Where you put the stress in an otherwise simple name is a minefield... we used to live 7 miles from PontEEland in a village called STAMfordham And now I live in the Pennines, in a town called TODmorden.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
On place names my father was posted to Scotland in WW2 he was told to get a bus to Mulguy. He waited in the rain for nearly 2 hours before he plucked up the courage to ask someone, it is written as Millengavie, he had let several busses come & go in the meantime !
Cymru pronounced Kumree, C in Welsh is always hard. Hence the Cynon valley is kunnon, though I believe at one time it had such high unemployment that even the locals took to calling it Sign On Valley.
My daughter, now living in Galway, days she's learning "Irish". According to her, most Irish people - in her neck of the woods, anyway - don't call it Gaelic. No idea why... but it solves that little pronunciation problem for me, anyway.
Philippa, you can get round the Todmorden problem by calling it Tod. Everyone does!
Of course, we should be pronouncing all place names as the locals do. Hence Newcastle (upon Tyne) ought to be "NiCASSle, and Bath, "Barth".
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
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Mousehole (Mouzle); Bicester (Bister); Alnwick (Annick); Leominster (Lemster); Gateacre (Gattaker). Heaven help our tourists!
We just call this stuff Lea & Perrins
How would you say Wymondham, Happisburgh and Stiffkey?
Windam, Hazebro' and Stewky
And Cley is pronounced Clie.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
What about Costessey .................... tha's Cozzee me ole dear
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Where you put the stress in an otherwise simple name is a minefield... we used to live 7 miles from PontEEland in a village called STAMfordham And now I live in the Pennines, in a town called TODmorden.
I see Joyce has already corrected you Iain
And there's Strathaven of course....Stray- ven. Emphasis on the 'stray'.
Better not start on the Gaelic hill names...
...and people can't always agree on how to pronounce 'Gaelic' either
We say Gah-lick here, but Ppauper may say Gay-lick
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Phillipa, Gay lick is the Irish pronunciation of Gaelic.
I like 'Englishifying' philippa
Yeh - as Joyce says, it's to do with the origins of the word in the two different countries. I think most English people say Gay-lick.
Since we're on the subject - why do so many English people struggle with 'loch'?
My Dad was from London - and he could
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Cymru pronounced Kumree, C in Welsh is always hard. Hence the Cynon valley is kunnon, though I believe at one time it had such high unemployment that even the locals took to calling it Sign On Valley.
My daughter, now living in Galway, days she's learning "Irish". According to her, most Irish people - in her neck of the woods, anyway - don't call it Gaelic. No idea why... but it solves that little pronunciation problem for me, anyway.
Philippa, you can get round the Todmorden problem by calling it Tod. Everyone does!
Of course, we should be pronouncing all place names as the locals do. Hence Newcastle (upon Tyne) ought to be "NiCASSle, and Bath, "Barth".