I am English and I have to say a lot of these are hard even for a native. Sure, some of the "better known" ones you do absorb but unless you're local there are plenty of places in this list that you're only rarely going to hear mentioned and when you do, you more than likely don't see them written at the same time so you rarely get a chance to learn them. I learned quite a few here myself!
Shepton Beauchamp is only a few miles from where I live. Took me many years to work out "Shept'n Beach-ham" was the same place. And in general, you just have to learn them. Map men did a great video on RUclips about this. "Geriiimeeeese beeeei." 😂
I'm a 59 year old Englishman and I didn't know half of them, so well done. By the way, Aberdeen has the stress on the last syllable not the first. Also, congratulations on your pronunciation of 'pronunciation'. So many people get that wrong.
To make the Welsh 'LL' sound, put your tongue up to the top of the mouth as if you were about to say 'L' but instead of simply vocalising, blow air harshly out between the sides of the tongue and the upper jaw (so it makes a harsh sound combining blowing a raspberry wit a regular 'L').
I'm 61 and British and I still got half a dozen of them wrong. If you haven't seen the Jay Foreman/Map Men video 'Why are British place names so hard to pronounce' I can recommend it. It's really funny, as are all Jay Foreman's videos, and it may even help a bit. Mike
In the -agh endings, gh is just silent or slightly like an h. The z in Scottish names often comes from an old letter we don't use any more called a yogh which is sometimes written like a 3, but it is pronounced like a y. With most of the cester endings, break it up into syllables with the ce and st separated and the ce pronounced as "ss" i.e Bicester = Bice-ster (Biss ster), Leicester = Leice-ster (Less ster) etc. And in Welsh there is an extra letter which is a double L pronounce as in the video (slightly like a breathy cl)
As a Brit I got every one of those first time but, for years I believed that Happisburgh and Hayesborough were two different places. I'd heard of Hayesborough and had seen Happisburgh on maps and street signs. I was about 20 years old when I first realised they were the same place.
Crikey, I didn't do too well at these! Hilarious video though Alanna, it brightened up my Friday! And I've gotta give you a solid 19/22 Mary Poppins extras for that cockney accent 😂
Bicester was easy as I live 20 minutes away, but the rules that make it Bister (and Gloster) then randomly don't apply to Cirencester (Siren Sester) - loads of elephant traps to fall in to, and there are some you just have to know. There's a place in Devon called Woolfardisworthy that you pronounce Woolzery. Just bonkers.
Always love it when you try to pronounce UK place names Alanna and this was no exception. This time you did really well particularly as some of them have their own local variation. I struggled on saying quite a few of them in my own Hertfordshire accent, I think I only got 10 right. Thanks Alanna & 9 out of 10 UK town names for a fun video. 🙂
After 42 years of living here as a foreigner I still can't get all of them right. English place pronunciation is a bloody mine field ! 😮 your efforts made me laugh , in a good way , which I guess is your goal in these videos. Great stuff Alanna 😂👍👌
There's a few I know, and I know that "burgh" or "borough" usually gets pronounced as "bruh" - Aldeburgh -> All-bruh. And some of them you just have to know because there is no sane way to get to the correct pronunciation. I guess some of them are used as a shibboleth. And I pronounce, with great gusto, Worcestershiresauce exactly as it is spelled. If they wanted me to say wooster, they should have spelled it wooster.
I know exactly what you mean . The spelling with ' ough ' can be Slough Town , cough , though , and Clough as in Brian. 4 ways of pronouncing the same spelling in 4 different ways. Only English can give you that much variety , and fun.
There are apparently ten ways to pronounce the 'ough' sound in British English and six ways in American English. For example 'The wind was rough along the lough as the ploughman fought through the snow and though he hiccoughed and coughed, his work was thorough'.
Fun fact, any placename that ends in chester, cester or ceastor was a Roman town or city. My favourite odd pronunciation is towcestor, pronounced "toaster".
English politician Horatio Bottomley once made a phone call to Lord Cholmondeley. The call was was answered by a butler. Horatio asked to speak to the lord, pronouncing the name as it was written, whereupon the snooty butler replied that Lord "Chumley" was indisposed and offered to take a message. "Yes, please", Horatio replied. "Could you please tell his lordship that Horatio Bumley called"
living for a time in Lincolnshire I was told that, that Norfolk seaside town was hun-stone but most outsiders call it Hunstanton as written I had relatives living in Wyndom-spelt Wymondham when buying a railway ticket
4 right, 2 I actually knew, and 2 by accident. Reading some of the other comments, I think that's exceptional! It was lots of fun. It also reminded me of Will Cuppy's book "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody". He wrote that the name "Thutmose", of several Egyptian pharaohs, is pronounced "Chumley".
I’m in stitches with laughter and stunned all at the same time. Coming from Boston, Massachusetts, I’m familiar with pronunciations that are different from the spellings…..even so, these UK specific place names are incredibly unique and difficult to say. I’m quite sure you did better than I did 🤦♀️🤣🤣 Fun video!
I at least knew Leominster. My father played softball in Leominster, Massachusetts while in college. He made sure I pronounced it correctly when driving through it..!!
I haven't started this video yet, but I am so looking forward to it. As a Brit living in the US, I *really* hope that 'Worcestershire' is in here somewhere. There're not many things funnier than my American friends trying to say Worcestershire.
I'm from Nottingham, in the town of Southwell they pronounce it as you said it, only in the City of Nottingham is it pronounced Suth all. In Nottingham, there's a district called Basford but it's pronounced base fud, and nearby is Hyson Green, pronounced i sun green (original spelling was Ison Green).
