American Reacts to Why Are British Place Names So Hard to Pronounce? | Jay Foreman
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- Hello! I'm an American on a quest to learn more about history, geography and the universe in general. In this video I learn more about why Britain has such crazy spellings and pronunciations for their places...and I try to get better at my own pronunciations after the disaster in my English counties video. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe!
00:00 - Intro
01:21 - Comment Time
07:32 - Reaction
16:56 - Outro
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Link to original video: • Why are British place ...
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#britain #britishenglish #uk #englishlanguage
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Love the fact your doing this video, map men are great :D The people came here also effects other things as well, for example, my surname is anglo saxon origion. The anglo saxons was the biggest group to arrive in England, while Scotland and Wales who were not invaded by them, so they are more celtic orgion, and are much more related to the original people who lived in Britain. While England was more susepticle to invaders back in those times. The celtics were not invaders while the rest, essentially were, though its likely more complicated that than.
you should react to "How To Say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch" a music video on youtube: ua-cam.com/video/1BXKsQ2nbno/v-deo.html
Placenames are hard to pronounce and disputed to this day by the people who live in certain towns villages and cities. Take Shrewsbury for example is it pronounced shrew as in the tiny fury animal or shrow.
@@antonywarriner6002 never heard of the shrow prenounceation before
@@bleddynwolf8463 lived there on and off posh people tend to say shrew peasants shrow
So... an American couple visit Wales and just have to visit the town with the longest name in the UK. After standing in front of the name sign and arguing about how to pronounce this place, they decide it is time to grab some lunch. As they sit looking through the menu, the waitress comes over to ask if they are ready to order. Hearing that she has a Welsh accent , one of them asks if she is local.”Oh yes” she says, “I was born about five miles away”. “Well, in that case, will you please tell us, very clearly and very slowly, where we are?”. The waitress leans forward and says, very deliberately “Burrr-gerrrr Kiiiinnng” 🤨
😂
The old ones are the best!
I’m dead..
i used to use Little Chef as the punch line haha
😂🤣
Worth pointing out that latin is a relatively clean and standardised language because there are no longer native speakers to drive changes to the language.
Very true, even Italian bears little resemblance to it apart from following more of the rules of Latin than English does, like changing the plural of Latin words still used. ( Octopuses instead of Octopi and Hippopotamuses instead of Hippopotami) Panini is the plural, Panina is the singular in Italian, so don't be surprised when asking for one in an Italian owned bakers or coffee shop one is asked how many if panini is used.
@@tonys1636 Looks like you fell into a trap of your own making. Octopus and hippopotamus are Greek, not Latin. Somewhere else on Utube somebody explained the correct plural of octopus, and it's nothing like octopi.
Same with hippopotamus. It contains the words hippo, which appears in Philipp - lover of horses - or hippodrome - a building where horses are kept and trained.
The second half is river, like in mesopotamia, the land between the rivers.
Ergo, a hippopotamus is Greek for river horse.
@@jdrancho1864 The correct plural for octopus would be octopodes. Since it's a third declension word, it follows the Greek plural.
You're wrong about hippopotamus though. While it is indeed derived from ancient Greek, it's a second declension word, so "hippopotami" is the correct plural, like Tony S said.
If I remember correctly, the general rule is that nouns that end in -ους (-ous) in Greek are third declension and end in -us in Latin, while nouns ending in -ος (-os) are second declension words, also ending in -us in Latin.
In general though, the third declension is just very annoying and irregular and way more complicated than the first two.
@@qwertyuiopzxcfgh "Thank you, Bernard, you've outdone yourself".
@@tonys1636 actually panini is masculine the singular is "panino" and it is a really generic word to say "something with meat or veggies inside bread" basically a sandwich but it is more commonly used for panini made with real bread
The rule for the English language is all the rules have exceptions, it's just a matter of how many exceptions.
there are exceptions to every exception
As an example:-
I before E, except after C, When the sound is Ee. Yet there Are many exceptions to even that detailed rule
@@paulcollyer801 there are more exceptions than words that follow it...
Glendale Valley, in the lake district, is another good one!
But don't forget the exception where there is NO exception. Because even the rule that every rule has an exception must have an exception ;)
As an Englishman who has lived in Wales, I have to say that Welsh place names are only difficult to pronounce if you approach them as English. Welsh is a different language. In fact, Welsh is quite phonetic. Learn the pronunciation of Welsh letters and the way you say the names is largely pretty straightforward.
Absolutely true, and thanks for pointing it out!
Indeed. I’m married to an English woman and she struggled with “Pontypridd” for ages, as she stubbornly refused to accept that in Welsh, “dd” sounds like “th”. It was hilarious and annoying at the same time. She pronounces it correctly these days I’m happy to say.
