London place name pronounciations
 

For the non-English speaker, London place names can be pronounced differently than they appear to be. For example, Southwark is not &quot;south-wark&quot; but rathe &quot;sa-thark&quot; and Greenwich is not &quot;-witch&quot; but &quot;itch&quot;<BR><BR>How about Islington (is or I like Isle)? How about Marylebone? Any other common goofs that you know of?

Well, what about Lewisham (Lewi-sham), Ruislip (Rye-slip), Yiewsley (near Heathrow - You-zly), Tottenham (Tot-nam), Chiswick (Chizik), Woolwich (Wulich), Fulham (Fulam), Berkeley Square (Barkly), Grosvenor Square (Grove-na).

Marylebone is 'marry-ler-bone' (ler like the French 'le'). <BR>There is also Plaistow, which is pronounced plars-toe, but it is highly unlikely tourists would want to go there.

Islington is pretty much as it looks - Iz-ling-tun<BR><BR>Then there's Holborn - Ho-burn<BR><BR>I can't think of any others that haven't already been mentioned.

Islington is pretty much as it looks - Iz-ling-tun<BR><BR>Then there's Holborn - Ho-burn<BR><BR>I can't think of any others that haven't already been mentioned.

What about Beauchamp Place -- pronounced Beecham Place?<BR><BR>

It's a general British (and not just English thing):<BR><BR>Leicester = Lester and Worcester = Wuh-ster and Gloucester = Gloster (but you knew those, of course). But there are several views about Cirencester (Siren-sester or Sissister or..?) and Shrewsbury (Shroe or Shroo?).<BR><BR>And it used to a be a trap for prospective BBC newsreaders to give them in their test bulletin some places in Scotland - Kircudbright (Cur-coo-bree) and Milngavie (M'll- guy) - most English people wouldn't know about them.

Hi<BR> As Mr P G Wodehouse pointed out, there is also Bluffingham. Rhymes with Moffam.

Although it was mentioned above don't miss the one I hear all the time,<BR>&quot;I'm going to Lie-chester-er-shire&quot; Square to get half price tickets. It's a simple &quot;lester&quot;.

I believe that the flea market at Bermondsey is pronounced <BR>&quot;Bermsey&quot;<BR><BR>marges's comment about Beauchamp Place made me smile. <BR>I know there is a place in England called Beaulieu that is pronounced<BR>&quot;Bew-lee&quot;. And Beauchamp is pronounced<BR>&quot;Bee cham.<BR>Last year when I stayed in a hotel on Beaufort Gardens (a street name) I wasn't sure how the heck to say it.<BR>Turned out to be &quot;Boe-fort&quot;.<BR>Go figure.<BR><BR>

PatrickLondon,<BR><BR>I spent several nights at a hotel in Cirencester owned by Norman Shales called La Ronde. He was born and raised in Cirencester and was a student of Roman history. He was adamant that the pronunciation was &quot;Siren-cester&quot;. I could send him into fits by calling it &quot;Sirenster&quot; as in &quot;Worcester.&quot;

Also Cheyne(rhymes with rainy)as in<BR>Cheyne Walk.

Another classic mistake is <BR>Welwyn Garden city - pronounced well-in garden city as opposed to wel-win garden-city...I think a mcD's advert did a good parody of that once...<BR>tudor princess, i assume you live in UK, where? I ask as I live 2 mins away from a cheyne walk, quite a common name tho i guess...

Elaine, I think it's only 'Bermsey' if you're eating a sandwich at the time &lt;g&gt;<BR><BR>As for Cirencester, most people probably do say it in full, I just have this recollection of an older wouldbe-aristocratic elided form.<BR><BR>Not to mention the family names (Marjoribanks, Cholmondeley, Featherstonehaugh). So I won't.

Sure would be interested in knowing how &quot;Featherstonehaugh&quot; is pronounced, PatrickLondon. Go ahead, please? Thanks

It's 'Fanshaw'.

In Wales a town named Porthmadog,is not pronounced Porth-ma-dog,but Porth-ma-d-ig.

<BR>My favoutire is the surname &quot; St. John-Smith &quot; pronounced 'sinjinsmythe'.

In fact, Marylebone is pronounced Marlibun.

Since davidess asked, I'll mention Marchbanks, Chumley and Fanshaw (as nigel said).<BR><BR>As for Porthmadog, Welsh is a different language after all, so it's not so odd that the pronunciation isn't what you'd expect if it were English.

porthmadog is actually pronounced <BR>porth-mad'ck.

Patrick, sorry but I'm being dense about your sandwich joke.<BR>Is &quot;berm-sey&quot; wrong? Was I misinformed?

Marchorsebox;<BR>Unfortunately I don't live in London.<BR>I live in Ohio. I've just read all that<BR>I can find on Great Britain since I was<BR>little. How wonderful that you live in<BR>such a beautiful area of the city as <BR>well as the world. I envy you.

Yep! sorry Bermondsey is just Bermondsey plan and simple.

Sorry, Elaine, I shouldn't be facetious. Londoners can be very sloppy with words they speak all the time, like placenames, but Bermondsey wouldn't get quite as elided as 'Bermsey' unless you were speaking with your mouth full...the middle syllable will be in there somewhere, even if it isn't stressed.

Would Charingworth be Ch-ahr-ingworth or would it be Ch-air-ingworth?<BR><BR>Thanks

I can't believe no one has yet considered the mispronunciation of the Thames river! Or Pall Mall for that matter!

Just to clarify: Porthmadog is pronounced porth-MAD-ogg. The r is roled. As (almost) always in Welsh each letter is enunciated, Welsh being (mostly) phonetic. th is actually counted as one letter in Welsh and is always pronounced as the th in 'think' and never as the th in 'thy'. <BR>I'm Welsh and find many English place names extremely strange! I tend to pronounce such place names as they are written (e.g. &quot;Leicester&quot; = &quot;Layssester&quot;) just because I know it irritates people ;)

Great thread!<BR>When I was in Australia, I thought I sounded really silly trying to say place names with an Australian accent - BRIS-bin, KEAHNS - while saying everything else with my American accent, so I just gave up and said BRIS-bane and Cairrrrns. : )