I’m from the U.K. and the two bits of advice I can give you if you visit, you will get things wrong so DON’T worry, nobody is going to be offended, and if you don’t know just ask. Be yourself and have a good sense of humour. Love the channel and much respect.
when my great grandmother moved from glasgow to west yorkshire she asked for directions to Keyley (keighley), she wasnt understood for it at all since the town is pronounced Keithley. I never noticed that the pronunciation might be strange before I was told this
I'm a retired trucker and I used to dread having to ask a local for directions! The other maddening thing in our country is local dialects tend to have their own words and grammar, so you're not always going to understand what they tell you anyway.
@@toranshaw4029 'while' to mean 'until'. (e.g. He works nine while five.) They had to change the original level crossing signs that said 'wait while red lights flash' to 'wait WHEN red lights flash'. Because in the East of England, drivers all stopped because the red lights WEREN'T flashing...
0:29 Leominster is 'LEMSTER', Bicester is 'BISTER', Godmanchester is 'GUMSTER', Loughborough is 'LUFFBURRA', Keighley is 'KEETHLEE'. More examples - Ulgham is 'UFFAM', Happisburgh is 'HAYZBURRA', Milngavie is 'MULGUY', and Woolfardisworthy is 'WOOLZERY'.
Kirkcudbright is 'KIRKOOBREE', Anstruther is 'AINSTER', Culzean is 'KULLEN', Drumelzier is 'DRUMELYER'. Essentially everywhere in Scotland that has a 'z' in it will be pronounced with a 'y' instead because it's actually a yogh which is a letter that looks quite similar to a 'z' and is usually written with a 'z' despite it being pronounced like a yogh!
The last time I saw Mark Cooper Jones he was a comedian/geography teacher, love that I get to see more of him. Also yes our humour is very dry and very sarcastic
British place-names are indeed pronounced in unexpected ways, and still catch us all out sometimes. It used to be worse! Before the majority of people could write, local pronunciations wandered far from the originals. London was 'Lunnon', and Birmingham was 'Brummagem'; after the eighteenth century, when most people were literate, there has been a steady return to ancient spellings. So Cirencester, for example, within living memory, was 'Sisiter' or 'Sister', but is now pronounced as spelt. Some towns are going through a change. I was brought up to pronounce Shrewsbury as 'Shroesbury', but now many say 'Shroosbury'. A fun thing when visiting some remote part of England is to find out how people pronounce where you're visiting!
"Brummagem" is actually from "Bromwicham" which was an alternative name for Birmingham in the past (Like the nearby West Bromwich and Castle Bromwich). And Shrewsbury tends to be pronounced "Shoosbury" (without an 'r') if you listen to the locals, but on some older maps is spelt "Shrowesbury", reflecting the older pronunciation that some of us still use. Confusing, eh?
lol when I first moved to Shrewsbury I asked a taxi driver if I'd get lynched if i said "shrew" rather than "shrow" and he assured me I wouldn't. Most people seem to pronounce it that way, although the BBC can't seem to make its mind up.
It's not just the UK. I lived in Brazil for a year (British here) and learnt Portuguese. Place names were something else though, many towns are named after the original local indigenous language before the Portuguese arrived. Rio is pronounced He-o btw. That's an easy one.
Sounds a lot like Bavaria. Here it is divided by how much you speak a villages dialect or language and the people in the government having enforced Standard German village names. My village is called officially: Kirchdorf, but outsider-bavarians say something like kiadaaf and we inside the village and a few neighboring villages actually are the only ones knowing the accurate way: Kia'a da
I live in Aberystwyth, although the name does mean the mouth of the Ystwyth, the river running through the town is actually called the Rheidol, the Ystwyth is just outside the town. It would appear that some time in the past, a mapmaker got the two rivers mixed up.
My family originally come from Ysterby-Ystwyth .... and Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn ... then moved to Ynysybwl (As seen on the MapMen map ) ... Welsh place names no longer hold any difficulties for me ....
Not just mispronunciations but also ways of saying things as an American visitor phoning and telling me "I'm at Glauw-sester and Cromwell"' which made me ask what that was, a shop or something? Turned out he meant he was at the corner of Gloucester Road and Cromwell Road, only we don't say it that way.
@@beccaboo3040 Yes, that was the point. Many American tourists have asked for Lee-Sester. Also, Wett-Herby (Wetherby) and Looga-bo-Rooga (Loughborough)!
Love your reaction! So true about pronunciation in the UK. I am a Canadian living in the UK and live in a town near Brighton on the East Coast called Lewes. You pro ounce it as Lewis with an I. The British sense of humour is so funny. React to 8 out of 10 cats what's my line, Lee Mack, Billy Connoly. There are so many comedians and comedy shows.
I'd seen it on the map and thought it was Luuz, one syllable. Also FYI you're on the south coast, the east coast starts around Dungeness in Kent (the county east of sussex)
Years ago, when map makers went around the country drawing up maps they would ask the local lord, vicar, school teacher or lawyer what a place name was and how it was spelled. Being educated men, they could read and write, they told them their version of the pronunciation and spelling. However, the local farm worker or builder or carter may have his own local pronunciation which stuck with local people. Hence the difference.
In ireland they were asking people who spoke a different language so they just wrote an approximation of what they heard. Some got close and most were miles off. Names that sound made up in English are just literal descriptions in Irish. A small town near me in Irish is called “Baile Átha Sa Dara”. It means “Town at the River Mouth of the Falls”. In English it should’ve been something like Fallmouth or Townmouth. Instead it was recorded as “Ballysadare”. It means nothing in English. It’s called a bastardisation. Rather than a translation the names were just mangled into an English spelling and left at that.
In most places the "ham" ending is pronounce "um". Birmingum, Buckingum, Sandrimgnum, etc. Not the place called Ham though, that is pronounced "ham" as in "sandwich" which I pronounce "samwich", except when I go to Sandwich, which is near Ham in Kent, and which I pronounce "sand witch".
How about Shitterton, which has a stream...which was used as a toilet. Village got tired of their sign being taken they finally put a frigging purbeck stone with the name. No one is carting that away in their boot anytime soon.
-borough (Like Middlesborough) and -burgh (as in Edinburgh) are pronounced the same. Except when they aren't. People from up in the North East would say Middlesbruh and Edinbruh but your pronunciation can vary a lot depending on which part of the country you're in. The main takeaway is that although the 2 endings are spelled differently, they're pronounced the same. People further south may add the extra "o" back in to Middlesborough (so Middlesborugh, more like it's written). However if you talk to people up here you may here then just call Middlesborough "Bura" spelled "Boro".
