pralla

Praa [sands] = Pray [sands]

AND, my favourite out of the whole lot,

Ventongimps = Ventongimps

I'm sure there are others I've missed.

avalon. I miss Capo too
worcester, ma.
WAR-CHES-TAH
This is the incorrect way to say it. Someone from the south who doesn't know the proper pronunciation, trying to fake the accent.
WOO-STAH
This is the correct way to say it. This is the pronunciation used by most of the residents of the city and surrounding areas.
WIS-TAH
This is the correct way to say it. This is the pronunciation used mostly by people north of the city.
WOO-STER
This is the correct way to say it. This is the pronunciation used by people who have lived elsewhere and either now live in Worcester, or somewhere else.
WUSS-TAH
This is the incorrect way to say it. is the pronunciation used by most of the residents of the city and surrounding areas when they're putting down the city.
WAR-CHEST-ER
This is the incorrect way to say it. This is the pronunciation used by people from south of the Mason-Dixon line who have seen it in print. These are generally the people you hang up on when they call you, since they're telemarketers.
WAR-SES-TER
This is the incorrect way to say it. This is the other popular mis-pronunciation I hear often, this one I understand a little better, it sort-of looks like it should be said this way.
WOOSTER
This is the incorrect way to say it. This is how the name is spelled when someone outside of the region is trying to write down your address over the phone.
WORM-TOWN
This is how you pronounce the name, if you're a brain dead Boston D.J. or visiting college student. Of course the origin is a little more interesting and flattering than it's now corrupted meaning.

I did a search on Leicester!

the problem with a lot of US pronunciation is the "schwa" sound which in UK English appears to much shorter and quieter.

So, A,E,I,O,U becomes......ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh,

With towns,

Borough = "brugh"

Bury = "bri"
Ham = "um"
Ton ="tunn"
.....all barely uttered at all.

throw in the odd glottal-stop and you'll speak "purfec" English (don't pronounce the "G")

Anyone want to translate "Goon goo Pob?" - asked by a friend in Leicester?

My answer was "OK"

weird - cuz there are several other, newer threads that also discuss pronouncing Leicester, Worcester etc.

Like this one
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ounciation.cfm

and this
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...n-cornwall.cfm

and http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ft-tennant.cfm

Not to mention the literally hundreds of threads that mention TKTS/Leicester Sq, Leicester Sq tube station, etc. etc.

Plus you are limited to a 3 year range so you must have been digging for a really old thread . . .

Ah - the mysteries of Fodors . . . .

OK try this one

Mytholmroyd

>>OK try this one

Mytholmroyd<<

Or make it easy on yourself - stay on the bus and don't worry about it!

If you're in West Yorkshire, then apart from Mytholmroyd, try Slaithwaite and Linthwaite.

OK then:

Mythomeroyd
Slowit (with the slow as in flower)
Linfit

Try doing the search.....just put in leicester

Several of my cousins live in Slaithwaite.
All people with the name Sykes come originally from that village :).
One cousin lives in Drighlington - pronounced Dridlinton apparently.

My son studied at Loughborough and regularly stayed with my brother near Slough.

Loughborough completed defeated most Dutch people .