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Pronunciation of town and village names

Pronunciation of town and village names


Postby MacHairy » Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:36 pm

I'm sure this has been thrashed over before, but I had the choice of finding a years-old thread to continue or just start a new one, which I have done. Forgive me if that was the wrong decision.

Out on a trip recently I was explaining to a fellow traveller that right after the trip I was going to have to go with due haste to one of the smaller ferries to Mull, starting off from Glenfinnan at the time.

She asked me where they went from and to, and I had the sense that I was being led into a trap when she dissolved into giggles when I said, "Well, one goes from 'Lochalinn' to 'Fish-Nish' and the other from 'Kilhoan' to Tobermory". I should say that I have a soft Tyneside accent so maybe she was just hoping to hear mangled Geordie versions of familiar names.

For Kilchoan, well, I used to pronounce that 'Kilchoan' because that's how it looks written down, until I was mildly admonished by one of the Calmac crew and told that it was 'Kil-hoan'.

What of Fishnish, though? How's that one pronounced? And what of Salen, which I've always pronounced like 'Sailin' until my hostess last time on Mull pronounced it like 'Saalen'. And Ffionnphort?

Sometimes if's not hard to guess the sound of the syllables but not always obvious which one has the emphasis, so for example is Morar 'MOR-rar' or 'Mor-RAR'? Is Mallaig 'MALLaig', or 'MallAIG'?

You can tell from the above that I spend far too much time looking at my beloved Ordnance Survey maps and virtually no time talking to people, but that's just how it is.

Are there any other commonly mispronounced town or village names? (Let's stick to those and not involve Gallic names of mountains, or this will be the longest thread in history). One of the favourites must be Milngavie which I'm given to understand is 'Mul-guy'.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby Graeme D » Fri Aug 05, 2022 8:50 pm

Having grown up in West Fife I'd have to go with Culross! :roll:
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby iain_atkinson_1986 » Fri Aug 05, 2022 9:13 pm

Avoch (V is silent like Avon)

Also, pretty much anywhere in Aberdeenshire.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby cruachan06 » Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:14 pm

As I'm from Lanarkshire, Strathaven is a very common one IME. It's pronounced Straven.

Also my Aunt and Uncle lived near Greenock when I was a kid, as he worked at IBM. Greenock Morton are the local football team, and in the old days when the BBC classified results were done centrally by someone who spoke in the Received Pronunciation Greenock was always pronouced Grenock as they assumed it was the same as Greenwich.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby Sgurr » Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:40 pm

Fife has many pitfalls including Anstruther pronounced Ainster , Kilconquhar pronounce Kinyookar & East Wemyss pronounce East Weems,
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby HalfManHalfTitanium » Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:45 pm

Milngavie is my favourite, because after meeting someone from there, I then tried to look on a map of Scotland for somewhere called Mill Guy.

tim
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby MacHairy » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:48 am

Avoch (V is silent like Avon)


I didn't even know that, but now you point it out I see that the Scottish river Avon is apparently pronounced "A'an", does that then also apply to possibly related place names like 'Strathavon', so 'Strathaan'?

How about Lochailort, is that Loch-Ay-Lort or Loch-Eye-Lort?
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby MacHairy » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:52 am

MacHairy wrote:
Avoch (V is silent like Avon)


I didn't even know that, but now you point it out I see that the Scottish river Avon is apparently pronounced "A'an", does that then also apply to possibly related place names like 'Strathavon', so 'Strathaan'?

How about Lochailort, is that Loch-Ay-Lort or Loch-Eye-Lort?


Acharacle I think I do know do know, thats 'A-harakul'.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby Sunset tripper » Sat Aug 06, 2022 1:02 am

There is Alves near Elgin where the L is silent not the V.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby Sunset tripper » Sat Aug 06, 2022 1:05 am

I visit Mull often and have a friend from Salen Sall-en Sall as in Sally.
I'm pretty sure for Fionnphort it's Finn-a-Fort or possibly Finn-fort for some. :D
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby iain_atkinson_1986 » Sat Aug 06, 2022 7:12 am

MacHairy wrote:
Avoch (V is silent like Avon)


I didn't even know that, but now you point it out I see that the Scottish river Avon is apparently pronounced "A'an", does that then also apply to possibly related place names like 'Strathavon', so 'Strathaan'?


I'm not a Gaelic scholar but it sounds plausible. Avon is from abhainn (river) and consonants are often changed in pronunciation when followed by the letter H in Gaelic (lenition). Hence abhainn is pronounced a'an but the Anglicised name reflects the spelling (Bh can also be pronounced as V but this tends to be at the beginning of a word, e.g. Bheinn from Beinn).

I've no idea how the south-west Celtic languages pronounce Avon but assume it's from the same word given that Aber is prominent in both Wales and the East of Scotland and means the same thing (mouth of the river/confluence of waters or thereabouts).
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby CharlesT » Sat Aug 06, 2022 7:29 am

Scotland has no monopoly here. When I lived in London I frequented a restaurant in Beauchamp (Beecham) Place , then you could visit Cholmondley (Chumley) in Cheshire or Belvoir (Beaver) Castle or meet a Mr Featherstonhaugh (Fanshaw). Cross the border to Wales and all is lost! 😄
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby Caberfeidh » Sat Aug 06, 2022 8:18 am

We had something on this before. My campaign to have Sligachan renamed continues... :shock: https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45927&p=253752&hilit=Sligachan#p253752
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby LobeyD » Sat Aug 06, 2022 1:57 pm

Spent two summers as a student postie in Milngavie. This was well before t'internet. All I can say is, thank the lord for postcodes :D.
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Re: Pronunciation of town and village names

Postby simon-b » Sat Aug 06, 2022 5:41 pm

Even more fun using Google Maps voice recognition (with English as default language) to navigate to places in Scotland. I had beginner's luck with Bungalow Road, Lamlash, which it recognised straight away when I was on Arran. But try Kingussie and I get my local Burger King, and try Tyndrum and I get Newcastle Drum Centre (seriously!) On the other hand, say "King Gussy" or "Tin Drum" and you will be navigated unerringly to Kingussie or Tyndrum respectively.
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