In my home town of Birmingham (UK) there is an area called Smethwick. Foreigners pronounce it. Smeth - wick non locals in the city say Smeth -ick Locals say Sm-e - rick...!! 🤦🏻
The short version of this, itself pretty cool, is that almost all the place names are much older than the English language itself. Modern English pretty much starts with Shakespeare, who wrote most of his plays 120 years after the start of "modern times" as defined by historians (accession of Henry VII).
Plus Samuel Johnson’s 18th Century dictionary where he had to decide which word to use in describing an object, as there were so many variants for basic things, such as bread. Mostly he went with his own.
This makes me think of my A level English language lessons LOL - only my tutor used to, not only break loads of words down and tell you where each part came from i.e. Greek, Roman, Celtic etc. he would also change his accents constantly when talking about different parts of the country and where language is different and why and how to pronounce the vowels in different counties - it was a LOT to take in, and honestly I gave up half way through the course LOL
a tip I always have for visitors is to have the place you want to go in writing. Especially outside of England, even though there's enough places there that are horrible to pronounce. I'm from Wales and there's distinct sounds from the celtic/gaelic languages that just don't occur in English.... and I've personally embarrassed myself because I've not understood people asking for directions.... whatever they've asked verbally often doesn't match what I'm thinking and I end up asking if they have it written down. That's the best way to go, and also a brilliant way to practise
I was on a bus in Mid Wales and had to pronounce Llandinam the English way before the driver understood. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't English.
I'll say this for the Welsh names, at least they phonetically match with the letters. It may be hard as hell for an Anglo to say, but at least it's phonetically regular. "LL" is always pronounced the same way, and "Aber" is always "Aber" unlike "cester/caster/xeter" etc. A southern Welshman will know how "Llanfairpwllgwll..." is supposed to be pronounced (even if he may not be able to do it, because his yGymraeg is rusty).
@@jaycee330 yes, there is this. I still find places in England that I pronounce wrong because there's exceptions. While I'm not a fluent speaker of Welsh, I totally agree that it's far more phonetic and much easier .... Once you've had time to practice how the sounds go together.
@@misschieflolz1301 I agree. It's how I learned (by breaking it down into it's components) to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch(I hope I remembered how to spell it properly, I'm doing it from memory). edit: added a few parts I forgot.
@@tillyct8937 Because the vowel isn't regular. At least in Welsh, the spellings and pronunciations match (difficult as it is for non-Welsh to say). English has so many spelling inconsistencies.
Lol, Frome is literally half an hour away from me. There’s a village close to me called Lacock (Laycock). Someone I know had some family from the US visit once and they pronounced it, La Cock 😂
I am a Londoner and I am telling you it is not safe. If you come my advice is to spend no more than a couple of days seeing the main tourist attractions. Then leave and go see the rest of the country where you can meet real British people. London is no longer populated by Brits. Get out into the West Country, the Norfolk Broads, North Yorkshire national parks, The Lake District, Argyll and Bute, The Brecon Beacons, The Highlands of Scotland... any number of beautiful, interesting, welcoming and safe places.
Love to know which part of "London" because having lived in the suburbs of Greater London (which is 32 Boroughs by the way that each have their own identity and culture) for over 30 years it's just a lazy stereotype to put down 9 million people because of a minority of nut cases. Of course people from other countries should get out and about and see the many wonderful things that this island has to offer but there's better ways to say it without resorting to scaremongery and cheap shots. Yes you may well have had a negative experience there but that certainly doesn't hold for everyone.
@@MillsyLM I agree. I haven't been to the UK for 40 years but when I was last there I spent most of my time in London but the place I actually got monstered by a bunch of skinheads was in Telford , Shropshire.
@@leechgully thank you, of course there are some decidedly unsafe places in London as there are everywhere particularly in major cities. I hate it when people who should know better make London out to be some kind of warzone.
That is not a way into Grimsby I should know as I live in Grimsby, these two photo shopped Grimsby on to a sign. Grim the Viking was a fisherman Grimsby became the biggest fishing port in Britain and is also the biggest fish processing centre in Britain 🇬🇧. There use to be a statue of Grim in front of Grimsby Institute until it was vandalised. There is a Danish and Norwegian consulate on Grimsby docks, there are many Scandinavians living here.
@@DS-od1kb I have being aware of Grimsby in Canada 🇨🇦 for a long time as it is named after Grimsby England 🏴, I only became aware of the one in america more recently when it was mentioned on Lost in The Pond CZcams channel.
Finally, yes, there's a reason behind the name for every single place, and we Brits get the feel of any place's history by its name, more usually its spelling. Then much later, all these names were transported to the US.
The county of Norfolk has the following gems: Happisburgh, Wymondham, Costessey, Garboldisham, where whole syllables disappear in pronunciation; Cley, and Stiffkey, which is occasionally pronounced "Stewkey".
The name of my home town was recorded in the Domesday book as Podechaisie. Modern version - Pudsey ('Put-si', or when we had a town crier before being swallowed up by Leeds in 1974, 'Pad-zee'.) Pudsey Bear, the Children in Need mascot, is named after the town, it's inventor hailing from there.
If you are coming to the UK and don't go out of London you will miss somr of the best reasons for coming to Great Britain. Firstly, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as England are searate countries, each witheir own history as well as a shared British history. The linguistic differences reflect the place names and a lot are about local geography as well as history such as the one about Grimsby in the video. In Liverpool (where I am from) their is an area called Kirkdale which translates to Church in the valley from old german. It is pronounced as it reads "kerkdayle" Seven miles away the town of Kirkby is pronounced "kerby" or "care-bee" Kirkby was changed when the Normans gave it a different name Cherchebe. If you think that's confusing wait until you get to Wales. There are plenty of places an hours drive from Liverpool in North Wales where there are no English vowels in the the name. Rhyl and Cwm are two good examples and the area known as Clwyd. I'll let you guess the pronounciation of these Celtic places.
Good post; however if you know how Welsh letters are supposed to sound; get the correct emphasis and try to stop pronouncing it as if its English ...then it's totally consistent and straightforward. No Norwich/Sandwich confusion. Most people who think Welsh is hard to pronounce have never attempted to learn Welsh and its rules. Any language looks alien and hard to pronounce when you have never tried to learn. How about Finnish?Euskadi? Polish? Turkish?If you try to pronounce them as if they are English they won't sound right!