While there are 26 letters in the alphabet, half are for comedy effect. Most Brits would struggle with those pronunciations, as the words are regional rather than national. The only thing that doesn’t exist in UK English, is the letter zee. We have a zed and we have a cee, but no zee. Delightful video as always.
A lot of fun! My dad was born just up the road from Hunstanton and is pronounced 'Hunstun'. Have you tried these also from Norfolk... Stiffkey and Ingoldisthorpe?
Leominster (not "Leomin(i)ster" in your clip) has caught many people, not just foreign visitors. I recently had to correct a colleague of mine (65+ years old, lived in UK all his life) when he said he was going to Leominster (pronounced like as spelled!) Many thanks Alanna, you've provided some light relief in a time of national mourning for the death of HM Queen Elizabeth 2nd. BTW, I got 3 wrong (the Scottish ones) & "hit the post" with another one so that's 18½.
I was fortunate to know how to pronounce it because my father knew it from playing softball in a city by that name while in college in Massachusetts, USA, believe it or not..!!
Well done, Alanna. Place names, accents and dialects are various in the UK due to the amount of times that we've been invaded and had settlers over the centuries, plus of course the influence of the Celtic languages upon the nation, for example, the word 'Welsh' comes from the Old Dutch for 'Stranger' the same with 'Wales' the real name is 'Cymru' which is pronounced 'Cum-ree', the reason you find Welsh place names difficult is it has a different alphabet from English, it has no, K, X, Z, but has, DD, FF, LL, etc, a single 'F' is pronounced like a 'V', 'FF' is pronounced as a 'F', a 'LL' in the middle of a word is often has a 'TH' sound, 'W' and 'Y' are used as vowels, etc.
Double L is NOT the same as "th". The way you make the LL sound is to put your tongue in the same position as you would to make an L, but instead of using your voice, you just exhale.
@@KenFullman I know, I'm a 63 year old Welshman who has been speaking Welsh since a child, to an English speaking person it would be hard for them to master so, that why I gave that explanation as it's the nearest English sound to it.
@@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis. Most English people can manage the LL of Welsh. Nearly everybody I know manages it perfectly well in the name of the town called Llandudno and most correctly pronounce the U - Chlan-DID-noe.
"Marylebone" is an interesting one to start with... It comes from the French: "Mary le Bon" = "Mary the Good" in English. This was the name of a monastery (some sources say church) named after her. In later years the three words were pushed together but this made it harder to pronounce for us bemused (lazy?) English, so the "y" was dropped from the sound but not the spelling, so you get the sound "mar-le-bon"
I'd never heard of Teignmouth and I got it right! I'm so proud. 🙂 I lived in Glasgow for a couple of years and for a while I genuinely thought that 'Milngavie' was two different places, depending on whether I heard it spoken or saw it written.
The Z in Culzean is actually an old letter of the alphabet - yog - that we no longer have. It was pronounced more like a Y than a Z. When printing presses were brought in, a Z was substituted for the yog.
Hiya Alanna, try this these towns from my county, First you set off from Whitehaven, Go past Pica then on the A595 to Cockermouth then on to A596 past Torpenhow then past Aspatria take the A586 TO Carlisle and Bobs Your Uncle you've reached your destination, in your vlog I got 12 ,this is Choppy In Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
You have to remember that with British place names you're dealing with three language groups, over a history of potentially 2,000 years or so. Even English has gone through so many changes in a millennia or so to affectively be read as a different language. If it's in Welsh the same language rules don't apply, the letters are simply pronounced differently & if it's in Scotland consonants together like a GH are going to produce their own sound.
I was born in Norfolk, where many of the placenames are weird. The village of Hautbois is Hobbis. I also grew up in Kent, where we have Trottiscliffe which is pronounced Troshlee. Enjoy!
Old Englishman here, today I learned how to pronounce Leominister and Magdelane so thanks for that. here's a couple more, near where my mum lives there is a village named Southwick, pronounced suthick. There is a town just outside Brighton with the same name but pronounced as it reads. In Northamptonshire there is a town by the name of Cogenhoe, pronounced cukner. Near Salisbury there is a place called Frome, pronounced Froom and I know it is not so nowadays, but when I were a lad, both Worcester and Worcestershire were pronounced Wooster
I knew how to pronounce Magdelene from watching University Challenge as it is the name of two of the college teams. Although with slightly different spelling
Here's one to have fun with. There's a village in Devon, not far from the Cornwall County line, which is written as Woolfardisworthy. It's pronounced as Woolsery. Yes, well........English, dear. What can I say? 😄😄xx
I got many wrong, but took issue with Leominster because there is a town in Massachusetts named that and New Englanders call it "Lemon-ster". I have to say, I was chuckling through most of this video but when you hit "Beaver Castle" I totally lost it.
The basic rule of thumb: simplify. The written names are more likely to reflect the etymology from the many different languages that make up English place names. But then they're tspoken by generations of local people who don't need to pronounce every letter to be understood by other local people. Add in local accents and beer (or cider/whisky). Then add in a bit of snobbery, people using modern French pronunciations for Norman French words, rather flexible spelling rules, and a bit more beer, and you get the likes of Gillingham (2 towns different pronunciations), Leigh (ditto), Bosham/Cosham, Lympne, and many more.
Hmm, there are no rules! One, the words originate from several different languages. So Gillingham has two different pronunciations whether it's Dorset or Kent. Two, the place names have changed over centuries.
@@hairyairey indeed. But complex names are more likely to be abbreviated when spoken. I probably should've added a paragraph break after my comment: simplify.
These are so deliberately difficult. It made my day when you got the "chumley" one. And though I pass through Marylebone regularly, well, no-one knows as the current posh computer train announcement says "Marrrr-u-le-bun".
