Yuh aint frum round ere r yuh

[JerryR]

Bit of a veer in General humor about place name pronunciation Worcestershire being Woostersher for example. There's so many places that the locals pronounce differently from the way the place is spelt, being a dead giveaway when foreigners open their mouths.

For example, I live about 4 miles outside Chippenham where Eddie Cochran died in an overturned taxi on his way back from a gig, but we don't call the town Chipp en Ham, it's Chippenum. Bet you all have similar examples.

 

[JerryR]

Footnote.
Cochran didn't die in Chippenham. The taxi, a Ford Consul, speeding at 60 mph, crashed into a lamp post (light pole) and overturned. Cochran was thrown from the car sustained serious head injuries and died the next day (April 17 1960) in the Royal United Hospital in nearby Bath. Gene Vincent, travelling with Cochran, sustained a fractured collarbone. Cochran had finished his UK tour and was rushing back to London to fly home.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

20 North East place names that people struggle to pronounce

Cambois, Cowpen and Ulgham are just some of the North East place names that sound nothing like they look when written down.

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

 

[Guildedagain]

I had a great harp player - 40 some years ago - from "Wooster" Mass, Worcester that is, so I readily call the stuff in the bottle "Wooster sauce" but wife calls it Worcestershire pretty much as written.

I had a supervisor at the Parks Dept years ago, a transplanted Nyawker who kept going on about "Almond Park" and we got there it is was Harmon Park ;[]

More or less Brit pronunciation, east coasters are still affected by it, out here people talk like they sing in country music videos.

A neighbor of ours who passed about 10 years ago was from "Woman Hill" Mass, I think, full on Mass accent so I was well versed in its intricacies.

Language/dialects is neat, a sign of culture sometimes missing in people.

Glaswegian I may have a little trouble with, I usually have to go for the subtitles pretty fast to know wth they're talking about in TV shows.

 

[chazmo]

Hey, Jerry! Good to see you posting!

I live just outside of Worcester, Massachusetts, and we do indeed pronounce it "wooster." Well, the natives actually pronounce it "wistah." There are so many British town names and regional accents in MA, probably because of our British heritage.

So the real question is... tell me how to pronounce "Athol."

 

[Uke]

Bit of a veer in General humor about place name pronunciation Worcestershire being Woostersher for example. There's so many places that the locals pronounce differently from the way the place is spelt, being a dead giveaway when foreigners open their mouths.

For example, I live about 4 miles outside Chippenham where Eddie Cochran died in an overturned taxi on his way back from a gig, but we don't call the town Chipp en Ham, it's Chippenum. Bet you all have similar examples.

Leicester is another good English word to have fun with. First time I encountered it I wanted to pronounce it something like "Lye kester" .

 

[Uke]

out here people talk they they sing in country music videos

 

[Guildedagain]

Hey, Jerry! Good to see you posting!

I live just outside of Worcester, Massachusetts, and we do indeed pronounce it "wooster." Well, the natives actually pronounce it "wistah." There are so many British town names and regional accents in MA, probably because of our British heritage.

So the real question is... tell me how to pronounce "Athol."

We have an Athol here, Athol ID, home of the Timber Terror @ Silverwood.

Just like it sounds, Ahhh Thol, it's generally not a big deal, except for a few who never outgrew school age humor

No one has any trouble pronouncing it, although people here on the WA side do like to make fun of it, a trend of picking on the next state in search of jokes. We pick on Montana folks, sheep jokes, and when you get to Montana it's all crazy Swede jokes, Ole and Lena, picking on the state to the east, North Dakotah.

 

[chazmo]

. . . Just like it sounds, Ahhh Thol, it's generally not a big deal, except for a few who never outgrew school age humor . . .

We pronounce it just like the expletive but with a lisp.

 

[Guildedagain]

Yep, that's exactly what it sounds like, and some like to call people from there Athols, but I prefer Atholians.

I went to Athol many times over the years, drug an old Power Wagon back from there, belonged to the postmaster who used it to plow a field before he got a proper tractor.

On the west side of the state, many more names that can't be pronounced, like Puyallup, and funny names to western minds, like the Ho Natl forest, places like Humptulips, and Tillicum, Salish native American names.

 

[GGJaguar]

Living in NJ, I've heard people mispronounce Manalapan, Bernardsville, Wanaque, Forked River, Absecon and Moonachie, but my favorite is when a guy asked me how far it was to See Cous Cous. I figured out he meant Secaucus. I'm sure GAD and Grot can weigh in on other NJ names.

 

[twocorgis]

Newark DE isn't pronounced like Newark NJ, it's "New Ark".
Versailles KY isn't pronounced like Versailles France, it's "Ver Sails".

In both cases, the locals will correct you immediately!

And then there are all the native American names on Long Island.

 

[fronobulax]

Staunton, Virginia.

Stanton, Stan Ton. Stawton or Staw Ton?

One of many in this commonwealth but however I say it there is always someone who thinks I just said it wrong.

 

[Teleguy61]

Couple of challenges:
Billerica MA
Calais VT

 

[Rocky]

Rochester, NY area is filled with funny pronunciations.

"Charlotte " pronunced 'sha-lot.'
"Chili" pronounced 'ch eye lie.'

 

[fronobulax]

"Chili" pronounced 'ch eye lie.'

It was two syllables when I was there decades ago "chi lie" rhyming with some pronunciations of "jai alai"

 

[davidbeinct]

Couple of challenges:
Billerica MA
Calais VT

Bill-rick-a
Also Woburn pronounced Wooburn.
Quincy with a “z”
There’s a bunch more. Massachusetts is the king of oddball pronunciation for their towns.

 

[Brad Little]

Couple of challenges:
Billerica MA
Calais VT

Calais, ME, too.

 

[Bill Ashton]

Chaz, you must not be from around heeya...Worcester, MA is pronounced as "Wis-ta." Always was, always shall be

Bill-rick-a...correct!

Stanton, VA..."Stan Ton," at least that's what the people that made two of my guitars call it.

Forked River, NJ...don't know about the town, but the fiddle-tune is "Fork-ed Deer"

I cannot find Calais, VT in my Rand/McNally, but I have been through Calais, ME, a major border crossing from
New Brunswick, Canada into the US...small town, pronounced "Cal-lis" by the locals as I remember.

Leicester (MA at least) is "Less-ster" Some years ago, we get a call from the Leicester Fire Dept for a building fire
that they cannot find...we went to the address and the second floor of the multi-family was ripping! The original
caller must have dialed "0" (this was before "911") and the telephone operator got it wrong. No one hurt, TTL

So to follow that @JerryR , Leominster, MA is "Lemon-ster" here, not your "Lem-ster."

No idea what "Woman Hill" Mass would be...???

Athol, MA, once the proud home of the machine-tool-measuring company Starrett, always knew as "Ath-Hol...never heard any
off color comments on it, was always familiar with the town as my father was a tool-and-die maker. Sadly, with the demise of Starrett,
its a sad tiny mill-town, which in some recent times had the distinction of being #1 in single-mother births, and a lot of drug abuse.

And back to the lovely, brown "Worcestershire Sauce"...always called "Wista-shear Sauce" in my home, and there was always a cork-topped
bottle in the cupboard...never saw more that a couple drops or maybe a teaspoon used...in my home today we have a small bottle of Hannaford's copy and not the original Lea & Perrin's stuff.

Now, can we get back to important guitar stuff?

 

[Brad Little]

I remember it said that MA Gov. Peabody was the only Pol with the names of three MA towns, Endicott, Peabody and Athol...