Hope that you enjoy your visit to London. Britain is so ancient to what you are accustomed to in the United States which is realatively new . In Scotland some communities including my own still speak Gaelic pronounced. Galik , the Welsh speak Welsh another Celtic Language that is at least 3,000 years old so our traditions and culture goes back as far as we know to the Bronze age. The Irish also speak Gaelic and the Scottish Gaelic speakers can understand them whereas the Welsh language cannot be understood to non Welsh people who are a breakaway Celtic tribe also . We also have Bronze age forts still standing and Roman artefacts, I suppose we Brits are used to things being really old and we know our culture is too. Have a great time 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
The Welsh are not a breakaway Celtic tribe. The Irish version of Gaelic is known as Goidelic, is an older form of Gaelic, the Brythonic speakers migrated from Gaul (now known as France) to the British Isles later. Brythonic was the majority Celtic language in Britain, but Germanic speakers migrated into what became England and replaced Brythonic in most areas of Britain except Wales, Cornwall and the Lake District. Some Brythonic speakers migrated to Brittany (catch the similarity of the word?). Goidelic Gaelic speakers migrated from Ireland and planted it in Scotland, so Scots Gaelic is related to Irish Gaelic. It is believed that the Picts spoke Brythonic Gaelic rather than Goidelic
@@pashakdescilly7517 I didn't say that Welsh was a breakaway from Celtic but a branch if the Celtic languages. I know about the Godelic and Brythionc definitions .
I like to point out to American Tourists the dates on the Drainpipes on Edinburgh Castle ... it tends to make them rethink history ... Then point out the chapel at the top dates from 1130, and the cannon outside from 1449 ...
Welsh Gaelic is of the Brythonic group, in common with Breton, Cornish and Lake District Gaelic. It's the branch of Gaelic that was spoken across the south of Britain before the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrated over (y'know, the English). Irish and Scots Gaelic are of an older variety of Gaelic known as Goidelic
About every 8 miles in the UK you’ll hear an accent change, and sometimes a local dialect thrown in for good measure. I grew up speaking with a Geordie accent but spoke Pitmatic. You can usually tell the area someone came from, and if local, whereabouts within that location.
I live in a small town in Buckinghamshire called Olney. Even the people who live here can’t agree how it’s pronounced. About half say Oll-knee, and half say Oh-knee. I’m in the Oh-knee (rhymes with pony) camp. The map men should have included this. I don’t know why the pronunciation is so confusing, but it might be because the Vikings (Danes) invaded just to the river Ouse that goes though Olney as does the edge of Dane law.
I think if they listed all the differences it would have turned the map black. They just put "Wales in general" because they sort of gave up there (to be fair, Welsh pronunciation is regular, if difficult.)
That is the point. They changed the pronunciation without changing the spelling. So the names are the same and written the same but , pronounced differently. It’s even worse in Ireland. Although larger places will have the names in English and Irish.
For what it's worth...they were partially wrong about place names ending in "ford". In settlements that have (or had) a river running through them, "ford" is a shortened version of "fjord", Norse for "crossing" - those places were named by Viking invaders. Eg "Stamford" = "Stone Crossing".
I got coach to London (before Covid. National Express coach from St Leonards on Sea to London no longer exists. Apparently). I say, want to get off at Eltham. The Geordie driver (seem always to be Geordie's - and they were lovely mostly) insisted pronounciation was Elfham - i.e. soft 'th'. After he insisted twice it was 'Elfham.' I said 'it's pronounced ELTHAM man. I was brought up there I should know! Sorry to woffle. Been one of those days when you want to take a long walk off a short pier - and we do have a pier, so this could be the day! I think I am asking for some nasty comments from the 'trolls' about how it would be doing us all a favour. Thank you for your vid. Enjoyed it.
I lived as a child on a road in Yorkshire between Bradley in the valley and Fixby on the hill. The name "Bradley" is Anglo-Saxon and "Fixby" is Viking Interestingly even 1000 years after the vikings left the richer people in the area lived in Fixby and the poorer folks lived in Bradley. If you want to see a place with Viking history in Britain I would suggest York Originally a Roman city, then taken over by the Anglo-Saxons then becoming the capital of the Danelaw. There is lots of archaeology from Viking times and a museum specialising in the Viking period.
PS If you want to go to a country where the names are hard to pronounce try Denmark. I had to carry a map around so I could point to the name of the street and ask where it is. Otherwise the Danes look at you blankly. Note some folks consider Danish a throat condition not a language LOL
Most people are use to others getting place names wrong, but London is quiet easy, relatively speaking, since it's an area with a lot of foreigners and tourists.
Two to get your head around are CHOMONDELEY pronounced CHUMLY and FEATHERSTONEHAUGH pronounced FANSHAW,even I as an Englishman was dumbfounded when I realised that's how they were pronounced, anyway stay happy and healthy everyone ✌️.
@@antiqueinsider Are you talking just the UK or other places. If the latter, how about Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Lake Webster) in Mass? If the UK, how about Beauchief in Sheffield (BEE-CHEEF)? There a ton of strange US place names as well, but instead of Viking and Roman influence, it's Native American/French/Spanish/Maya influences.
I love the Alnwick (pronounced Annick) one so much, because a nearby town is called Alnmouth, and is pronounced 'Allenmuth'. And they're both named after the same river, the Aln, which is pronounced Aln... Though they're also both quite near to Featherstonehaugh, (pronounced 'Fanshaw', obviously).
Nothing like that simple. Wymondham occurs at least twice - Norfolk and Leicestershire. In Norfolk it is pronounced Wind-um. In Leics. it is pronounced as it is spelt - Why-mund-ham. Locals also often call Loughborough, Luger-ber-rooger, which is pretty much the spelling. Mildenhall also occurs at least twice - Suffolk and Wiltshire. It s pronounced exactly as spelt in Suffolk, but is known as My-null in Wilts.
Not gonna lie, clicked on your video because you are one beautiful man. Haha... With that said, I genuinely enjoyed your reaction to Map Men. Jay Forman is one of the best CZcamsrs IMO and the Map Men episodes are all brilliantly informative and hilarious to watch. You should deffo check out his series called Unfinished London too.
Great video, great reaction! I'm in Newcastle Upon Tyne - great City to explore if you are interested in Romans or Vikings (NE England) It can be cold here but we are great people! Great stuff!
But it's the same for us. If you come across a new place name you are never 100% how to say it so it's best just to ask if you think it might be a weird one. No shame in it. My personal favourite is a village in Norfolk which is spelt Happisburgh and pronounced haze-bruh.
The commentator is correct - I've been around every single English county and I was still learning how to pronounce certain places. Be careful with mis-pronounciation - 1) if you're driving and you ask someone for directions, I've heard the most horrendous stories of foreign truck drivers being sent to the opposite end of the country!!!! 2) you're going by bus or train - you could be sold the wrong ticket and sent in the opposite direction!!!!