Exactly, yes. I'd say it's about 99% phonetic. The only letter that often isn't is "y". It's why Welsh has so many letters in its alphabet. Every sound is supposed to have its own letter. TH is a letter, for example. DD (which sounds like TH in "the") is another letter. There are a few oddities, though. While it has a "v" sound, it's the letter "f". An "f" is the letter "ff". There is no actual letter "v". That throws a lot of English people off as they'll usually pronounce somewhere like "Dyfed" wrong, not realising that it should be spoken as "Dyved".
they dont speak in wales they sing ;)
@@daviddavies3637 Re Welsh "f" and "ff" - a good way to remember the distinction is to bring to mind the equivalent letters in "of" and "off" in English.
best pronounciation story I ever heard was in Devon there is a village called Crapstone. In the local pub some very posh Londoner asked a local if they really said Crapstone, the local replied, ...."No zurr round 'ere we calls it Shitabrick!"
There is indeed a place called Crapstone! It's on Dartmoor, and was named so because... well, it has a huge tor (lump of granite you can climb up,) and the sheep like to... well, y'know...
Funny placenames in Ireland include Porridgetown,(that creates a stir), Mooncoin, Kilmacow, Leap, Hags head, Irelands eye, Ballyjamesduff,Ballymadog,Kill,etc
@geraldwalsh6489 they are certainly up there with Pratts Bottom Piddletrenthide and Middle Wallop
There is one fun place in Britain called Torpenhow Hill up north. Tor, Pen and How are all words for "hill" in various dialects, meaning it translates to Hill hill hill hill. So, it's definitely a hill.
Not quite. See this: ua-cam.com/video/NUyXiiIGDTo/v-deo.html
There is a village near me called Hucking. Try pronouncing that properly when you're pissed.
Also, there is Bredon Hill, next to the River Avon. which means "hill, hill, hill, next to the river river :-D
And it's pronounced as Tropenha!
Lundy Island. Puffin Island Island.
I like the level of detail here. Seeing a person genuinely trying to learn new stuff is great!
The village of 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch' on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. Translated from Welsh into English means. 'St Mary’s Church In The Hollow Of The White Hazel Near To The Rapid Whirlpool And The Church Of St Tysilio Of The Red Cave'.
The name was created in 1869 as a publicity stunt to give the village's newly created railway station the accolade of being the railway station with the longest name in Britain. Day to day everybody shortens it to 'Llanfairpwl' pronounced 'Clan - vair - pul'. Meaning 'St Mary's Church by the pool'.
I used to work for Royal Mail, and in the postcode books it's listed as "Llanfair". Perhaps otherwise the Welsh books would be four times as long.
The Welsh double 'll' sound is not equivalent to 'cl'. It's a sort of aspirated 'l' that just doesn't exist in English at all.
Ll in welsh is pronounced more like "thl", with the "t" like the one in "the". In real speech, it is more breathy, but doing it via "thl" is close. Where for a pronounced "t" you curve the tip of the tongue up, for the "ll", you have the end and some of the middle of the tongue flatter on the roof of the mouth and soften the sides of your tongue so you can blow past it gently but with enough force to present itself and not whistling.
Never heard of it as Llanfairpwll (the Welsh word for pwll. You were doing well up until then! :-P ) I, and most of Wales as far as I know call it Llanfair P.G.
In order to pronounce Welsh "LL" then place your mouth as if you were about to voice the letter "L". With your tongue up against the roof of your mouth.
Hold that "L" position and then just exhale. Breathe out.
As your tongue is in the way, the air will escape out of the sides of your mouth, towards your teeth (though feel free to position your tongue so the air is only coming out one side, if you like. I do that and prefer the left side).
Note that Welsh "LL" is not voiced at all. Your throat / vocal cords do nothing. You're just exhaling with your tongue in the way.
It sounds like TV / radio static. White noise. Like a hissing snake.
Sarah I absolutely admire your desire to learn more about us weird Brits. You present some videos that are amazing and even educate us about ourselves.
Thanks!
@@SoGal_YT I've found some sites were cricket is being played in the USA , basically due to the Asian influence in America but one club I think nearly goes back the 13 colonies , if you want me to send the names just say
More Jay Foreman. His stuff is brilliant.
Also, please don't apologise for getting things wrong, you're trying to learn that's the main thing!
It's great to see an intelligent channel , and a lovely lady who is scholarly and genuinely wants to learn . Hope you and hubby get the chance to visit us one day , I'm sure you will both love it .🇬🇧
I'm surprised they didn't mention Loughborough which has 'ough' pronounced two completely different ways in the same word (it's luffburrah).
Which I have actually heard pronounced lu-ga-bar-ouuooo-ga by an American tourist. I couldn't bring myself to correct him and just hoped he'd keep it up and brighten someone else's day
@@Dementat I'm Australian and I've had a few Brits making the pronunciation joke but pertaining to an Aussie tourist. Also of course, Slough.
I head Log-berg before...
I usually refer to it as Looburoo, just to confuse people.