Somewhere between 17 and 19 depending on a couple of pretty close but not quite perfect (from someone who is from the UK and lived in Scotland, England and Wales and visited Ireland a fair bit) . This comes from us speaking completely differently 30 miles apart, nevermind a couple of hundred. All fun stuff and makes our little island more fun.
LOL! My family use to own a holiday home in Happisburg. Absolutely beautiful part of the world. Please try to go to north Norfolk soon, sea is really eating into it.
A couple of places to visit from those names. Southwell has an ancient church called the Minister and Bicester has large shopping area. Leominster is an easy name, about 25 miles from me.
Hi 'Lana. When you enunciated "Magdalene" as "Maudlin", after hearing it, you absolutely hit the bull's eye. Harry Potter's girlfriend would have been proud of that one. Honorary English rating "top notch". Thank you, you do keep us entertained. I still fk a bunch of those up myself.. I'm with you on the whole cheese is good thing. 😁
I live in Norfolk. There are quite a few town/hamlet names that are difficult to pronounce coreectly (even for me). My favourite sign I saw on a road near where I live (on the Norfolk/Suffolk border) said "Slow yew darn a bit boi". Which translated meant "Please Slow Down". When Norfolk people butcher the english language, they don't muck about!!
You scored far more than 2.5, you actually did quite well for someone who is "new" to these names, I got around half, the Irish ones I knew some because some were often mentioned on the news because of the "troubles" as they were called in the 1960's-2000 and as for the Welsh ones, you need a half pint of phlegm in your throat to have a chance to pronounce many of those (I apologise for the mental image). Take a look at Jay Foremans Map Men, he is very funny while being very educational, the place names one will answer many questions while giving you even more to think about, watch the end of the video too as he always makes them quite funny and not to be missed, a little bit like Adventures and Naps :)
I smiled with Shrewsbury one as I pronounce it the second way, shrosebry. I didn't get them all either and I'm 55 and lived in the UK most of my life. I haven't finished did you do Alnwick.
Having been born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts at least that one was easy for me. I thought you'd get it too because there's a Gloucester in Ontario as well. (I think it's near Ottawa.) I know cheese is famous in Gloucester, England. I think they have a famous festival where they roll a huge thing of cheese down a steep hill and people with questionable judgment race down the hill after it, risking various injuries in the process...
Alanna, that was very amusing as you butchered the Language.🤣🤣 I was surprised that "GOTHAM" was not listed. Look forward to you doing some more of the same.
Try some of these towns and villagesin the South of Scotland. My hometown Langholm - Langum. Hawick - Hoik. Dumfries - Dumfrieess. the tiny village of Glenzier near Langholm yes it is known you have got it right first time - Glinger. Galashiels - Galasheels or simply Gala. Jedburgh is called locally as Jethart or Jeddart and to the north of Glasgow Milngavie actually Mulguy
Great video, glad to be apart of it. Just what I needed to help me get over my hangover though had to try not to cringe at the sound of my own voice. I'll be honest some of the Scots ones threw me as I put to much thought in to how to say it that I failed but ah well you learn something new everyday
I miffed the Leominster one when I went there and was corrected. Happisburgh I didn't know how to pronounce until recently, only knew that it had a ghost (I suspect it to be the original of Nearly Headless Nick).
My grandad (born 1898) lived in Worcester all his life and used to pronounce Powick as Pike, and Pershore as Persia. Pronunciations change over time. Regarding the Welsh ones, there are hardly any non-Welsh people who can pull-off the double L sound. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
I do love it when you second guess yourself and put in difficulties when they aren't there. Southwell is pronounced soth-all by the locals, but people who have moved there from elsewhere insist it's south-well
Hiya. I think we were SOOOO close to hearing Alanna give the correct pronunciations of the F and C words for the first time on her channel. Stay safe. All the best to you.
I think the main problem is that these place names were written down before the invention of auto-correct. Or cough sweets in the case of the Welsh ones.
Your funniest video yet. My score was 20. Many British place names have their origins in other languages for example, Roman, French, Erse & Scots Gaelic. When talking about Cregagh, you said, "Where's the Y." Gaelic languages have only 18 letters, the last letter in the alphabet is U, so there is no letter Y in any name derived from a Gaelic language. I don't know if you were reading the same names as the ones shown in the screen but possibly spelling Happisburgh might have helped. Interestingly the sandbank 3-4 miles offshore would have been easier as it is known as the Haisborough Sands. I will leave you with my favourite.. The hamlet on the island of Jura where George Orwell lived when he wrote the novel 1984 is called Kinuachdrachd.
I really think this should have been recorded straight after you had been to the hop festival. Just for the double jeopardy! Southwell is pronounced as you did if you are a local and Suthull otherwise so I give you that one.
I live in Hereford, not far from Leominster and both get pronounced wrong, normally by Americans, they'll pronounce both Hereford and Leominster how they are spelt, Leo-minster and Here-ford when Leominster is pronounced Lem-ster and Hereford is Heh-ruh-furd. :-)
17...I clearly need to brush up on my Scottish and Northern Irish place names 😩 A little gutted you missed out Ruislip, I used to always end up in West Ruislip when I fell asleep on the tube. Great effort, Alanna. That was fun!
When looking at Northern Irish place names, it helps to remember that the sounds represented by familiar letters may well be different. For example "bh" gives a "v" sound.
Hehe, a couple I've seen written but never heard spoken (Happisbrugh and Milngavie) but they're no worse than anything local to me. Aslackby and Osbournby being a couple of good examples - ay-zell-bee and oz-orn-bee respectively. A good rule of thumb for any name ending in -cester though is it's more like -ster. Well, except Cirencester for some reason.
