h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great entry!

...but now I realize that it's not just us foreigners who have trouble pronouncing British place names correctly!

excellent entry..... i grew up on the east coast of Scotland, in a wee place called Culross.

it's pronounced... infact, mibbie some-one would like to guess?.....

..oh, and if thats too easy, we also had a house on the west coast near a place called Acharacle...

There's a village in Northumberland that rejoices in the name of Ulgham: pronounced Uffam

It's 'coo-ross', isn't it? No idea about Acharacle - I'll guess 'arkle'...

spot on! although coo-russ it just that little bit more 'local'...

ath-ar-a-(that chh noise like the proper pronunciation of loch) - ll..

Good article! I saw some familiar names from Canada - but our pronunciation is WAY off!

Ely (Manitoba)is pronounced EE-lye
Torquay (Saskatchewan) is pronounced TOR-kway
Kircaldy (Heights in Brandon, Manitoba) pronounced kir-CAUL-dee

And here's another one:
Craigellachie -where the Last Spike of the Canadian National Railway was driven on Nov 17, 1885 is pronounced Cra-gel-ACH-ie in Canada. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!!!

Here's a great Canadian name - Wauchope, Saskatchewan - would you believe WALK-up???

Maybe its just that we're a young country (140 years this July 4) and haven't learned to speak proper English yet.

Great article.
I'm pretty sure that when I was a child, Cirencester was pronounced "Sister"!

Thanks all.

I'm always fascinated how the same town name could be pronounced differently in the US/Canada/etc. I would guess they originally had the same pronunciation as in Britain, but these changed over time, partly through the mass immigration, and in the US partly through Mr Webster's lingustic separatism. Can anyopne confirm?

I hadn't heard 'Sister' for Cirencester. I suppose it could have been a town nickname - like 'Barney' for Barnard Castle', 'Chi' for Chichester, 'Pompey' for Portsmouth, etc.

Funny how towns get nicknamed. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In winter its often referred to as *Winterpeg Manisnowba*.

I was telling The Man about this article, and he asked me how about Bienfait and Roche Perce, both in Saskatchewan. For whatever reason they're pronounced Been-fate (or called Bean-town) and Ross Percy.

This article is fab. I knew a few of them, but not all. Very interesting stuff.

Thanks, Vip

Feel free to add any odd ones from your part of the world

All the ones my way are mostly either in Wales or have Welsh names. Unfortunately I can't speak Welsh so can offer no insight.

If I come across any, I will certainly add them along.


(enjoying being able to post smiles in Barlesque)