Places, placenames, and the pronunciation of placenames

[wellinghall]

The Snake Pass, between Manchester and Sheffield, took its name from the Snake Inn, that stood on the road. The pub then changed its name, and took the new name from the name of the road, so it is now the Snake Pass Inn.

John of Gaunt (supposedly) hunted in north-west Leicestershire, so a covert there got the name John of Gaunt's covert, or John O'Gaunt for short. Centuries later, a railway station was built nearby, which was called John O'Gaunt. Then a village grew up around the station, and was called John O'Gaunt. Then the station closed, and then fox hunting was made illegal; but the village is still called John O'Gaunt.

There is a village near there called Griffydam. The church (supposedly) had a griffon skin hanging up inside.

There is another village near there called Zouch, pronounced Zoc. Nearby is the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where the last word is pronounced Zoosh.

Another village in the area is called Grace Dieu.

In north-east Leicestershire, there is the village of Croxton Kerrial, where the first word is pronounced Crow-son. Nearby is Sproxton, pronounced Sprow-son. Also nearby is Stroxton, pronounced ... no, it's Straw-son.

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Clearly this is a region that needs to bid for the Tour de France to give us the another dose of the pleasure that commentators pronouncing Yorkshire places gave.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Oh, good idea!

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

I did love the Col de Buttertubs :)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

So did I :-)

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

I grew up near Uttoxeter (which people from oooh, over 10 miles away pronounce Ewe-tox-utter -well nearly that :)), which locals call Uttercher.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that!

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

Well, logic, phonetics, and English placenames are not really on speaking terms with each other. I also like the Nene variations - Neen or Nen, depending on region...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Let alone the Hawaiian goose ...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Confusion to the enemy!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

In WWII, road signs and railway station names shouldn't have been removed completely, they should have been replaced with their phonetic equivalents.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

We have

Meopham- pronounced mep-um

Wrotham- pronounced root-um

and

Trottiscliffe- pronounced troz-lee.

You guessed it- we're weird in Kent! :o)

I also used to teach in a village near the hamlet of Heart's Delight.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I knew about the first two, from our time in Rochester, but not the other two.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ballasalla - pronounced Balla - salla.

Ballaugh - Bal - laugh. As in chortle/giggle etc.


Actually one was a farm where there were a lot of willows, one was a farm with a bigger pond than usual - and now both are villages.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I like them!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

As opposed to Belaugh in Norfolk, pr. Bee-luh.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

:)

I shall add it to my mental list.

[sally_maria]

Obviously everywhere around here is pronounced perfectly normally - isn't it perfectly normal to swallow the letters in the middle of a name like Glo(uce)ster or Chel(te)nham? ;-)

I can see how placenames like Stanley Pontlarge or Lower Slaughter might strike someone as slightly odd, I suppose. :-)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Leicester ties with Gloucester, Loughborough beats Cheltenham.

Lower Slaughter is very good, though.

I will note here the road sign "To Mavis Enderby and Old Bolingbroke", with the apocryphal addition, "A son".

[sally_maria]

Of course, there's also an Upper Slaughter, which in complete defiance of nominative determinism was one the doubly Thankful villages - one of the very few communities that lost no men in either world war.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that Upper Slaughter was one of those. Something must have gone wrong ... er, right, er ...

[sally_maria]

I only read about them in the last few years, but I found the contrast with the name made it memorable. :-)

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

I've always been fond of The Wallops, especially Nether Wallop :-D

Less keen on a village we used to pass en route to my grandparents', called Hurtmore :-(

My other grandparents lived in Norfolk, which is brilliant for perfectly normal pronunciations, such as Stiffkey (pr Stooky, obvs.) (Though sadly I gather some of these old pronunciations are now dying out or at least having to coexist with new as-spelled pronunciations :-( )

[sally_maria]

That is a shame - the hazard of greater mobility, I suppose.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

What else could Stiffkey be? ;-)