As a Scot had an advantage over some of them. Cregagh in Northern Ireland was the one I got completely wrong.. With a couple of half points for getting the emphasis nearly right, I am claiming 20 points. Great fun playing along. Thank you.
Well played ! 😀 Place names in the U.K are formed from words, largely from previous conquerors from a millennia ago ! Consequently there are many that are Latin based from the Romans or Olde English from the Middle Ages when we had a feudal system or from Scandanavian invaders during the reign of The Vikings.from about the 800's Also worth remembering that many of these groups didn't have written languages ! I live in Norfolk in the east so joys like Happisburgh (Hazebruh) Bawdeswell (Bawdswell) Costessey (Cossy) and Ingoldisthorp (Ingulthorp) are everywhere ! And the joy of discovering Welsh place names.......🤣
I was waiting for Shrewsbury to come up. I worked there for a year and day to day was never sure of which pronunciation to use; I guess both are equally valid then.
I lived in Marylebone for the first 18 years of my life and i never pronounced it the way your friend did. The Mar should rhyme with the first syllable of Marilyn By the way, my American wife thinks that British place names were deliberately chosen by ill-intentioned people centuries ago just to confuse her! She takes every one personally.
I only got about half and I’m British. I used to live in Bicester and once gave my address over the phone. The parcel arrived and it was spelt Bista. I must admit the ta part instead of ter, was probably because of my accent. Despite getting the train there quite a lot, I pronounced Marylebone as Mar-lee-bone. I think I pronounce most names wrong. I say shear for shire and my brother says shur, which I think is more correct. I again blame my accent.
Welsh place names are easier than English, in a way. Because they're mostly just Welsh - once you know the vowel and consonant sounds they're all actually pretty logical. English place names are a mix of Old English, Middle English and modern English, so you have some vowel sounds that are Scandinavian, some that are French, some that are Germanic... it's just ridiculous. It's hard to write rules for the English language because there are always a pretty large number of exceptions. Our place names get trickier the more you learn about the language. Which is the opposite of Welsh place names, which make more sense the more Welsh you know.
Welsh sounds are consistent. A single "f" gives a "v" sound. I think people are daunted because letters that are consonants in English may be vowels in Welsh, hence Cwmbran looked difficult.
@@jonb3311 Ystradgynlais is pronounced something liie UH-strad-GUN-lice, which follows the rules of Welsh spelling and pronunciation. "Why strangle us" and its variants are jokes/nicknames.
As a Scouser (ie someone from Liverpool) I was waiting for Gateacre to come up - it's the one EVERYONE gets wrong 😂😂 it's usually just pronounced as it looks gate-acre
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I am English and I have to say a lot of these are hard even for a native. Sure, some of the "better known" ones you do absorb but unless you're local there are plenty of places in this list that you're only rarely going to hear mentioned and when you do, you more than likely don't see them written at the same time so you rarely get a chance to learn them. I learned quite a few here myself!
Shepton Beauchamp is only a few miles from where I live. Took me many years to work out "Shept'n Beach-ham" was the same place.
And in general, you just have to learn them.
Map men did a great video on RUclips about this.
"Geriiimeeeese beeeei." 😂
Godmanchester has changed in recent times and was always pronounced Gumster in the old days.
I've always pronounced it Gumster. When did it change?
@@KenFullman I'm not sure there's any official change just a habit and custom one? As a lorry driver in my former life I noticed it.
I'm sending all you lovely folks in the UK some positive vibes from the US. Your country has had quite a week!
Cheers fella, yesterday was the worst day of this Englishmans 57years on earth.
💛💛💛
@@RockyBobbieBuster Cheers!
Thanks for thinking about us.
Thank you, or cheers mate as we say.
I'm a 59 year old Englishman and I didn't know half of them, so well done. By the way, Aberdeen has the stress on the last syllable not the first. Also, congratulations on your pronunciation of 'pronunciation'. So many people get that wrong.
To make the Welsh 'LL' sound, put your tongue up to the top of the mouth as if you were about to say 'L' but instead of simply vocalising, blow air harshly out between the sides of the tongue and the upper jaw (so it makes a harsh sound combining blowing a raspberry wit a regular 'L').
I'm 61 and British and I still got half a dozen of them wrong. If you haven't seen the Jay Foreman/Map Men video 'Why are British place names so hard to pronounce' I can recommend it. It's really funny, as are all Jay Foreman's videos, and it may even help a bit. Mike
In the -agh endings, gh is just silent or slightly like an h. The z in Scottish names often comes from an old letter we don't use any more called a yogh which is sometimes written like a 3, but it is pronounced like a y. With most of the cester endings, break it up into syllables with the ce and st separated and the ce pronounced as "ss" i.e Bicester = Bice-ster (Biss ster), Leicester = Leice-ster (Less ster) etc. And in Welsh there is an extra letter which is a double L pronounce as in the video (slightly like a breathy cl)
As a Brit I got every one of those first time but, for years I believed that Happisburgh and Hayesborough were two different places. I'd heard of Hayesborough and had seen Happisburgh on maps and street signs. I was about 20 years old when I first realised they were the same place.
"Northern Irish ones fill me with the most dread."
Welsh: "Hold my beer."
😂
@@AdventuresAndNaps "I recognise Omagh.."
That'll be because the IRA blew the centre of it up in 1998, killing 29 and injuring over 300.
Crikey, I didn't do too well at these! Hilarious video though Alanna, it brightened up my Friday! And I've gotta give you a solid 19/22 Mary Poppins extras for that cockney accent 😂
May I suggest you take a look at kit and caboodlers mudlarking in Kent, I think you'll enjoy it.
