Mispronunciations

[class411]

Seeing ZBang's thread made me think of weird mispronunciations I've heard.

The truly strangest one(NR, I'm afraid) was coming into Victoria I was asked if the train went to Salzburg. Utterly bewildered I eventually discovered that he meant Salisbury.

Not only an utterly way off pronunciation but a complete failure to interpret a line map. Unless he just assumed that all British trains called at every station.

[Chris L]

Westminister and Upminister make me cringe.

[Chris M]

Not strictly a mispronunciation, but I was once asked (when I was somewhere near Little Venice) for walking directions to Canning Town. They were rather confused when I said it would take several hours and I wasn't completely sure of the last bit as they had been told it was a nice stroll. After a bit more confusion on both our parts and help from another passer-by we eventually worked out they meant Camden Town.

[zbang]

I will admit to saying "Westmonster" and "Cutty Shark" on occasion, but those are intentional.

[vincenture]

Mar 15, 2021 18:54:58 GMT class411 said:

Seeing ZBang's thread made me think of weird mispronunciations I've heard.

The truly strangest one(NR, I'm afraid) was coming into Victoria I was asked if the train went to Salzburg. Utterly bewildered I eventually discovered that he meant Salisbury.

Not only an utterly way off pronunciation but a complete failure to interpret a line map. Unless he just assumed that all British trains called at every station.

I think they are doing the more accurate pronunciation to be frank as I remember Salisbury had a quirky way of saying (salz buh ree) but I guess they missed out the reeee. 

[antharro]

I have an aunt who's lived in London all of her adult life (she's retired now). She always "Westminister". Argh.

Best one is one I heard through the grapevine of Americans sometimes pronouncing Leicester Square as lie-ses-ter.

[Dstock7080]

Mar 16, 2021 2:46:26 GMT antharro said:

Best one is one I heard through the grapevine of Americans sometimes pronouncing Leicester Square as lie-ses-ter.

Similarly, GlowChester Road.

Great for a upper class accent are:
Sloon Sqaw
Nates Bridge
Elec Sandra Pellis

[revupminster]

Don't go to a Turkish barbers and say you have been to Torquay on holiday.

And don't ask relief staff what they called Buckhurst Hill.

[gantshill]

I had an Irish relative who visited my grandmother in South Woodford. She wanted to visit Loughton, expecting to see a lough, so she pronounced it Lough Ton.

[quex]

One that's growing in popularity is "Saint Pancreas". I've yet to work out whether in most cases this is an intentional or an unintentional mispronouciation.

There's the old joke about a ticket clerk who gets repeatedly asked by a passenger with a strong accent how to "hibernate". The ticket clerk has had a long day and after several attempts to understand the passenger, gives up. It's only hours later that the clerk realises the passenger was trying to get to the top end of the Northern line.

[John Tuthill]

Mar 16, 2021 9:59:40 GMT quex said:

One that's growing in popularity is "Saint Pancreas". I've yet to work out whether in most cases this is an intentional or an unintentional mispronouciation.

There's the old joke about a ticket clerk who gets repeatedly asked by a passenger with a strong accent how to "hibernate". The ticket clerk has had a long day and after several attempts to understand the passenger, gives up. It's only hours later that the clerk realises the passenger was trying to get to the top end of the Northern line.

A friend of mine who was a cabby for many years, sadly no longer with us, told me of the times when the gel and red braces brigade "discovered" South London.
He was asked on various occasions to go to: "St Reatham"(Streatham), "Batt-asia" (Battersea), "Claahmm" (Clapham). Nothing to do with pronuciation, but the south side of Albert Bridge was referred to as "South Chelsea"

[class411]

Mar 16, 2021 9:59:40 GMT quex said:

One that's growing in popularity is "Saint Pancreas".

I've deliberately called St. Pancras St Pancreas for so long that I have to noticeably pause before saying the name out loud to a stranger to make sure I've got it right.

It's so ingrained I didn't even think when trying to remember my deliberate mispronunciations.

[Chris M]

Mar 16, 2021 8:02:42 GMT gantshill said:

I had an Irish relative who visited my grandmother in South Woodford. She wanted to visit Loughton, expecting to see a lough, so she pronounced it Lough Ton.

When iBus was first introduced Loughton was pronounced /ˈlɔːɹ.tən/ (lore-ton).

[quex]

Other common mispronunciations are Holborn and Marylebone. The debate in each case is over which is the wrong pronunciation!

[Tom]

Mar 16, 2021 10:06:21 GMT John Tuthill said:

A friend of mine who was a cabby for many years, sadly no longer with us, told me of the times when the gel and red braces brigade "discovered" South London.
He was asked on various occasions to go to: "St Reatham"(Streatham), "Batt-asia" (Battersea), "Claahmm" (Clapham). Nothing to do with pronuciation, but the south side of Albert Bridge was referred to as "South Chelsea"

There's also SheBu (pronounced Shay-boo), for an area that when I was young was just referred to as 'Bush' or 'The Bush'.

