Drew's Most Excellent Adventures, Part I | 38 comments (38 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Except when you live somewhere posh like I do, in which case it's prounounced 'shah.'

Hence 'Wiltchshaah'. (You have to say it so you can hear the capitalisation.)

British pronounciation generally is occasionally almost random. Mildenhall used to be pronounced 'Minal' until lots of weekenders moved in. I'm not even going to attempt Compton Pauncefoot.

And don't get me started on postal addresses. How did 'Oxon' appear as a contraction of 'Oxfordshire'? Or 'Hants' from 'Hampshire'?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Aug 2nd, 2006 at 08:54:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Shire (4.00 / 3)

My step-dad said once that if Niagra Falls was in Britain, it'd be called Neffals.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Aug 2nd, 2006 at 09:20:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Shire (4.00 / 3)

Huh? You mean you don't pronounce it that way?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Aug 3rd, 2006 at 05:29:20 AM EST
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Re: Shire (4.00 / 3)

Oxon is from the Latin name for Oxford, Oxonia, and its adjective Oxoniensis.

Hants I found by googling:

"Hampshire" is often abbreviated in written form to "Hants" and which sometimes gives rise to puzzlement. The abbreviated form is derived from the Old English Hantum plus Scir (meaning a district governed from the settlement now known as Southampton) and the Anglo-Saxons called it Hamtunschire. At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) this was compressed to Hantescire.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Aug 3rd, 2006 at 06:01:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Drew's Most Excellent Adventures, Part I | 38 comments (38 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)