Bicester was easy as I live 20 minutes away, but the rules that make it Bister (and Gloster) then randomly don't apply to Cirencester (Siren Sester) - loads of elephant traps to fall in to, and there are some you just have to know. There's a place in Devon called Woolfardisworthy that you pronounce Woolzery. Just bonkers.
Yes, i thought there would be some Welsh places. My place of birth Llanelli got on the list ❤️🏴
Always love it when you try to pronounce UK place names Alanna and this was no exception. This time you did really well particularly as some of them have their own local variation. I struggled on saying quite a few of them in my own Hertfordshire accent, I think I only got 10 right. Thanks Alanna & 9 out of 10 UK town names for a fun video. 🙂
Thanks so much!!
@Krishna this i can understand much respect
After 42 years of living here as a foreigner I still can't get all of them right. English place pronunciation is a bloody mine field ! 😮 your efforts made me laugh , in a good way , which I guess is your goal in these videos. Great stuff Alanna 😂👍👌
Thanks so much!!
There's a few I know, and I know that "burgh" or "borough" usually gets pronounced as "bruh" - Aldeburgh -> All-bruh. And some of them you just have to know because there is no sane way to get to the correct pronunciation. I guess some of them are used as a shibboleth.
And I pronounce, with great gusto, Worcestershiresauce exactly as it is spelled. If they wanted me to say wooster, they should have spelled it wooster.
I know exactly what you mean . The spelling with ' ough ' can be Slough Town , cough , though , and Clough as in Brian. 4 ways of pronouncing the same spelling in 4 different ways. Only English can give you that much variety , and fun.
@@norbertfricke7116 5 - you forget hiccough (often mispelt as hiccup). Which is why there's a place nicknamed lugabarooga!
There are apparently ten ways to pronounce the 'ough' sound in British English and six ways in American English. For example 'The wind was rough along the lough as the ploughman fought through the snow and though he hiccoughed and coughed, his work was thorough'.
As a Welshman, I have problems with some English names, but Welsh names are easier :)
Fun fact, any placename that ends in chester, cester or ceastor was a Roman town or city.
My favourite odd pronunciation is towcestor, pronounced "toaster".
No mate they were specifically a Roman legionary camp
@@eddhardy1054 No "mate" they weren't. They were specifically a walled town or city.
@@davidfaraday7963 where army personnel were stationed
Well done for having a go Alanna. Even in the area where you live place names can be different spoken to what’s written. Try Newcastle accents
English politician Horatio Bottomley once made a phone call to Lord Cholmondeley. The call was was answered by a butler. Horatio asked to speak to the lord, pronouncing the name as it was written, whereupon the snooty butler replied that Lord "Chumley" was indisposed and offered to take a message. "Yes, please", Horatio replied. "Could you please tell his lordship that Horatio Bumley called"
living for a time in Lincolnshire I was told that, that Norfolk seaside town was hun-stone but most outsiders call it Hunstanton as written
I had relatives living in Wyndom-spelt Wymondham when buying a railway ticket
4 right, 2 I actually knew, and 2 by accident. Reading some of the other comments, I think that's exceptional! It was lots of fun. It also reminded me of Will Cuppy's book "The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody". He wrote that the name "Thutmose", of several Egyptian pharaohs, is pronounced "Chumley".
I’m in stitches with laughter and stunned all at the same time. Coming from Boston, Massachusetts, I’m familiar with pronunciations that are different from the spellings…..even so, these UK specific place names are incredibly unique and difficult to say. I’m quite sure you did better than I did 🤦♀️🤣🤣 Fun video!
I at least knew Leominster. My father played softball in Leominster, Massachusetts while in college. He made sure I pronounced it correctly when driving through it..!!
@@David-vq1zg Hahaha!
I haven't started this video yet, but I am so looking forward to it. As a Brit living in the US, I *really* hope that 'Worcestershire' is in here somewhere. There're not many things funnier than my American friends trying to say Worcestershire.
I'm from Nottingham, in the town of Southwell they pronounce it as you said it, only in the City of Nottingham is it pronounced Suth all. In Nottingham, there's a district called Basford but it's pronounced base fud, and nearby is Hyson Green, pronounced i sun green (original spelling was Ison Green).
While there are 26 letters in the alphabet, half are for comedy effect. Most Brits would struggle with those pronunciations, as the words are regional rather than national. The only thing that doesn’t exist in UK English, is the letter zee. We have a zed and we have a cee, but no zee. Delightful video as always.
And we have the yogh which also uses the z
A lot of fun! My dad was born just up the road from Hunstanton and is pronounced 'Hunstun'. Have you tried these also from Norfolk... Stiffkey and Ingoldisthorpe?
Leominster (not "Leomin(i)ster" in your clip) has caught many people, not just foreign visitors. I recently had to correct a colleague of mine (65+ years old, lived in UK all his life) when he said he was going to Leominster (pronounced like as spelled!)
Many thanks Alanna, you've provided some light relief in a time of national mourning for the death of HM Queen Elizabeth 2nd.
BTW, I got 3 wrong (the Scottish ones) & "hit the post" with another one so that's 18½.
I was fortunate to know how to pronounce it because my father knew it from playing softball in a city by that name while in college in Massachusetts, USA, believe it or not..!!
Well done, Alanna. Place names, accents and dialects are various in the UK due to the amount of times that we've been invaded and had settlers over the centuries, plus of course the influence of the Celtic languages upon the nation, for example, the word 'Welsh' comes from the Old Dutch for 'Stranger' the same with 'Wales' the real name is 'Cymru' which is pronounced 'Cum-ree', the reason you find Welsh place names difficult is it has a different alphabet from English, it has no, K, X, Z, but has, DD, FF, LL, etc, a single 'F' is pronounced like a 'V', 'FF' is pronounced as a 'F', a 'LL' in the middle of a word is often has a 'TH' sound, 'W' and 'Y' are used as vowels, etc.