Thanks very much for the shout out :) Worcestershire is spot on. The 2 CGP Grey videos on the City of London are superb
As a Scot with a little understanding of Gaelic (that is to say 'Tha beagan Gàilhig agam')
Some of our place names our fascinatingly difficult. It's worth noting that whilst Gaelic has had a major influence on our place names, so has Pictish, Norse, Scots and English.
For me, the most frustrating was that just within the southwest of the city of Aberdeen are two places called 'Cults' and 'Peterculter'
But pronounced 'Cults' (as in the plural of a cult) and 'Peter-cooter'.
Other places in Scotland that sound nothing like they're spelled include:
Avoch (Och)
Cuthill (Kettle)
Footdee (Fittie)
Turriff (Turra)
Forres (Foh-rez)
Kirkcaldy (Kir-cod-ee)
Hawick (Hoy-ck)
Ballachulich (Ba-la-hoo-lish)
Dumfries (Dum-frees)
Kirkcudbright (Kerr-coo-bree)
And possibly most famously and ridiculously
Milngavie (Mill-guy)
It's crazy to think how much your channel has grown since these videos from a couple of years ago. I hope it continues to grow in popularity
Nobody seems to have mentioned Cholmondeley - pronounced Chumley, I suspect to deliberately confuse.
Or Slaithewaithe.
Not to confuse, just the lazy anglo-saxon tongue has adopted a pronunciation that is easier to get your mouth around. As per Magdalen college Oxford always pronounced Madlen, the name Mainwaring pronounced Mannering and so on.
My favourite is Featherstonehaugh, pronounced Fanshaw
Or Milngavie
Or Godmanchester (pronounced Gum-ster)
Please please please react to horrible histories. You’ll have a great laugh and be learning at the same time
I second that a show aimed a kids but easily watchable as a adult! If anything think some of the gags are just intended to be.
It’s also extremely accurate, even down to costumes
@@JackRabbit002 It first came out when I was still in primary school but I’m fairly sure my parents enjoyed watching it almost as much as I did. I really don’t think I’ll ever forget the songs from that show
"stupid deaths, stupid deaths. I hope next time it's not you!"
...."HORRIBLE HISTORIEEEEEES"
🤘👌
@@airbournman6282 that was the soundtrack to my youth
Great reactions, I love 'em. There is a really good poem for pronunciation the first two lines of which are "I take it you already know, Of tough and bough and cough and dough". You can find it online by just typing the first line into your serch engine.
That crazy 58 letter Welsh town name translates as: Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.
NB: it takes about 120 letters for English to say the same. Who said that Welsh place-names were overlong? ;)
@@ftumschk Well imagine if an English town had that full name. Then imagine they tried to make it into one long word.
It's also good to mention it was a publicity stunt, its not a "authentic" name.
@@moldveien1515 Thought it was a train station name.
@@joeloates1685 It is it was the local big wig that wanted it called that. PS most people just say Llanfairpg
The town of Towcester needs to have a picture of a toaster on its signs so people can have an easier time pronouncing it xD
Welcome to Cornwall. Kernow a gas dynargh. That's one of our Celtic languages and lands. Hope my welsh and scottish friends here tell you about Alba and Cymru also. Meur ras. Dedh da.
Oll an gwella. Bodmin, Cornwall.
@@kernowforester811 Onen hag oll. 😁
By Tre, Pol, and Pen, you shall know the Cornishmen.
An old saying because so many places in the duchy begin with those letters.
Tre = homestead.
Pol = pool.
Pen = headland.
@@andrewclayton4181 Thanks for the rhyme which explains the key Cornish place names and surnames. Also in Kernow: Chy - house. Eglos - Church. Towan - Dune. Porth - port. Du - Black. Tyak - farmer. Brea, Carn, Par, Jinjy, Ros, penwith, trewithen. Lanhydrock, gullyngvaze, ellemglaze, marazion, ventongimps, marazanvose, tregavethen, Truro.. so much in Cornish names.
Cornwall was named this by the anglo saxons. The saxons called Cymru wales, and the people there Welsh - means foreigner! Cornwall is Kernow Wales - or Cornish foreigners. The history of Britain saw the romano Celts getting pushed to the fringes by the anglo saxons and later normans and English people. The language was mostly wiped out by replacement of latin and Cornish with English in prayer books, which caused 15th and 16th century rebellion. Cornwall was under threat when it joined the losing King in the English civil war and smuggling trade in the 18th century let English become the lingua franca. Forever though, Cornish place names and names remind us. Demelza, Morwenna, Lowenna, beautiful ladies that came from Falmouth back in the day. I'm a 70s,80s guy.
I love the dotty map showing the language influences. It's brilliant.
It's times like this that I'm grateful that I managed to learn English through TV and the internet later on when I was younger.
I grew up in West Yorkshire in a town called Keighley (shows in Jay's video), pronounced Keith-Ly, with a "TH" sound even though there's no T.
Oh and by the was London, and the city of London are two different things, the city of London is just under 3 km2 compared to the whole of London which is 1,569 km2
"Woo-stuh-shur" So many of us Brits get this one wrong too.
