List of irregularly spelt places in the United Kingdom
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This is a sublist of List of irregularly spelled English names.
Colney COney Hatch
De Beauvoir BEAver Town (usu.)
Marylebone MARlyb'n (alt.)
Plaistow PLAHsto
Ruislip RYslip
Greenwich GRENidge
Southwark SU-ðərK
Vauxhall VOK-sawl
Dulwich DULLidge
Chiswick CHIZick
Isleworth Ayezəlworth
Thamesmead TEMZmead
A map of irregularly spelled places in London
These common suffixes have these regular pronunciations, yet would be counterintuitive (irregular) in normal English. This means that their modern pronunciation might be regarded as counter-intuitive to their spelling, which is not counterintuitive as it is historic, regular, well-established, and etymologically consistent.
- -b(o)rough and -burgh – /bərə/
- -bury – /bri/
- -cester – /stər/[n 1]
- -combe, -coombe, -comb and -cambe – /kəm/. When stand-alone: always /kuːm/ (including in place names such as Castle Combe and Coombe Bissett)
- -ford – /fərd/
- -gh – silent (usually as 'f' in a considerable minority of northern English place names and in Woughton, Milton Keynes)
- -ham – /əm/
- -holm(e) – /hoʊm/, /əm/
- -mouth – /məθ/
- -shire – /ʃər/, /ʃɪər/, /ʃaɪər/ (esp. in Scotland)
- -wich - /ɪtʃ/, /ɪdʒ/[n 2]
- -wick – /ɪk/[n 3][n 4]
Prefixes:
- Al- – /ˈɒl/, /ˈɔːl/; with very few exceptions such as Alba, Alperton.
- Saint- – /sənt/, for most speakers.
Other:
List
editSee also
editNotes
edit- ^ e.g. Leicester, Gloucester, Worcester, Bicester, Towcester, Rocester and Alcester, but not Cirencester
- ^ e.g. Norwich, Woolwich and West Bromwich, but not Ipswich, Nantwich or Droitwich Spa
- ^ e.g. Smethwick, Chiswick and Flitwick
- ^ Accordingly: Southwick, Hampshire - /ˈsʌðɪk/ Anomalies: Southwick, West Sussex is pronounced /ˈsaʊθwɪk/, like Painswick, Gloucestershire, Prestwick and Hardwick, as well as Pickwick, a former village in Wiltshire through which the novel The Pickwick Papers got its title, but these by population represent a very small minority.
- ^ Murray is also a common surname generally pronounced in this orthodox way.
References
edit- ^ a b c d P. H. Reaney (1969). The Origin of English Place Names. Routledge and Kegan Paul. pp. 44–5. ISBN 0-7100-2010-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az Wells, John C. (2000). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. 2nd ed. Longman. ISBN 0-582-36468-X.
- ^ Reflecting original "Beldesert" "Beaudesert and Henley-in-Arden Website | Warwickshire | Our Town|History|". Henley-in-Arden. Retrieved 2012-10-09.
- ^ Bill Bryson (1991-09-01). The Mother Tongue. HarperCollins. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-380-71543-5.
- ^ Wells, John (6 May 2010). "Chideock". John Wells's phoetic blog. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
- ^ "How Do You Pronounce Theydon Bois?". Londonist. 17 October 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
- ^ "Chop Gate". yorkshiremoors.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
- ^ "History of Cowbit - Cowbit Village". cowbitvillage.co.uk. 2 April 2014. Archived from the original on 3 April 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Pronouncing British Placenames at BBC's Edited Guide Entry h2g2 site
- ^ a b c "Moray - Pronunciation". Rootsweb at ancestry.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
- ^ Pointon, G.E. (1983). BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-212976-7.
- ^ "Oliver Cromwell's home; fields amid which his boyhood was passed. Villages in the neighborhood- where other great men were born-the boy Oliver saved". nY Times. 1888-12-30. Retrieved 2013-03-10.
- ^ "Guide wrongly corrects the pronunciation of Godmanchester to Gumster | Cambridge News". 17 September 2016. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
- ^ http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Bristol_and_Somerset/2000-01/0949053929 [dead link]
- ^ Roach & Hartman, eds (1997) English Pronouncing Dictionary, 15th edition. (Cambridge University Press). p. 234
- ^ "A Snippet of Village History". www.kingston-bagpuize.com. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
- ^ Lycett Green, Candida. Unwrecked England. Oldie. p. 30.
Further reading
edit- G. M. Miller, ed. (1971). BBC pronouncing dictionary of British names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-431125-2.