Double L is NOT the same as "th". The way you make the LL sound is to put your tongue in the same position as you would to make an L, but instead of using your voice, you just exhale.
@@KenFullman I know, I'm a 63 year old Welshman who has been speaking Welsh since a child, to an English speaking person it would be hard for them to master so, that why I gave that explanation as it's the nearest English sound to it.
@@Adam_Le-Roi_Davis. Most English people can manage the LL of Welsh. Nearly everybody I know manages it perfectly well in the name of the town called Llandudno and most correctly pronounce the U - Chlan-DID-noe.
"Marylebone" is an interesting one to start with... It comes from the French: "Mary le Bon" = "Mary the Good" in English. This was the name of a monastery (some sources say church) named after her. In later years the three words were pushed together but this made it harder to pronounce for us bemused (lazy?) English, so the "y" was dropped from the sound but not the spelling, so you get the sound "mar-le-bon"
This vid made me laugh til I cried. Thanks for the best feel good of the week.
I'd never heard of Teignmouth and I got it right! I'm so proud. 🙂
I lived in Glasgow for a couple of years and for a while I genuinely thought that 'Milngavie' was two different places, depending on whether I heard it spoken or saw it written.
I'm a new subscriber and I've going thru your back catalogue of videos. And You've consistently crack me up. Keep it up!
The Z in Culzean is actually an old letter of the alphabet - yog - that we no longer have. It was pronounced more like a Y than a Z. When printing presses were brought in, a Z was substituted for the yog.
Same as the Z in Menzies. And technically we still have the yog it just isn't used much.
Yep, same with Dalziel and MacKenzie. Though in some cases, the z became as actual z.
Hiya Alanna, try this these towns from my county, First you set off from Whitehaven, Go past Pica then on the A595 to Cockermouth then on to A596 past Torpenhow then past Aspatria take the A586 TO Carlisle and Bobs Your Uncle you've reached your destination, in your vlog I got 12 ,this is Choppy In Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
Another fun video!! Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
It's not s "ZEE", Alana , it's a "ZED", like in Canada, a ZED!! sorry, girl, don't be a Yank,eh.
You have to remember that with British place names you're dealing with three language groups, over a history of potentially 2,000 years or so. Even English has gone through so many changes in a millennia or so to affectively be read as a different language. If it's in Welsh the same language rules don't apply, the letters are simply pronounced differently & if it's in Scotland consonants together like a GH are going to produce their own sound.
I was born in Norfolk, where many of the placenames are weird. The village of Hautbois is Hobbis. I also grew up in Kent, where we have Trottiscliffe which is pronounced Troshlee. Enjoy!
There’s a nice little village up in Northumberland called “Ulgham”. Try that one!
The what does not exist? 5:23 ......Such a long way to go!!! (Great video lots of fun)
Old Englishman here, today I learned how to pronounce Leominister and Magdelane so thanks for that. here's a couple more, near where my mum lives there is a village named Southwick, pronounced suthick. There is a town just outside Brighton with the same name but pronounced as it reads. In Northamptonshire there is a town by the name of Cogenhoe, pronounced cukner.
Near Salisbury there is a place called Frome, pronounced Froom and I know it is not so nowadays, but when I were a lad, both Worcester and Worcestershire were pronounced Wooster
I knew how to pronounce Magdelene from watching University Challenge as it is the name of two of the college teams. Although with slightly different spelling
Here's one to have fun with. There's a village in Devon, not far from the Cornwall County line, which is written as Woolfardisworthy. It's pronounced as Woolsery. Yes, well........English, dear. What can I say? 😄😄xx
Great video. I didn't get a few of those. Just too many and some real local variations too. Well done for giving them a go.
I got many wrong, but took issue with Leominster because there is a town in Massachusetts named that and New Englanders call it "Lemon-ster". I have to say, I was chuckling through most of this video but when you hit "Beaver Castle" I totally lost it.
The basic rule of thumb: simplify. The written names are more likely to reflect the etymology from the many different languages that make up English place names. But then they're tspoken by generations of local people who don't need to pronounce every letter to be understood by other local people. Add in local accents and beer (or cider/whisky). Then add in a bit of snobbery, people using modern French pronunciations for Norman French words, rather flexible spelling rules, and a bit more beer, and you get the likes of Gillingham (2 towns different pronunciations), Leigh (ditto), Bosham/Cosham, Lympne, and many more.
Hmm, there are no rules! One, the words originate from several different languages. So Gillingham has two different pronunciations whether it's Dorset or Kent. Two, the place names have changed over centuries.
@@hairyairey indeed. But complex names are more likely to be abbreviated when spoken. I probably should've added a paragraph break after my comment: simplify.
You should visit Kilncadzow. There’s a hotel nearby, the Dalziel Park, if you need to stay the night.
Your reaction to Hunstanton had me properly laughing! 🤣
These are so deliberately difficult. It made my day when you got the "chumley" one.
And though I pass through Marylebone regularly, well, no-one knows as the current posh computer train announcement says "Marrrr-u-le-bun".
Somewhere between 17 and 19 depending on a couple of pretty close but not quite perfect (from someone who is from the UK and lived in Scotland, England and Wales and visited Ireland a fair bit) . This comes from us speaking completely differently 30 miles apart, nevermind a couple of hundred. All fun stuff and makes our little island more fun.