And I'd absolutely say to check out more of our History, it's a long one of being constantly invaded and conquered. There's a reason we eventually got rather good at war, we'd simply experienced a lot of it. (Means we have really awesome castles as well as mythology built upon so many of those invading cultures)
Another good video SoGal! 😀
You cetainly don't appear to be like a typical American on UA-cam , you are obviousely educated and inquisitive . I like that so have subscribed .
Also even as a Scot I got caught making one of the most common mistakes in Scottish place names.
Milngavie just outside Glasgow is pronounced “Mullguy”.
Favourite quote from a exhibition at the Tate Art Gallery.
' History is a record of migration'
So educational. Brilliant. 👍
Your learning of British history and history in general is really stimulating. I wish more people took an interest like you do. I find it fascinating too. I am a bit of a mongrel when it comes to being British, as I have Scottish, English and Channel Islands all in the mix and who knows what else, as my DNA test shows Norwegian and Maltese! I blame the Vikings for that though.
Love your videos - literate, informative, and self-effacing (the last not a generally recognised American trait!). But fascinating though British place-names are in their power to confuse tourists, what are even more intriguing are the straightforwardly beautiful names. So I'd like to get you started on my two favourite English village names: Haselbury Plucknett; and the absolutely gorgeous village called Ryme Intrinseca. (The first is in Somerset, the second in Dorset - the latter county a treasurehouse of charming names. The origin of my own surname is also from Dorset, and is sort of nice...but that's another story.) Keep them coming. You make the lockdown bearable.
Ah your surname must be Wurzel.
@@kroo07 Cheeky swine...
@@aw6936 A thousand apologies from an errant ex-Dorsetite.
Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but I recommend historia civilis' series on Rome. It's fun, accessible and a good way to start learning about the end of the Republic. He has a playlist chronological in order in his channel. I recommend starting with the video on Cicero's year and going down the years, but there are other videos that explain the context, names and gouvernement positions.
We'd get a whole year of videos from SoGal with Historia Civilis lol
@@TheEpicOne8129 wouldn't that be amazing!
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
Hi, You stopped the Map Men just before the Advert, these are well worth watching, very funny and often related to he main video.
If you're interested in learning more about the changes over time in the English language, I highly recommend the channel Nativlang, particularly their video about what English would have sounded like in Shakespeare's time. He does plenty of other videos on all sorts of languages from around the world too, so if you're interested in covering different languages on this channel then it's a great place to start! Really enjoying your videos so far! ^-^
As a Devon girl, I had an entire childhood of petty enjoyment from knowing the crazy pronunciation of a lot of Devonshire places baffled the visitors - names like: Teignmouth (Tin-muth,) Loddiswell (Lodz-wul,) Torquay (Tor-kee) and Mousehole (Mowzul.) I knew the secret behind pronouncing Devon places; us Janners love our vowels, but only if there's not too many of them, and especially without chucking a load of consonants in between them as well... the key is to pick one or - at most! - two favourite vowels, and skip over as many consonants as possible to get to that.
And then I moved to Kent.
They seem to do things differently; they like to take their time over pronouncing their placenames. And I was the one who started getting laughed at, for trying to apply my Devonian Rules of pronunciation. So now I know that Wrotham is 'Rootum' and not 'Rothum,' Teston is 'Tee-ston' and not 'Testun,' and Leybourne is 'Lay-born' and not 'Lebburn.'
Proper job, maid!
Mousehole!, a mere 100 miles west of Devon? Also, not where shown on the Map Children's Map (Probably Cadgwith).
find your programs very interesting, Learning alot about my own country.
UA-cam suggested this video to me, and I found it interesting, I am from Brighton on the South Coast of England - pronounced "Bright-un" - and the town was previously known as Brighthelmstone, Brighton starting off as an informal slang name...
And not one mention of Fingeringhoe....
And, yes. Clearly in Essex.
That's a couple of miles from me! People outside of the local area get Mersea wrong too, often pronouncing it 'Mer-cee' instead of 'Mer-zee'.
we have a wetwang in yorkshire as well as upperthong, penistone and even a street called butt hole road.....your move essex
@@hugh.g.rection5906 You've got us there, only other places I can think of is Threshers Bush, and Turkey Cock Lane in Copford. Though I have been to Shitterton in Dorset :D
I did that when I was in Essex.
Just like up north we have cockermouth
i before e except after c has more exceptions than examples
Not if you quote the whole saying.
Ceiling?
@@DarkDutch007 Red ceiling.
Weird.
Name some.
always enjoy your videos, thank you.
Hi SoGal. I love the fact that you are looking at the shared language and heritage of the US and UK. I am also a fan of history (particularly military history) and note that you are looking to expand your voyage of discovery overseas. Can I suggest you look at the Battle of Imjin River in the Korean War to see how the difference in our uses if the English language can lead to a military disaster. Keep it up - really enjoy watching and learning with you.