Always double-check. If you ask for a train ticket to Ashford you may have to take care that you specify Middlesex rather than the better-known town in Kent. How are tourists supposed to know that there are multiple places of the same name when most of the natives don't?
A few places' pronunciations _have_ changed just in my lifetime. Cirencester was pronounced 'SIS-it-er' when I was young, now it's the phonetic 'SIREN-ses-ter'. And Pontefract used to be pronounced 'PUM-frit'. Again, now it's 'PONT-e-fract', or 'Ponty' for short.
You have to look at the etymology of place names and their pronunciation, Way back many centuries ago, the vast majority of these places WERE pronounced the way they are spelt. Over time, the WAY we say placenames has chanced but the SPELLING has remained the same. It is far too late now to change the spelling of placenames as that woul cause even more confusion.
Looks to me as if if you come to England you'll enjoy it. These two guys are from north London. People like me find them informative and hilarious at the same time. You'll maybe have to get used to the toned down sarcasm but I think you'd be welcome in my local pub. Until recently we (ie the pub) had a New Yorker bartender and she fitted in really well. If it's any consolation, most of the British find non-local British place names a problem too if we've never been there. Near my home town is Cholmodeston which is pronounced Chumston but I have no idea why. Of no interest whatsoever is that my dad's mum was born close to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Don't feel stupid. I'm a true Brit with a family tree back to the thirteenth century apparently, but still took two hours driving around a place called "Belvoir" looking for Beever castle. Well, turns out "Belvoir" is actually pronounced "Beever". Makes perfect sense.
My town is in there. It's name is 'Bedworth', but folk around here call it "Bedduth" or if you're older "black Bedduth" as it's been a big mining for coal town for 200+ years
It's the British sense of humor, seeing how many ways we can confuse people, have a go at Trottiscliffe or Meopham both in Kent. I was born in Hampshire and what locals says is the correct pronunciation confuses me. Trottiscliffe is pronounced Tros-Lee and Meopham is pronounced Mepam.
If you want to explore and do some review videos on British comedy try 'Fawlty Towers' an iconic English comedy TV series. Great channel - your reactions are interesting and entertaining :)
Main thing is Edinburgh is pronounced Edinborough not Edinburg (Scottish capital). Other names come from experience, watching the news and using trains. Of course if you were a tourist you'd make mistakes. That's OK. English people not from that area likely would too. A few key examples to get you going are: Leicester Lester Bicester Bister Loughborough Luffborough Worcester Wuster Beaulieu Bewlee. Marylebone Marlebone You're never going to know all of them.
my favourite place names are within a few miles of each other in the Peak District Derbyshire. Firstly the village of Shatton, just past Hathersage. The second id the Devils arse in Castleton.
They forgot the Picts! Their presence is felt still in Pittenweems (pronounced as it is spelt, just to confuse you further). In the N of Scotland any place name which includes 'Pitt' is Pictish. But two definitely non-Pictish tongue twisters are Cogenhoe (Northamptonshire, pronounced Cookknow) and Kingston Bagpuize, a derivative of Norman French and pronounced - don't ask me!
I'm Welsh and I once suffered stinging derision from a friend from Suffolk for pronouncing ALDEBURGH as ALL-DEE-BERG (which would be the way we say things in Carmarthenshire) where the Suffolkians say it as Allbrah. So there you have it - no-one's safe - ps. his efforts at pronouncing Welsh place names was even worse, so there !
They are extremely British, and yes this is British Humour ... Check out their channel ... BTW Godmanchester is pronounced Gum-ster ... Note one of the place names of their map is Ynysybwl ... a place my grandparents came from which has no vowels ... so I am biased ...
The best advice to any tourist is “have a sense of humour” and be willing to laugh at yourself. The Brits will accept and like you immediately if you can do that. Don’t take things like mispronunciating place names too seriously and don’t feel offended. Then you will be fine
If Im correct There is six different spellings of London. Down south we say Lunden. London is from the Queens (God bless)/Kings English. England history is within our names, and dialects and her people. PS Vikings were all over the Uk.
A video on a similar subject is David Mitchell's Dear America. The English language is a glorious mess of imported words and grammar stretching back millennia. Until the 17th century, most communities were fairly isolated, so pronounciation drifted around a lot, so much so that communities separated by as little as 30 or 40 miles would speak mutually unintelligable dialects. Spellings in English weren't really codified until the early 19th century (and even that took a long time to filter down to the general population). Compounding this is the fact that English dictionaries are by design descriptive, in that they record how language is used rather than how it SHOULD be used. Other languages (I believe that French is one, but I could be wrong) have a much stricter, prescriptive approach, resulting in a language that actually makes sense!
I live near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the name is fairly recent and was just for tourism, it's referred to as Llanfair-PG locally.
The correct pronunciation of Llanfair PG makes a good party piece. Unlike English, Welsh is a phonetic language, so once you know the rules you don't get ambushed by irregularities.
Heckmondwike …. Viking village in Yorkshire …. Or Maryland if you’re in the USA but with no Vikings … unless it was the man with Viking ancestors who moved from Yorkshire to Maryland and couldn’t think up a simple name for a new town … but it has been proven that Vikings landed in the USA before the other Europeans by the BBC so it must be true …
“You can tell a place was named by the vikings if it ends in thwaite, thorp, kirk or by” The town I live in is called Kirkby, literally two Viking roots stuck together 😂 I think it’s something along the lines of “Church Farm”
For British comedy you need to watch Yes Minister! Blackadder Only Fools and Horses Porridge Life of Brian (Monty Python) The Holy Grail (Monty Python) Kevin Bridges Billy Connolly Michael McIntyre Meet the Richardsons Doc Brown especially 'My Proper Tea'
Because these place names have different origins ie Grimsby is nordic grim is a norse name and by means farm hence Grims Farm from the Danish and Norse invasions of the 860 AD onwards.
I’m from the U.K. and the two bits of advice I can give you if you visit, you will get things wrong so DON’T worry, nobody is going to be offended, and if you don’t know just ask. Be yourself and have a good sense of humour. Love the channel and much respect.
when my great grandmother moved from glasgow to west yorkshire she asked for directions to Keyley (keighley), she wasnt understood for it at all since the town is pronounced Keithley. I never noticed that the pronunciation might be strange before I was told this
And dont bother visiting Grimsby just as it is in this video, its a dump
I'm a retired trucker and I used to dread having to ask a local for directions! The other maddening thing in our country is local dialects tend to have their own words and grammar, so you're not always going to understand what they tell you anyway.