LOL! My family use to own a holiday home in Happisburg. Absolutely beautiful part of the world. Please try to go to north Norfolk soon, sea is really eating into it.
A genuine Alanna laugh lights up the day. Thanks.
I think I got 3.5, oy.
A couple of places to visit from those names. Southwell has an ancient church called the Minister and Bicester has large shopping area.
Leominster is an easy name, about 25 miles from me.
A couple of Kent ones - Trotiscliffe ( Trossley ) , Shipborne ( Shibbun ) .
If it is any consolation, there are quite a few people in that area of Nottinghamshire who call "Southwell", as it is spelt (spelled).
Hi 'Lana. When you enunciated "Magdalene" as "Maudlin", after hearing it, you absolutely hit the bull's eye. Harry Potter's girlfriend would have been proud of that one. Honorary English rating "top notch". Thank you, you do keep us entertained. I still fk a bunch of those up myself.. I'm with you on the whole cheese is good thing. 😁
Alanna, your annoyed face when you get it wrong, is priceless. :)
I live in Norfolk. There are quite a few town/hamlet names that are difficult to pronounce coreectly (even for me). My favourite sign I saw on a road near where I live (on the Norfolk/Suffolk border) said "Slow yew darn a bit boi". Which translated meant "Please Slow Down". When Norfolk people butcher the english language, they don't muck about!!
You scored far more than 2.5, you actually did quite well for someone who is "new" to these names, I got around half, the Irish ones I knew some because some were often mentioned on the news because of the "troubles" as they were called in the 1960's-2000 and as for the Welsh ones, you need a half pint of phlegm in your throat to have a chance to pronounce many of those (I apologise for the mental image). Take a look at Jay Foremans Map Men, he is very funny while being very educational, the place names one will answer many questions while giving you even more to think about, watch the end of the video too as he always makes them quite funny and not to be missed, a little bit like Adventures and Naps :)
I admire your bravery! Well done!
I smiled with Shrewsbury one as I pronounce it the second way, shrosebry. I didn't get them all either and I'm 55 and lived in the UK most of my life. I haven't finished did you do Alnwick.
Having been born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts at least that one was easy for me. I thought you'd get it too because there's a Gloucester in Ontario as well. (I think it's near Ottawa.) I know cheese is famous in Gloucester, England. I think they have a famous festival where they roll a huge thing of cheese down a steep hill and people with questionable judgment race down the hill after it, risking various injuries in the process...
Try Braughing (in Hertfordshire), pronounced Braffin by the locals. Also in Hertfordshire is Haultwick, known as Artic.
Alanna, that was very amusing as you butchered the Language.🤣🤣 I was surprised that "GOTHAM" was not listed. Look forward to you doing some more of the same.
I drive through Gotham quite regularly.
Catches so many people out with its pronunciation
Try some of these towns and villagesin the South of Scotland. My hometown Langholm - Langum. Hawick - Hoik. Dumfries - Dumfrieess. the tiny village of Glenzier near Langholm yes it is known you have got it right first time - Glinger. Galashiels - Galasheels or simply Gala. Jedburgh is called locally as Jethart or Jeddart and to the north of Glasgow Milngavie actually Mulguy
Great video, glad to be apart of it. Just what I needed to help me get over my hangover though had to try not to cringe at the sound of my own voice. I'll be honest some of the Scots ones threw me as I put to much thought in to how to say it that I failed but ah well you learn something new everyday
😂 Cheers Ash! Thanks so much for helping create the video!
I miffed the Leominster one when I went there and was corrected. Happisburgh I didn't know how to pronounce until recently, only knew that it had a ghost (I suspect it to be the original of Nearly Headless Nick).
My grandad (born 1898) lived in Worcester all his life and used to pronounce Powick as Pike, and Pershore as Persia. Pronunciations change over time. Regarding the Welsh ones, there are hardly any non-Welsh people who can pull-off the double L sound. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
I do love it when you second guess yourself and put in difficulties when they aren't there.
Southwell is pronounced soth-all by the locals, but people who have moved there from elsewhere insist it's south-well
I thought it was the other way round.
Hiya. I think we were SOOOO close to hearing Alanna give the correct pronunciations of the F and C words for the first time on her channel. Stay safe. All the best to you.
Great effort Alanna, those accents are definitely coming along! No one can pronounce all the names, don't worry! 🙏
😂😂😂 loves that video..great effort, I'm from the UK and I didn't get many more than you
I think the main problem is that these place names were written down before the invention of auto-correct. Or cough sweets in the case of the Welsh ones.
Welsh place names were mostly named in that dark period of the Bronchitis epidemic just before the Bronze age.
Your funniest video yet. My score was 20.
Many British place names have their origins in other languages for example, Roman, French, Erse & Scots Gaelic. When talking about Cregagh, you said, "Where's the Y." Gaelic languages have only 18 letters, the last letter in the alphabet is U, so there is no letter Y in any name derived from a Gaelic language.
I don't know if you were reading the same names as the ones shown in the screen but possibly spelling Happisburgh might have helped. Interestingly the sandbank 3-4 miles offshore would have been easier as it is known as the Haisborough Sands.
I will leave you with my favourite.. The hamlet on the island of Jura where George Orwell lived when he wrote the novel 1984 is called Kinuachdrachd.
I live near Bicester! I was born in Bottesford in the Vale of Belvior!
I only live 4 miles away from Tinmuff !! Teignmouth its at the mouth of the river Teign an old saxon word.
You are an absolute Joy, Alanna! 😃
Alanna Joy Naps
Come visit Belvoir Castle Alanna - there's a parkrun with 100 metres of elevation!