Aye we do have sheriffs in the UK.. in Scotland a sheriff is a Judge or a sheriff’s officer is the equivalent of a debt collector, great vid though quite funny 👌🏻
A sheriff is a shire reeve but of course in the USA, they have county sheriffs which are policemen but the UK sheriff is a government official.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the post tends to be more "highfalutin" (like the Sheriff of Nottingham) and the title is usually used for the (largely ceremonial) High Sheriff of each county - these are (very) theoretically the monarch's own judicial representative; It's an honour role though, like the lord-lieutenant who is (again very) theoretically the monarch's personal and military representative for each county.
We do indeed! It was established by the Anglo-Saxons, along with the shire system. 👍
SoGal you should watch a Fred Dibnah video. It's British industrial history with a national treasure
Did yer like that?
Love Fred sitting eating sarnies with his black hands
You're starting to grow on me i like your voice it's kind of soothing
You worked hard at this Thank you
Frome is Ffrwm in Welsh. The 'w' is an 'oo' sound. Two F's are an F sound and one is a 'v' sound. Hence 'Froom'. The English wrote it in weird.
In Somerset dialect (one of the Westcountry ones), initial 'f' is voiced to a 'v', so may well be 'Vroom' in local dialect? From Cornwall.
So when the kids play with toy cars they make frwm-frwm sounds
@@kernowforester811 I once read a doctoral thesis that claimed that the Mumerzet accent was the Saxon accent which is why it stretches from Somerset to Norfolk. Could be true ...
@@kernowforester811 pronounced Vroom? Birthplace of F1 champion Jenson Button, makes sense.
Same with siop. The store you buy things from. Perfectly fine in Welsh, but the sais cannot spell, so tried their best with "shop".
This gives you a clue as to how the UK evolved over time, and who we were invaded by etc lol
Great Video, You're looking Radiant as usual!
There were two "invasions" of Celtic language speakers to the island of Great Britain. "Invasion" tends to imply military conquest whereas these were more osmotic being through migration and trade. The first "invasion" occurred in the 7th century BC and brought the Brythonic language with them. This spread throughout the island but is today restricted to Wales (Welsh), Cornwall (Cornish) and Brittany (Breton). Cumbric and Pictish both died out in the 12th century AD. The second "invasion" occurred in the 6th century AD from Ireland and brought the Goidelic language to Great Britain. Today this language subsists in Ireland (Irish or Erse), the Isle of Man (Manx) and Scotland (Gaelic) where it replaced the Brythonic Pictish.
Hi, I'm from Cambridgeshire in eastern England.
I'm so sorry!
Hey, ex-neighbour!
I lived in the Wisbech area for years........until my medication wore off, & I managed to escape!! 🤣🤣🤣
Map men are epically fantastic. There’s only one rule for the English language, there are no rules!
Love the content you post, you delve deeper than most to find the real meanings of well everything you look into, you also genuinely try with the pronunciation of place names, you do beat yourself up far too much for the smallest error, if you were ever to visit the UK by all means visit London but don't make it your main destination, further north is less expensive by a long way, the old buildings are much older generally and many are free or much cheaper to visit, York is a good city to visit, it was the capitol of England long before London ever was and is a genuine Roman city so much older than London too, the city walls are still intact and you can walk along the top of them either for free or at little cost, even the old buildings and roads are still in public use as shops etc with roads that are 3-4ft wide so no traffic.
Keep up with the great content and thank you for the time and effort that you put in to making it :)
Oh almost forgot, say Hi to Roger for me :)
Good stuff, always interesting ,keep safe and well over there...E
Worcestershire sauce is pronounced (at least in my accent): Wuss - ter - sher
That's it. A lot easier than the way I always hear Americans always say it (workusssesssesssster-shire) 😂😂
In Worcestershire we just call it Worcester Sauce. Wuss ter. Worcestershire is pronounced wuss ter sheer.
@@fynnpark2534 I'm from Wiltshire and we pronounce it the same as you
Just say "pass the Lea & Perrins"
Great vid. If you want to learn more about the UK and its history, with the same kind of sense of humour, you should watch the BBC series 'Horrible Histories'.
This is the first of your videos I've ever seen (sorry about that) and I gave to say I absolutely loved it... subscribed!
That is obviously supposed to be 'have' not 'gave'...
OK... going now... 😂
First time for everything 😉 Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Jay Foreman videos are excellent. Their one on the north south divide is good, and so are his politics videos such as who's incharge of Britain and why politicians never answer questions.
I'm disappointed that my home town, Loughborough, was shown a couple of times but not discussed.
I love bruh!
For football, it's Luff. Luff Dyno and Luff Uni. Also sometimes we use Looga, due to one American calling it Loogabarooga
@Nehemiah Scudder Lugburrer and Slug
On a few occasions I've passed the town of Brough, just off the A66. I still don't know if it's pronounced "Bruff" or "Brow" or "Broo"... or something else completely random.
@Nehemiah Scudder that's what it would be if it was Australian.