Like when I was on a coach to Somerset and when I got on the driver used the word 'to' to mean 'from', which confused me!
@@toranshaw4029 'while' to mean 'until'. (e.g. He works nine while five.)
They had to change the original level crossing signs that said 'wait while red lights flash' to 'wait WHEN red lights flash'. Because in the East of England, drivers all stopped because the red lights WEREN'T flashing...
Same in America too. Wisconsin was drunk when they named towns
0:29 Leominster is 'LEMSTER', Bicester is 'BISTER', Godmanchester is 'GUMSTER', Loughborough is 'LUFFBURRA', Keighley is 'KEETHLEE'. More examples - Ulgham is 'UFFAM', Happisburgh is 'HAYZBURRA', Milngavie is 'MULGUY', and Woolfardisworthy is 'WOOLZERY'.
Kirkcudbright is 'KIRKOOBREE', Anstruther is 'AINSTER', Culzean is 'KULLEN', Drumelzier is 'DRUMELYER'. Essentially everywhere in Scotland that has a 'z' in it will be pronounced with a 'y' instead because it's actually a yogh which is a letter that looks quite similar to a 'z' and is usually written with a 'z' despite it being pronounced like a yogh!
And, of course, London is Landan.
It might need to be rendered in capital letters.
Just imagine Michael Caine saying it.
@@grahamstubbs4962 "Ya're anly sapposed to blaw the bladdy dorrs aff!"
@@RichWoods23
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*|* what he said
Or just emphasize the first letter and mumble a couple of syllables. That usually works.
I know it's not normally done, but I'd suggest that you watch Jay Foreman's sponsor ads. They're hilarious.
The last time I saw Mark Cooper Jones he was a comedian/geography teacher, love that I get to see more of him. Also yes our humour is very dry and very sarcastic
British place-names are indeed pronounced in unexpected ways, and still catch us all out sometimes.
It used to be worse! Before the majority of people could write, local pronunciations wandered far from the originals. London was 'Lunnon', and Birmingham was 'Brummagem'; after the eighteenth century, when most people were literate, there has been a steady return to ancient spellings. So Cirencester, for example, within living memory, was 'Sisiter' or 'Sister', but is now pronounced as spelt.
Some towns are going through a change. I was brought up to pronounce Shrewsbury as 'Shroesbury', but now many say 'Shroosbury'.
A fun thing when visiting some remote part of England is to find out how people pronounce where you're visiting!
"Brummagem" is actually from "Bromwicham" which was an alternative name for Birmingham in the past (Like the nearby West Bromwich and Castle Bromwich). And Shrewsbury tends to be pronounced "Shoosbury" (without an 'r') if you listen to the locals, but on some older maps is spelt "Shrowesbury", reflecting the older pronunciation that some of us still use. Confusing, eh?
lol when I first moved to Shrewsbury I asked a taxi driver if I'd get lynched if i said "shrew" rather than "shrow" and he assured me I wouldn't. Most people seem to pronounce it that way, although the BBC can't seem to make its mind up.
It's not just the UK. I lived in Brazil for a year (British here) and learnt Portuguese. Place names were something else though, many towns are named after the original local indigenous language before the Portuguese arrived.
Rio is pronounced He-o btw. That's an easy one.
Sounds a lot like Bavaria. Here it is divided by how much you speak a villages dialect or language and the people in the government having enforced Standard German village names. My village is called officially: Kirchdorf, but outsider-bavarians say something like kiadaaf and we inside the village and a few neighboring villages actually are the only ones knowing the accurate way: Kia'a da
Shrewsbry?
I live in Aberystwyth, although the name does mean the mouth of the Ystwyth, the river running through the town is actually called the Rheidol, the Ystwyth is just outside the town.
It would appear that some time in the past, a mapmaker got the two rivers mixed up.
My family originally come from Ysterby-Ystwyth .... and Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn ... then moved to Ynysybwl (As seen on the MapMen map ) ... Welsh place names no longer hold any difficulties for me ....
AberRheidol just doesn't have the same ring to it. 😊
@@davidioanhedges I love how the map says "Wales in general". They just sort of gave up there, didn't they?
If you're going to London and need directions to Leicester Square, make sure you say LESTER, not LEE-SESTER. And yes, Towcester is indeed Toaster.
Not just mispronunciations but also ways of saying things as an American visitor phoning and telling me "I'm at Glauw-sester and Cromwell"' which made me ask what that was, a shop or something? Turned out he meant he was at the corner of Gloucester Road and Cromwell Road, only we don't say it that way.
As a person from Leicestershire we definitely say Lester hehe so funny I love our language it's so confusing
@@beccaboo3040 Yes, that was the point. Many American tourists have asked for Lee-Sester. Also, Wett-Herby (Wetherby) and Looga-bo-Rooga (Loughborough)!
@@jackcarter5101 - And they don't seem to get the hang of Wor-cest-er-shire sauce
@@frglee Go to Gloucester and you'll hear them pronounce it Glaarrsta.
If you want to see Vikings in the UK make sure to go to Jorvik in York
Love your reaction! So true about pronunciation in the UK. I am a Canadian living in the UK and live in a town near Brighton on the East Coast called Lewes. You pro ounce it as Lewis with an I. The British sense of humour is so funny. React to 8 out of 10 cats what's my line, Lee Mack, Billy Connoly. There are so many comedians and comedy shows.
its on the south coast
I'd seen it on the map and thought it was Luuz, one syllable. Also FYI you're on the south coast, the east coast starts around Dungeness in Kent (the county east of sussex)
Billy Connolly is a legend and a national treasure.
Years ago, when map makers went around the country drawing up maps they would ask the local lord, vicar, school teacher or lawyer what a place name was and how it was spelled. Being educated men, they could read and write, they told them their version of the pronunciation and spelling. However, the local farm worker or builder or carter may have his own local pronunciation which stuck with local people. Hence the difference.
In ireland they were asking people who spoke a different language so they just wrote an approximation of what they heard. Some got close and most were miles off. Names that sound made up in English are just literal descriptions in Irish. A small town near me in Irish is called “Baile Átha Sa Dara”. It means “Town at the River Mouth of the Falls”. In English it should’ve been something like Fallmouth or Townmouth. Instead it was recorded as “Ballysadare”. It means nothing in English. It’s called a bastardisation. Rather than a translation the names were just mangled into an English spelling and left at that.
Education always teaches us how much we don't know - which is a bad feeling but a good effect, ^oo^
In most places the "ham" ending is pronounce "um". Birmingum, Buckingum, Sandrimgnum, etc. Not the place called Ham though, that is pronounced "ham" as in "sandwich" which I pronounce "samwich", except when I go to Sandwich, which is near Ham in Kent, and which I pronounce "sand witch".