[revupminster]

Plaistow; it was Plarstow if you lived there, Playstow if you didn't.

[castlebar]

There is a Plaistow in West Sussex

Same spelling, but pronounced PLASStoe

[vincenture]

I have always thought that Plaistow in London was pronounced PlAH-stow

[ted672]

Mar 16, 2021 11:27:20 GMT Chris M said:

Mar 16, 2021 8:02:42 GMT gantshill said:

I had an Irish relative who visited my grandmother in South Woodford. She wanted to visit Loughton, expecting to see a lough, so she pronounced it Lough Ton.

When iBus was first introduced Loughton was pronounced /ˈlɔːɹ.tən/ (lore-ton).

Back when I was running East London Coaches, the future MP Tim Loughton used to hire an open topper for race meetings.  He always said "Lawton" rather than the place name.

[londoner]

On "actual" mispronuciations though, Marylebone is a good shout. I could have sworn during one point in my life I heard it stated differently on both a Bakerloo Line and a Chiltern train by the on board automated announcements but I may be mistaken. 

[xplaistow]

I remember it always used to bug me that the announcements on C Stock said "play-stow" and not "plah-stow".

[jazza]

I was stopped outside Woolwich Arsenal station one day by an American couple seeking confirmation that they were in Wool Witch.

[John Tuthill]

Mar 18, 2021 10:38:24 GMT jazza said:

I was stopped outside Woolwich Arsenal station one day by an American couple seeking confirmation that they were in Wool Witch.

Wasn't she the 'black sheep' of the coven?

[zbang]

Mar 18, 2021 10:38:24 GMT jazza said:

I was stopped outside Woolwich Arsenal station one day by an American couple seeking confirmation that they were in Wool Witch.

Most Americans don't understand -ham or -wich endings unless they're from the NE part of the country (where people know Worcester has only two syllables but Leominster has three ).

There are a fair few London stations I've never been sure of the pronunciation- Plaistow Loughton, and Ruislip being a some of them. I assume the second is Luff-tn as 'gh' is usually sounded as 'ff' (except when it's not*).... I lived by Loughboro Road ('Luffboro') for a few years and there's historical evidence of that pronunciation.

*borough

[class411]

Mar 18, 2021 16:00:12 GMT zbang said:

Mar 18, 2021 10:38:24 GMT jazza said:

I was stopped outside Woolwich Arsenal station one day by an American couple seeking confirmation that they were in Wool Witch.

Most Americans don't understand -ham or -wich endings unless they're from the NE part of the country (where people know Worcester has only two syllables but Leominster has three ).

There are a fair few London stations I've never been sure of the pronunciation- Plaistow Loughton, and Ruislip being a some of them. I assume the second is Luff-tn as 'gh' is usually sounded as 'ff' (except when it's not*).... I lived by Loughboro Road ('Luffboro') for a few years and there's historical evidence of that pronunciation.

*borough

I've always assumed it was pronounced lou (as in loud) tn, and despite the fact that I've lived in London off and on for decades I still wouldn't put money on which of us is correct. (It could also be lock-tn, law-tn, or la-tn).

[johnb2]

Ruislip, being fairly locally born (Pinner to be precise) it was always pronounced as 'Riselip'

I've also heard Leominster as 'Lemm-ster' and that was actually in the place.

I've also noticed that Americans often get the emphasis on the wrong syllable as in 'Birming-HAM'. Mind you when you get there some of their pronouncements come as a bit unusual to English ears

[altanader]

Im surprised nobody has mentioned Theydon Bois.

[castlebar]

I live in Arundel

You've no idea how many possibilities there are to mispronounce it

[Chris M]

Mar 18, 2021 18:08:20 GMT class411 said:

I've always assumed it was pronounced lou (as in loud) tn, and despite the fact that I've lived in London off and on for decades I still wouldn't put money on which of us is correct. (It could also be lock-tn, law-tn, or la-tn).

Having lived there (well, Debden) for a couple of years I can tell you the first syllable rhymes with "cow" and the second is "tun" (/ˈlaʊ.tɘn/).

[gantshill]

I have heard people have difficulties with Hainault. I say it Hay-nought (the H is of course hoptional) it isn't the same as the Belgian province of Hainault pronounced a-no.
But my favourite were two that one of my teachers mentioned many years ago.
An Eastern European in the city asking for a place starting with a rolled ch sound: chee-epp-sidd-ee or Cheapside. And the other was someone getting in a mainline train in St Pancras asking if the train goes to Loo-ger-burr-oo-ger. (Loughborough). I will admit to adopting that rather fun pronunciation.