Not difficult to pronounce where I'm from. Officially its Kingston-upon-Hull but it is almost always shortened to simply, 'ull, just across the river from Grimsby actually.
There is a street here called Whitefriargate which is pronounced White-fruh-gate and off that street is a smaller one which is genuinely called, The Land of Green Ginger! Imagine that, you could actually live in a place called The Land of Green Ginger! 😊
Congratulations. You just encountered a real UA-cam jewels. Jay Foreman is hands down one of the funniest men on the Interwebs.
Glad you enjoy this fun video, I love your smile. I learned how to say LlanfairPG via youtube videos where locals teach it via a song.
We do have sheriff's here in UK but they have powers like bailiffs.
Unlike the USA, however, "sheriff" isn't a police rank/title. British police have the following titles: Constable, Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Deputy Chief Constable, Chief Constable.
There are also ceremonial sheriffs, eg the Sheriff of Lincoln is part of the civic party, and High Sheriffs of the counties.
In Scotland, Magistrates are called Sheriffs too.
If you're curious, Sheriff comes from the Old English word 'Scīrgerafa' which means Shire-reeve. They served a role somewhat like that of a modern police officer
You're talking about High Court Enforcement Officers. Sherriff in this case is a misnomer.
I want to know why is Kansas pronounced Kan-sas but Arkansas Ar-ken-saw?
Even worse, the Arkansas River is pronounced Ar-kan-sas. I think the difference is produced by whether or not English-speakers acquired the name via French-speakers or not.
They are both from a native tribe name, but Kansas came directly, while Arkansas came through French.
So do I!
This was fun to watch. I used to live near Quernmore near Lancaster (NW England) - as mentioned by the guys it is pronounced Cor-ma (like the curry!). It's near Lancaster - whose derivation, I believe, is from the Roman "Camp of the Alans" (Alanicaster) - the Alans in question being recruited from people north of the Black Sea. If so, it just shows how curious place names can be. Mind you, if you found Welsh/English tricky, I (naturally) found the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull really difficult.
Yup you pronounced Herefordshire right when you read the poster's explanation of pronunciation. Love that you want to know.
Here in Devon we have Westward Ho!, the only town in the country with an ‘!’ in it..!
I am living in Chester and I did my Archaeology degree here. One of the digs I was involved with at Caerwys in North Wales helped prove the Romans got a lot further across towards Anglesey than originally believed. A circular buttress of the style from the time of the legion based in Chester is pretty distinctive.
It explains why there was a permanent fortress here with one of the few amphitheatres in Britain. There is a large, elliptical building that is unique to the entire Roman Empire that was absolutely massive and the height of luxury for the time. Knowing the fact that they were nearer to their goal than believed it has been suggested as a government structure designed to strike fear into anyone withstanding them.
There was a roman villa discovered in Flint while building a new housing estate, apparently there is no historical record of it ever existing and was a complete surprise
Think it was found and archaeological dig carried out around 2018, think it might have been done or sponsored by CADW, don't remember much more than that about it, but now I'm motivated to see what's out there about it, seeing as I live there lol
@@legion162 I heard about that one! I was at Caerwys in 2016/17 and was meant to go on a 'rescue' dig in 2018 but my health prevented it. I wasn't made aware of where it was, just that it was in the North East of Wales. Anything discovered during construction is considered 'rescue' simply because it needs to be recorded and excavated immediately before it gets destroyed or damaged.
@@Mrs.Fezziwig there was a recent, think last summer, partial/little dig at Ewloe Castle, apparently some interesting things going on there, and very recently the big church at the very top of Mold High Street, again I believe that they discovered that the place had much older origins than was first thought.
Anyways, how mad is it we both commenting on video by an American woman, we live 10ish miles apart and have an interest in archeology, talk about getting side tracked 🤣🤣
@@legion162 it is so cool to find someone so nearby and into archaeology, I agree. I know the church you mean, I lived in Rhydymyn for a few months in 2006. I knew from the Daniel Owen (sorry if I've got that wrong) Centre that the church was rumoured to be on important archaeology, that they got it dug is fantastic! Shame there wasn't a lost king buried there.
These guys have so many great videos.
There's definitely an Essex Junction in Vermont. I've been there, it's a nice place
Worcester is pronounced like Wooster ... Like rooster. So worcestershire is like Wooster shire.
Not really like the 'oo' in rooster, more like the 'u' in put.
@@lordlazza in my accent put, rooster, and Wooster are all the exact same sound 🤷
It's not "shire" it's more like "shur".
@@c4715 i know but i was only commenting on the pronunciation of the worcester part...
The village of Cogenhoe in Northamptonshire. Pronounced Cook-no. Go figure
That's just evil...
That's good but I'll raise you, Happisburgh in Norfolk pronounced Hasebrough and Costessey also in Norfolk pronounced Cossy.
We have lots around the Bedworth area (Bedduth) including ... Styvichale , which is said as "sty-chull". Cheylesmore "Charles-more", Pinwall, "pin-ull".