I live in Swindon in the UK, it was originally Swine Down which was a market town for selling pigs
There is a town near me called shepton mallet but it used to be sheep town as it was know for selling sheep it's weird how things like that work
How about Shitterton, which has a stream...which was used as a toilet. Village got tired of their sign being taken they finally put a frigging purbeck stone with the name. No one is carting that away in their boot anytime soon.
I live near Cirencester, (Sirensester) but it was traditionally pronounced Ciceter (Siseter), but now the locals say they are off to Siren.
-borough (Like Middlesborough) and -burgh (as in Edinburgh) are pronounced the same. Except when they aren't. People from up in the North East would say Middlesbruh and Edinbruh but your pronunciation can vary a lot depending on which part of the country you're in. The main takeaway is that although the 2 endings are spelled differently, they're pronounced the same.
People further south may add the extra "o" back in to Middlesborough (so Middlesborugh, more like it's written). However if you talk to people up here you may here then just call Middlesborough "Bura" spelled "Boro".
Except that there is only one "o" in Middlesbrough...
@@davidtalbot941 Tell that to my Grandparents lol. They only live next to it so you'd think they'd know.
In my home town of Birmingham (UK) there is an area called Smethwick.
Foreigners pronounce it. Smeth - wick
non locals in the city say Smeth -ick
Locals say Sm-e - rick...!!
🤦🏻
The short version of this, itself pretty cool, is that almost all the place names are much older than the English language itself. Modern English pretty much starts with Shakespeare, who wrote most of his plays 120 years after the start of "modern times" as defined by historians (accession of Henry VII).
Plus Samuel Johnson’s 18th Century dictionary where he had to decide which word to use in describing an object, as there were so many variants for basic things, such as bread. Mostly he went with his own.
This makes me think of my A level English language lessons LOL - only my tutor used to, not only break loads of words down and tell you where each part came from i.e. Greek, Roman, Celtic etc. he would also change his accents constantly when talking about different parts of the country and where language is different and why and how to pronounce the vowels in different counties - it was a LOT to take in, and honestly I gave up half way through the course LOL
a tip I always have for visitors is to have the place you want to go in writing. Especially outside of England, even though there's enough places there that are horrible to pronounce.
I'm from Wales and there's distinct sounds from the celtic/gaelic languages that just don't occur in English.... and I've personally embarrassed myself because I've not understood people asking for directions.... whatever they've asked verbally often doesn't match what I'm thinking and I end up asking if they have it written down. That's the best way to go, and also a brilliant way to practise
I was on a bus in Mid Wales and had to pronounce Llandinam the English way before the driver understood. It wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't English.
I'll say this for the Welsh names, at least they phonetically match with the letters. It may be hard as hell for an Anglo to say, but at least it's phonetically regular. "LL" is always pronounced the same way, and "Aber" is always "Aber" unlike "cester/caster/xeter" etc. A southern Welshman will know how "Llanfairpwllgwll..." is supposed to be pronounced (even if he may not be able to do it, because his yGymraeg is rusty).
@@jaycee330 yes, there is this. I still find places in England that I pronounce wrong because there's exceptions. While I'm not a fluent speaker of Welsh, I totally agree that it's far more phonetic and much easier .... Once you've had time to practice how the sounds go together.
@@misschieflolz1301 I agree. It's how I learned (by breaking it down into it's components) to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch(I hope I remembered how to spell it properly, I'm doing it from memory). edit: added a few parts I forgot.
I live in Frome and never knew it was the most mispronounced place name you learn something new every day
Im the same when names like that Welsh one exist it's weird to think that people can get Frome wrong
@@tillyct8937 Because the vowel isn't regular. At least in Welsh, the spellings and pronunciations match (difficult as it is for non-Welsh to say). English has so many spelling inconsistencies.
We tend to learn the name of places, before we learn to spell them.
Iv lived in England all my life & even I get confussed.. especially listening to these guys lol.. they talk so fast x
Lol, Frome is literally half an hour away from me. There’s a village close to me called Lacock (Laycock). Someone I know had some family from the US visit once and they pronounced it, La Cock 😂
I live in Frome 😂 lacock near Chippenham?? Unless I knew how it was pronounced I would have said la cock too it's weird
@@tillyct8937 lol that’s funny and yes, just down the road from Chippenham 👍🏻
Map Men is a brilliant channel for fun learning. (hint... people who watch reaction vids like it)
There quite a lot of US names that are difficult to pronounce. Boise, Aquebogue, Camarillo and Des Moines just to name a few.
2 local ones to me are...
Slaithwaite, which has at least 2 common local pronuncistions
a) Slawitt
b) Slathwait
Skelmanthorpe - referred to as Shatt.
I am a Londoner and I am telling you it is not safe. If you come my advice is to spend no more than a couple of days seeing the main tourist attractions.
Then leave and go see the rest of the country where you can meet real British people.
London is no longer populated by Brits.
Get out into the West Country, the Norfolk Broads, North Yorkshire national parks, The Lake District, Argyll and Bute, The Brecon Beacons, The Highlands of Scotland... any number of beautiful, interesting, welcoming and safe places.
Wiveliscombe !
How true!!
Love to know which part of "London" because having lived in the suburbs of Greater London (which is 32 Boroughs by the way that each have their own identity and culture) for over 30 years it's just a lazy stereotype to put down 9 million people because of a minority of nut cases. Of course people from other countries should get out and about and see the many wonderful things that this island has to offer but there's better ways to say it without resorting to scaremongery and cheap shots. Yes you may well have had a negative experience there but that certainly doesn't hold for everyone.
@@MillsyLM I agree. I haven't been to the UK for 40 years but when I was last there I spent most of my time in London but the place I actually got monstered by a bunch of skinheads was in Telford , Shropshire.
@@leechgully thank you, of course there are some decidedly unsafe places in London as there are everywhere particularly in major cities. I hate it when people who should know better make London out to be some kind of warzone.
That is not a way into Grimsby I should know as I live in Grimsby, these two photo shopped Grimsby on to a sign. Grim the Viking was a fisherman Grimsby became the biggest fishing port in Britain and is also the biggest fish processing centre in Britain 🇬🇧. There use to be a statue of Grim in front of Grimsby Institute until it was vandalised. There is a Danish and Norwegian consulate on Grimsby docks, there are many Scandinavians living here.
There is also a Grimsby Illinois USA and a Grimsby Ontario Canada.
