LL-L 'Names' 2007.01.02 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L - 02 January 2007 - Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.12.31 (04) [E]

> From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
> Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.12.28 (01) [E]
>
> Have a look at an amused native English speaker's face hearing a
> German say 'Wor-cester' or 'Lei-cester'- though the correct
> pronunciation somehow is against the rules.

I'm not sure how well the English cope with this sort of thing either.
Of course, Worcester and Leicester are big places and well-known (though
the spellings "Wooster" and "Lester" are seen in surnames - no, it's not
just Bertie Wooster, I was driving past a garage a few months ago and
noticed that the proprietors had the surname "Wooster").

But when it comes to smaller places the correct pronunciation only seems
to be known to the locals, how well it's known further afield may depend
on how well known the town is. For example, not everybody seems to know
to pronounce "Leominster" (in Herefordshire) as "Lemster", although
natives will often correct your pronunciation (as happened to me!). On
the other hand no one will correct your (English, as opposed to Welsh)
pronunciation of "Caerleon" (a famous Roman heritage town near Newport,
South Wales) to "Killian" unless you actually live in the area.

I don't know how many other English (and even a few Welsh?) place names
I might be pronouncing incorrectly, that sort of knowledge just seems to
come on a need-to-know basis - though for all I know this sort of thing
might be taught in English schools.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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From: daniel prohaska <danielprohaska at bluewin.ch>
Subject: LL-L 'Names' [E, Corn.]

Yn kensa:

Bledhen Noweth Dâ re'gas bo oll!!!

From: jonny < jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>

Subject: LL-L 'Names' 2006.12.28 (01) [E]

 "What about the German pronunciation of 'Lond'n' vs the correct 'Lon-don'?"

Especially when the "correct" pronunciation is "Lunden" (or better in
X-SAMPA) ["lVnd at n]. German speakers tend to use a reading pronunciation when
the Englisch "minim-u" is spelt <o>: Some say, as you pointed out,
["lOnd?n_=] and even [lOf] or [lO:f] for <love>, which should have [lVv].

"Have a look at an amused native English speaker's face hearing a German say
'Wor-cester' or 'Lei-cester'- though the correct pronunciation somehow is
against the rules."

You don't even have to travel across the language boundaries to get funny
realisations of "Worcester". I recently heard an Australian news commentator
on CNN pronouncing ["wUs at st@]. He was clearly dismayed at what had come out
of his mouth as he was obviously reading from the teleprompter, but he
didn't have the nerve to go back and correct himself.

Why shouldn't we, or with even more legitimacy the Dutch, keep on saying
'Nieuw Amsterdam' instead of 'New York'?? The simple answer: because 99% of
the people worldwide wouldn't understand.

Yes, but 99% of the people worldwide don't understand Dutch anyway and those
who do would most likely understand what "Niew Amsterdam" meant.

Dan
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