I don't know how it was done in Cornwall and much of England, but for Scotland posh English educated guys from the Ordnance Survey (or its predecessors Govt departments) went to the nearest local resident they came across and wrote down a English version of the Gaelic (Celtic) place names using English letters. They often mis-associated the location that the name it belonged to with the actual places they had mapped and usually failed to get the spelling anywhere near right (I guess some map makers were better than others !
If you go to Scotland today you'll often get the "correct" Gaelic spelling alongside the old English version on place name signs, which often helps get the name to sound right in English. The same was done in Ireland as well. Wales is slightly different as they used a different form of Celtic than Scotland and Ireland.
English place names in the west will often be Celtic derived with an later anglo-saxon added, whereas in the east they more likely to be a mix of Viking, earlier Anglo-Saxon (old english) and Celtic side by side depending on who owned or lived in specific places when the names stuck. On top of that there are also the Roman place names that were long remembered and used after the Empire had gone in the 500 and 600 ADs when the anglo-saxons started to take over English governance.
History in action. I think modern DNA studies have also indicated that the different Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons Jutes and the rest) have left their distinctive DNA signature in the regions they originally "occupied" in the 500+ ADs, so its not surprising to me that local place names lasted for a very long time even as the form of English spoken evolved considerably.
Love this episode, but please stop the music! My brain was fighting itself as to whether to follow the music or the speech.
Always remember Scotland is different.... For one we say 'shy- ir'
Stir-lin-shy-re
Shires historically are sections of land administered by a shire-reeve, pronounced “sheriff”, as in “of Nottingham”. Or to be more accurate, of Nottinghamshire.
Depends where in Scotland you're from, I'm Glaswegian born and bred and I say shir, Refrewshir, Sturlinshir, Clackmannanshir.
For the place named Mousehole, their lifeboat crew were part of a disaster to hit the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (the charity that saves lives at sea) in 1981. The Penlee Lifeboat was based near there upto 19th December 1981 when they answered a mayday from a cargo ship named Union Star, there were no survivors from either. There was a documentary made for the 25th anniversary of the disaster called Cruel Sea: The Penlee Disaster. Its here on UA-cam if you want to learn more, the RNLI btw is the worlds first sea rescue service.
I'm from Sheffield, South Yorkshire and I thought that the story about Mousehole would interest you a little.
I have just thoroughly enjoyed this clip! I used to live behind Brighton in a village called! FULKING honest! We had the postman splitting his sides with laughter as someone had missed spelt it with another word that sounds similar! Gulp!
The only reason that you can't mispronounce words in Latin, is that we have no idea how it was ever pronounced.
Yes we do :)
We can’t know 100%, you’re correct. But I was taught that Latin scholars can decipher the pronunciations to a certain extent. But just like all languages, pronunciation can change and there’s a generally accepted way of speaking Latin today...so that’s mostly what I was referring to.
That's not true at all
Yes we do. We know from how other languages - German for instance - came to spell words of Latin origin. "Caesar", for instance, would have been pronounced in Latin with a "hard" C - so in German the word becomes "Kaiser". There are dozens of examples. What's confusing is that in the Middle Ages ecclesiastical scholars took it upon themselves to "Italianise" much original Latin - adding all those pretty accents schoolboys like me despaired of ever learning.
@@aw6936 : Yet the same word has different pronunciations from different areas of Europe.
Tsar for the Russians
Caesar with a soft C in Britain despite English having close links to German.
Until someone invents a time machine arguments over Latin are always going to exist.
Names of places change depending how you talk also. Local slang can become part of a descriptions in the UK. Where I live is York ... but my village is 3 miles from the City Centre and is called Acomb, The name Acomb .. pronounced " A - Come " comes directly from the Roman name for York ... which was Eboracum ... Breaking that down .... you find Acum in the name. but along the east coast the locals there say I would come from " Yacum Sand Holes " ... because Acomb is truly one giant Sand pit that was created by the Ice Age. So there you have a little local history of how our name came to be. Thank you for sharing your video and Greetings from York. England. Yes` that is the rainy part of the planet.
In North Kent there is the remains of the ancient forest and the North Downs Way (pilgrimage route) called ‘Trosley country park’ spelt Trottiscliffe. I live just a few miles away and did not learn this until I visited it. Keeps life interesting.
Just found you today.
The funny Map Men have been a must for a yr since lockdown started. Now A few recommendations, Lindybeige, he does all sorts that will help you and his sponsorship adverts are funny too.
Travel Tim is a relative of J. Forman, also funny but lives in French France.
Adventures and Naps, Alanna's done the place names and used Google translate and her reactions to the spoken name is hilarious as is her tasting alcoholic drinks and sweets.
Wandering Ravens you will like and have also covered this and other stuff..... you can tell I'm stuck at home can't you 🙂
Will look at your other vlog work.
Enjoyed this one btw.
Dave if Liverpool, Merseyside.
