Is it rip-en (short i - like rip, to tear) or rye-pen? I thought, for sure, I'd find this on google, but no luck. Any help out there...?

Google Ripon pronunciation and hundreds of things come up, like this:

http://www.misspronouncer.com/cities/ripon.html

I did find Ripon, Wi, and Ripon, CA, but know the UK has their own way. Can any natives help?

I've always pronounced it sort of Ripun (short i and semi swallow the second syllable) - but maybe Morgana or someone else has a better description.

The first syllable is "Rip" as in tear. Although some people will pronounce the second syllable "on" with a short "o", the tendency for British speakers is to neutralise a vowel in an unstressed syllable, i.e. to make it more like "uh." Linguists called this neutral vowel "schwa" after the Hebrew vowel of that name.

American speakers are more likely to give the unstressed vowel its full value. Brits talk about "Harr-uhds." Americans tend to say something closer to "HarrOds." with the "O" as in "on"

Thanks, Janisj. You're right -- I just found a site through yahoo search that confirmed your answer. (Forvo.com). Many thanks.

And thanks to you, too, SimonX!

ChgoGal: are you going? I loved Ripon Cathedral. I'm sure I will bring down the wrath of major cathedral lovers everywhere, but I enjoyed my time at Ripon more than my time at York Minster.

If you are posh : it is Rip en
If you are not : it is Rip un

Brits would probably expect Americans to refer to it as Rye pon.

I won't say that I enjoyed Ripon more than York, but it was a real pleasure for me. I also enjoyed gathering in the square to hear the man blow the horn at 9pm.

I think what made Ripon special for me was that my hostess at the B&B was a parishioner there and told me lots of "inside" stuff. I also took the evening walk with the man from the tourist office. I showed up at the appointed hour and was the only one, but the gentleman graciously took me anyway. His talk was very informative. You could tell that he loved his city. He was also a parishioner at the cathedral. While we were walking, some friends of his were in their front garden and invited us in for a tour of their back garden which ran down to the river. It was a charming walk with their dog and two cats which accompanied us.

I went back to the cathedral the next day to look at some of the things I had heard about the evening before.

Thanks to all for the feedback. I very much want to visit Ripon some day, being in such a gorgeous part of England. But the reason for my post is that my book group often reads aloud portions of British literature, and I mispronounce British names way too often.

f you are posh : it is Rip en
If you are not : it is Rip un>>

I've never been there, but this has never struck me as being one of the more difficult place names of the British Isles - I've always just said RIP - ON. [without a pause, obviously].

Now HN tells my I'm wrong!

A good reason not to go there, I say!

Go to http://www.howjsay.com/

I would use the first pronunciation example. I have never heard the second

The second pronunciation is very strange indeed.

The second is close to how Ripon California would be pronounced if one had a British accent (being one of the few who have been in both places )

first i have heard rip on on these forums folk are used talikng about rip offs