Place Names

It’s not uncommon to hear people here laugh at the way tourists, especially American tourists, pronounce the names of counties and towns in England (Welsh names don’t count because they are impossible to pronounce anyway.)  And I have to confess that I sometimes think it’s funny too. The problem seems to stem from literal way Americans read letters. In English place names a lot of letters and whole syllables don’t count. For example, I live in a small town called Leominster. To the innocent tourist, it might be sensible to refer to the place as Lee-o-min-ster, thinking that the place was probably named after somebody named Leo. The people who live here call it LEM-ster.

Leominster is in the county of Herefordshire (pronounced HAIR-i-ford-sheer) where the hereford cows come from. That's the same as her-furd cows in the US.

The other day I heard on the radio about a charitable program supported by Dolly Parton to give books to young kids in order to form the habit reading at an early age. To promote the program in England, she visited a town in Yorkshire called Rotherham. One of the first things she said in a public speech was something like, “I’ve been practicing and I hope I’ve got it right. This place is ROTH-rm.” Good for you Dolly, you nailed it first time out!

OK, maybe somebody tipped Dolly off about the funny way Americans pronounce English place names. Fair enough, I say. It worked. In Rotherham the audience cheered and applauded that line. But the interesting thing for me is that the place name confusion is reciprocal. This is curiously obvious with news reporters and commentators on the BBC radio and TV all of whom travel in the States and some live there. The list of consistently mispronounced US place names includes Tucson (Tuck-Sun) and Houston (HOO-stun.) And I suspect that I am the only one laughing.

By way of a foot note, I should point out that not everyone in England agrees on the correct way to pronounce names. In Warwickshire (the second w is silent) there is a small town called Alcester. Some people say All-ster and others prefer Al-ces-ter. Or how about Shrewsbury in Shropshire. It’s either Shruz-bry or Shroz-bry. Shropshire, by the way, was spelled Salop until it was officially renamed Shropshire in 1980 and the folks that live there are still sometime called Salopians.