Great presentation. I'm a big fan of Jay Foreman, I love the lightning pace and clever wit.
The differences with the suffix "cester" eg. Worcester (pron. "wooster") and Cirencester (pronounced as seen)
remind me of Arkansas ("Arkansaw") vs Arkansas City where the Arkansas is pronounced as seen ...though the locals just call it "Ark City".
Yay Map Men!! These guys are so good!
Greetings from a place next to Burpham (Berfum), Surrey. Someone I know of some 20 years ago left the UK to work for MS UK and would pepper his work slides and e-mails with English place names like Wymondham and Keswick then wait for them to mispronounce them. He needed more so asked in a forum for other UK place names where the pronunciation is seemingly phonetically unrelated to the spelling. We gave him 170 to use.
An interesting example is Southwick.
The place on the outskirts of Brighton is pronounced south - wick whereas the place outside of Portsmouth from where Eisenhower gave D-day the final go ahead is pronounced suth-irk
There are a poem called „The Chaos“, which is about the pronounsiation „rules“ of the English language. You can find it on UA-cam too.
Try this one from my native Lincolnshire ... the village of Aslackby. A pound to a penny you get it wrong. A hint: It begins ‘ay’, the ‘s’ is pronounced ‘z’, the ‘l’ is heard and the ‘ack’ is (of course) silent. The ‘by’ as you now know is Danish denoting a Viking place name (as is my home village of Ulceby). Also in Lincolnshire, is Spital in the Street. Street reveals it’s position on a Roman road - in this case Ermine Street, which ran from Londinium (London) through Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to Eboracum (York). The ‘spital’ is derived from the fact there was a hospital there - probably serving travellers using the Roman road.
Map Men are magic. Lots of interesting stuff to unpack with them! Watch more. English is not a "real" language. It was a spoken language, spoken and pronounced differently in every corner of the country. French was the "official" language since the Norman conquest. When it was finally codified and rules applied.... they just picked the bits they liked and the "rules" tend to have more exceptions that break the rules than follow them. Makes it a very simple language to "get by in" and almost impossible to understand in its entirety. Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue is the best book I have ever come across on the subject. Funny too. Loughborough LOO GA BAROO GAH instead of LUFF BRAH was always my fav.
Hi there SoGal... hope this finds you well. You asked about Sheriffs in the UK. I am not sure how it stands in England but in Scotland, the Sheriffs is a name given to a judge in the local Sheriff Court - the prosecution is referred to as the Procurator Fiscal.
I recommended this in your pronouncing English county’s video 🙆♂️🙆♂️🙆♂️
Even your name is a dodgy one. Is it mc I or mc k
I also really like the Map Men videos! Great choice.
Born and now living back in Frome after a life in the military listening to my friends from around the country mis pronounce my place of birth is just normal for me now. Add my French/Swiss surname to the mix which everyone seems to struggle with and you have a life of not really being bothered by mis pronunciation at all. It just is.
Fromey here too but currently living in Bristol. At least most people here seem to know how to pronounce it but you do bump into the odd person that gets it wrong and then have that awkward moment of deciding whether to correct them or not.
The one thing you can't conseptulize is that people from all over the country pronounce our names with different accents it shows you it just takes you down another rabbit hole
Nice to meet you I currently live in Teignmouth but in two days time I will live in Torquay, trying to hear Americans pronounce those two names always makes me chuckle.
For anyone who wants to know Teignmouth is pronounced like Tinmuf and Torquay is pronounced more like Torekey
the celts arrived in blighty between 3500bc and 500bc. academics argue over the fine details. somebody lived here before that, but very little remains of their culture. its claimed the peoples around glastonbury, in the marshes have existed there for 5k years, but its tricky to confirm this, as they didnt tend to build stone structures.
The variation of pronunciation of the 'ough' throughout the English language, appears to be demonstrated in place names, but in many cases, the different pronunciations for towns, etc. is down to the way the locals originally pronounced them. 'Brough' in East Yorkshire, was called Petuaria by the Roman settlers, (but was originally settled by the Celtic, Parisi tribe: what they called it is uncertain, but since 'petuar' is Brythonic for 'four' or 'quarter', it's likely that the Romans adopted this for their own naming purposes.) its current name, and that of other similarly named places, comes from the Old English word 'burh' (meaning 'fortification' - the same root that [English] 'borough' and [German] 'burgh' comes from,) but over time, the locals 'chose' to refer to it as 'bruff'. There are a number of other places named Brough or variations thereof in Northern England, and in most cases they are pronounced 'bruff', though two notable exceptions are places such as 'Middlesbrough' (only 64 miles from Brough,) & 'Conisbrough' (less than 35 miles from Brough,) where the -brough part of the name is pronounced 'bruh'; also 'Brougham' in Cumbria (less than 20 miles from Brough ['bruff'] in Cumbria,) which is pronounced simply as 'Broom'.
There is a TV show called "Horrible Histories" and is a great way to learn British History.