@@DS-od1kb I have being aware of Grimsby in Canada 🇨🇦 for a long time as it is named after Grimsby England 🏴, I only became aware of the one in america more recently when it was mentioned on Lost in The Pond CZcams channel.
Although the statue of Grim and baby Havelock was outside Grimsby College, before it expanded and was renamed.
My town is called CORBY . From the Viking KORI BY ( Kori's village)
Finally, yes, there's a reason behind the name for every single place, and we Brits get the feel of any place's history by its name, more usually its spelling.
Then much later, all these names were transported to the US.
Then liberally mixed with the local names .... then mispronounced ... and the cycle repeats ...
The county of Norfolk has the following gems: Happisburgh, Wymondham, Costessey, Garboldisham, where whole syllables disappear in pronunciation; Cley, and Stiffkey, which is occasionally pronounced "Stewkey".
I love the video and your reaction to it. Great job. As for your question, they do it to annoy visitors, LOL.
The name of my home town was recorded in the Domesday book as Podechaisie. Modern version - Pudsey ('Put-si', or when we had a town crier before being swallowed up by Leeds in 1974, 'Pad-zee'.) Pudsey Bear, the Children in Need mascot, is named after the town, it's inventor hailing from there.
If you are coming to the UK and don't go out of London you will miss somr of the best reasons for coming to Great Britain. Firstly, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as England are searate countries, each witheir own history as well as a shared British history. The linguistic differences reflect the place names and a lot are about local geography as well as history such as the one about Grimsby in the video. In Liverpool (where I am from) their is an area called Kirkdale which translates to Church in the valley from old german. It is pronounced as it reads "kerkdayle" Seven miles away the town of Kirkby is pronounced "kerby" or "care-bee" Kirkby was changed when the Normans gave it a different name Cherchebe. If you think that's confusing wait until you get to Wales. There are plenty of places an hours drive from Liverpool in North Wales where there are no English vowels in the the name. Rhyl and Cwm are two good examples and the area known as Clwyd. I'll let you guess the pronounciation of these Celtic places.
Good post; however if you know how Welsh letters are supposed to sound; get the correct emphasis and try to stop pronouncing it as if its English ...then it's totally consistent and straightforward. No Norwich/Sandwich confusion.
Most people who think Welsh is hard to pronounce have never attempted to learn Welsh and its rules. Any language looks alien and hard to pronounce when you have never tried to learn. How about Finnish?Euskadi? Polish? Turkish?If you try to pronounce them as if they are English they won't sound right!
Hope that you enjoy your visit to London. Britain is so ancient to what you are accustomed to in the United States which is realatively new . In Scotland some communities including my own still speak Gaelic pronounced. Galik , the Welsh speak Welsh another Celtic Language that is at least 3,000 years old so our traditions and culture goes back as far as we know to the Bronze age. The Irish also speak Gaelic and the Scottish Gaelic speakers can understand them whereas the Welsh language cannot be understood to non Welsh people who are a breakaway Celtic tribe also . We also have Bronze age forts still standing and Roman artefacts, I suppose we Brits are used to things being really old and we know our culture is too. Have a great time 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
There is also the Cornish language which has been revived, now showing bilingual signposts.
The Welsh are not a breakaway Celtic tribe. The Irish version of Gaelic is known as Goidelic, is an older form of Gaelic, the Brythonic speakers migrated from Gaul (now known as France) to the British Isles later. Brythonic was the majority Celtic language in Britain, but Germanic speakers migrated into what became England and replaced Brythonic in most areas of Britain except Wales, Cornwall and the Lake District. Some Brythonic speakers migrated to Brittany (catch the similarity of the word?). Goidelic Gaelic speakers migrated from Ireland and planted it in Scotland, so Scots Gaelic is related to Irish Gaelic. It is believed that the Picts spoke Brythonic Gaelic rather than Goidelic
@@pashakdescilly7517 I didn't say that Welsh was a breakaway from Celtic but a branch if the Celtic languages. I know about the Godelic and Brythionc definitions .
I like to point out to American Tourists the dates on the Drainpipes on Edinburgh Castle ... it tends to make them rethink history ...
Then point out the chapel at the top dates from 1130, and the cannon outside from 1449 ...
Welsh Gaelic is of the Brythonic group, in common with Breton, Cornish and Lake District Gaelic. It's the branch of Gaelic that was spoken across the south of Britain before the Angles, Saxons and Jutes migrated over (y'know, the English). Irish and Scots Gaelic are of an older variety of Gaelic known as Goidelic
About every 8 miles in the UK you’ll hear an accent change, and sometimes a local dialect thrown in for good measure. I grew up speaking with a Geordie accent but spoke Pitmatic. You can usually tell the area someone came from, and if local, whereabouts within that location.
You can always pause the video in order to take in the information better.
Love this ❤
I live in a small town in Buckinghamshire called Olney. Even the people who live here can’t agree how it’s pronounced. About half say Oll-knee, and half say Oh-knee. I’m in the Oh-knee (rhymes with pony) camp. The map men should have included this. I don’t know why the pronunciation is so confusing, but it might be because the Vikings (Danes) invaded just to the river Ouse that goes though Olney as does the edge of Dane law.
I think if they listed all the differences it would have turned the map black. They just put "Wales in general" because they sort of gave up there (to be fair, Welsh pronunciation is regular, if difficult.)
That is the point. They changed the pronunciation without changing the spelling. So the names are the same and written the same but , pronounced differently. It’s even worse in Ireland. Although larger places will have the names in English and Irish.
“So who were the complete anchors who…” Note the silent ‘w’ there.
"complete 'ankers".
Leigh, is Lee, in Lancashire and Lie, in Kent.
Good job , every day is a school day 🙂🏴
My grandfather once mentioned a tourist who asked him how to get to Ilfracombe - "Ill-frackom-bee".....
For what it's worth...they were partially wrong about place names ending in "ford". In settlements that have (or had) a river running through them, "ford" is a shortened version of "fjord", Norse for "crossing" - those places were named by Viking invaders. Eg "Stamford" = "Stone Crossing".
I got coach to London (before Covid. National Express coach from St Leonards on Sea to London no longer exists. Apparently). I say, want to get off at Eltham. The Geordie driver (seem always to be Geordie's - and they were lovely mostly) insisted pronounciation was Elfham - i.e. soft 'th'. After he insisted twice it was 'Elfham.' I said 'it's pronounced ELTHAM man. I was brought up there I should know! Sorry to woffle. Been one of those days when you want to take a long walk off a short pier - and we do have a pier, so this could be the day! I think I am asking for some nasty comments from the 'trolls' about how it would be doing us all a favour. Thank you for your vid. Enjoyed it.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff!!
