Re: English is a crazy language

John wrote:

>Michael Poxon scripsit:
>>
>>  As a matter of interest, there's a village about ten km from me called
>>  "Little Hautbois", pronounced locally /hobis/. Norfolk has a plethora of
>>  elided spellings: Happisburgh /heizbr@/, Costessey /kosiy/, Wymondham
>>  It'd be interesting to see what's happened to
>>  pronunciations of English place-names used as American ones. For instance,
>>  do they have a 'Warwick' and if so is it pronounced the same as ours, i.e.,
>>  /worik/?
>
>The answer is quite variable.  Many places in New England are named
>after ones in Old England, and the pron. is often preserved sometimes
>even at the expense of the spelling, e.g. Wooster, Massachusetts
>< Worcester.  The further west, the more likely to have a spelling pron.
The ones that get me are the ones that end in "-ham". Framingham
/fremINh&m/, Dedham /dEd@m/. Waltham /wOlT&m/ but Wrentham /rEnT@m/.
I made the mistake of pronouncing Bellingham /bElINh&m/ as /bElIN@m/
when I first moved into the environs, and was soundly treated as a
non-local. Meanwhile, nons mangle Leominster, my parents home-40.
(supposed to be /lEmInst@r/).

Kou

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