I really think this should have been recorded straight after you had been to the hop festival. Just for the double jeopardy!
Southwell is pronounced as you did if you are a local and Suthull otherwise so I give you that one.
I used to go out with someone from Southwell. I learned pretty quick to never call it Suthull….!
😂
Omg that video was funny. Yes you should of filmed this 1 then too i agree lol
@@johnturner4400 Fourth generation Southwell resident here and I say Suthull.
I only got 7,& I’m English,Alanna,I thought you done well,very close with some of them,really enjoyed the vid,made me happy.
I live in Hereford, not far from Leominster and both get pronounced wrong, normally by Americans, they'll pronounce both Hereford and Leominster how they are spelt, Leo-minster and Here-ford when Leominster is pronounced Lem-ster and Hereford is Heh-ruh-furd. :-)
17...I clearly need to brush up on my Scottish and Northern Irish place names 😩 A little gutted you missed out Ruislip, I used to always end up in West Ruislip when I fell asleep on the tube. Great effort, Alanna. That was fun!
Thanks so much! Great score!
When looking at Northern Irish place names, it helps to remember that the sounds represented by familiar letters may well be different. For example "bh" gives a "v" sound.
I live just down the road from Woolfardisworthy in Devon
Hehe, a couple I've seen written but never heard spoken (Happisbrugh and Milngavie) but they're no worse than anything local to me. Aslackby and Osbournby being a couple of good examples - ay-zell-bee and oz-orn-bee respectively. A good rule of thumb for any name ending in -cester though is it's more like -ster. Well, except Cirencester for some reason.
One more for you Alana - Avoch in Scotland is pronounced something like Awch were aw isthe same as in law and the ch is the same as in loch
Kirkcudbright? (in Scotland)
Visited there a few times in the 80s. Was quickly picked up about way I said it 😂
As a Scot had an advantage over some of them. Cregagh in Northern Ireland was the one I got completely wrong.. With a couple of half points for getting the emphasis nearly right, I am claiming 20 points. Great fun playing along. Thank you.
Great score!!
Though in Northern Ireland it's pronounced as Creg-a and not Creggy
@@weeblesdontwobble No wonder I got it wrong.
Thanks for the video, I hope you have a great weekend
Thanks, you too!
Loving the 'That's not a word' Llanelli
This is funnier than some comedy videos. A few of these would give me problems tbh.
Great video Alanna. There were some real doozys in there which i struggled with 😆
Thanks so much!
Love it 😂 Let’s not forget one of our own… Etobicoke 😝
with Llanelli the two LLs are pronounced like HL sound, and for bonus points make sure your tongue is forwards
Well played ! 😀 Place names in the U.K are formed from words, largely from previous conquerors from a millennia ago !
Consequently there are many that are Latin based from the Romans or Olde English from the Middle Ages when we had a feudal system or from Scandanavian invaders during the reign of The Vikings.from about the 800's
Also worth remembering that many of these groups didn't have written languages !
I live in Norfolk in the east so joys like Happisburgh (Hazebruh) Bawdeswell (Bawdswell) Costessey (Cossy) and Ingoldisthorp (Ingulthorp) are everywhere !
And the joy of discovering Welsh place names.......🤣
Alanna you've got the most adorable laugh,keep up the good work.
🙏🏻
I was waiting for Shrewsbury to come up. I worked there for a year and day to day was never sure of which pronunciation to use; I guess both are equally valid then.
Cheers Alanna that was hilarious , but you did remarkably well at the same time !
Thank you!!
Here's one for you Alana.
Gonville & Caius (prenounced Keys) college Cambridge.
I lived in Marylebone for the first 18 years of my life and i never pronounced it the way your friend did. The Mar should rhyme with the first syllable of Marilyn
By the way, my American wife thinks that British place names were deliberately chosen by ill-intentioned people centuries ago just to confuse her! She takes every one personally.
she may have a point
Surely you would pronounce the bone. Lol. I’ve always heard the bone.
Excellent comment from wife! 😀
Oh no it's cleverer than that - the complicated place names make it easier to detect foreign spies!
@@hairyairey Like asking them to pronounce the word "squirrel".
I only got about half and I’m British. I used to live in Bicester and once gave my address over the phone. The parcel arrived and it was spelt Bista. I must admit the ta part instead of ter, was probably because of my accent. Despite getting the train there quite a lot, I pronounced Marylebone as Mar-lee-bone. I think I pronounce most names wrong. I say shear for shire and my brother says shur, which I think is more correct. I again blame my accent.
Welsh place names are easier than English, in a way. Because they're mostly just Welsh - once you know the vowel and consonant sounds they're all actually pretty logical.
English place names are a mix of Old English, Middle English and modern English, so you have some vowel sounds that are Scandinavian, some that are French, some that are Germanic... it's just ridiculous. It's hard to write rules for the English language because there are always a pretty large number of exceptions. Our place names get trickier the more you learn about the language. Which is the opposite of Welsh place names, which make more sense the more Welsh you know.
There are exceptions. For example, Ystradgynlais, which is pronounced Why-strangle-alice.
Welsh sounds are consistent. A single "f" gives a "v" sound. I think people are daunted because letters that are consonants in English may be vowels in Welsh, hence Cwmbran looked difficult.
@@geoffpoole483 Single f as in "of", ff as in "off".
@@jonb3311 Ystradgynlais is pronounced something liie UH-strad-GUN-lice, which follows the rules of Welsh spelling and pronunciation. "Why strangle us" and its variants are jokes/nicknames.
As a Scouser (ie someone from Liverpool) I was waiting for Gateacre to come up - it's the one EVERYONE gets wrong 😂😂 it's usually just pronounced as it looks gate-acre