I lived as a child on a road in Yorkshire
between Bradley in the valley
and Fixby on the hill.
The name "Bradley" is Anglo-Saxon
and "Fixby" is Viking
Interestingly even 1000 years after the vikings left
the richer people in the area lived in Fixby
and the poorer folks lived in Bradley.
If you want to see a place with Viking history in Britain
I would suggest York
Originally a Roman city,
then taken over by the Anglo-Saxons
then becoming the capital of the Danelaw.
There is lots of archaeology from Viking times
and a museum specialising in the Viking period.
PS
If you want to go to a country where the names are hard to pronounce
try Denmark.
I had to carry a map around
so I could point to the name of the street and ask where it is.
Otherwise the Danes look at you blankly.
Note some folks consider Danish a throat condition not a language LOL
I was going to say York would be best for Viking history with its underground Viking replica village inc smells!!
@@SolarVibeEnergy
The Jorvik Viking Centre in York
Most people are use to others getting place names wrong, but London is quiet easy, relatively speaking, since it's an area with a lot of foreigners and tourists.
Two to get your head around are CHOMONDELEY pronounced CHUMLY and FEATHERSTONEHAUGH pronounced FANSHAW,even I as an Englishman was dumbfounded when I realised that's how they were pronounced, anyway stay happy and healthy everyone ✌️.
Mainwaring is pronounced MANNERING. Who's next?
@@antiqueinsider Take a quick trip to Ireland and watch all your expectations on names fly away ... Siobhan = Shiv-awn
@@antiqueinsider Are you talking just the UK or other places. If the latter, how about Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Lake Webster) in Mass? If the UK, how about Beauchief in Sheffield (BEE-CHEEF)? There a ton of strange US place names as well, but instead of Viking and Roman influence, it's Native American/French/Spanish/Maya influences.
@@davidioanhedges Or over to Scotland.
@@antiqueinsider Claughton, Wyre (KLY-tun)
I love the Alnwick (pronounced Annick) one so much, because a nearby town is called Alnmouth, and is pronounced 'Allenmuth'. And they're both named after the same river, the Aln, which is pronounced Aln...
Though they're also both quite near to Featherstonehaugh, (pronounced 'Fanshaw', obviously).
Nothing like that simple.
Wymondham occurs at least twice - Norfolk and Leicestershire.
In Norfolk it is pronounced Wind-um. In Leics. it is pronounced as it is spelt - Why-mund-ham.
Locals also often call Loughborough, Luger-ber-rooger, which is pretty much the spelling.
Mildenhall also occurs at least twice - Suffolk and Wiltshire. It s pronounced exactly as spelt in Suffolk, but is known as My-null in Wilts.
Not gonna lie, clicked on your video because you are one beautiful man. Haha...
With that said, I genuinely enjoyed your reaction to Map Men. Jay Forman is one of the best CZcamsrs IMO and the Map Men episodes are all brilliantly informative and hilarious to watch. You should deffo check out his series called Unfinished London too.
My family lived near a place called Aike but it’s pronounced Yak, it’s old English, gets people every time!
I live in the West Midlands and a place exists in Walsall called Caldmore ( pronounced Karma )
Great video, great reaction! I'm in Newcastle Upon Tyne - great City to explore if you are interested in Romans or Vikings (NE England) It can be cold here but we are great people! Great stuff!
The map men are great, I'm British and I always learn stuff when I watch them.
I love map men, I'm glad you enjoyed the video too!
Hi, Its worth watching their Adverts, they are quiet funny.
But it's the same for us. If you come across a new place name you are never 100% how to say it so it's best just to ask if you think it might be a weird one. No shame in it. My personal favourite is a village in Norfolk which is spelt Happisburgh and pronounced haze-bruh.
The US has interesting prononciations of place names too. Louisville, KY comes to mind. Tucson, AZ, Lebanon, PA etc
The commentator is correct - I've been around every single English county and I was still learning how to pronounce certain places.
Be careful with mis-pronounciation -
1) if you're driving and you ask someone for directions, I've heard the most horrendous stories of foreign truck drivers being sent to the opposite end of the country!!!!
2) you're going by bus or train - you could be sold the wrong ticket and sent in the opposite direction!!!!
Always double-check. If you ask for a train ticket to Ashford you may have to take care that you specify Middlesex rather than the better-known town in Kent. How are tourists supposed to know that there are multiple places of the same name when most of the natives don't?
We get them wrong too, there are some where people don't agree on the pronunciation, don't worry about it, it is not done to embarrass you.
A few places' pronunciations _have_ changed just in my lifetime.
Cirencester was pronounced 'SIS-it-er' when I was young, now it's the phonetic 'SIREN-ses-ter'.
And Pontefract used to be pronounced 'PUM-frit'. Again, now it's 'PONT-e-fract', or 'Ponty' for short.
Grimsby is my Town of Origin, but now live down in Essex.
5.35 in your video is now my home town as I have lived here longer than anywhere else.
Don't feel dumb a lot of brits still struggle with place names like Bicester which is pronounced Bister
You have to look at the etymology of place names and their pronunciation, Way back many centuries ago, the vast majority of these places WERE pronounced the way they are spelt. Over time, the WAY we say placenames has chanced but the SPELLING has remained the same. It is far too late now to change the spelling of placenames as that woul cause even more confusion.
Looks to me as if if you come to England you'll enjoy it. These two guys are from north London. People like me find them informative and hilarious at the same time. You'll maybe have to get used to the toned down sarcasm but I think you'd be welcome in my local pub. Until recently we (ie the pub) had a New Yorker bartender and she fitted in really well. If it's any consolation, most of the British find non-local British place names a problem too if we've never been there. Near my home town is Cholmodeston which is pronounced Chumston but I have no idea why. Of no interest whatsoever is that my dad's mum was born close to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Don't feel stupid. I'm a true Brit with a family tree back to the thirteenth century apparently, but still took two hours driving around a place called "Belvoir" looking for Beever castle. Well, turns out "Belvoir" is actually pronounced "Beever". Makes perfect sense.
I'm from uk 🇬🇧 most of the British cant pronounce the names so no need to worry lol
My town is in there. It's name is 'Bedworth', but folk around here call it "Bedduth" or if you're older "black Bedduth" as it's been a big mining for coal town for 200+ years
Just come visit Yorkshire especially York and where l live Keighley which was called Chicheley in 10th century
I was had to catch a train at Marylebone Station I had how to pronounce it until the conductor pronounced it as "Marlabone".
It's the British sense of humor, seeing how many ways we can confuse people, have a go at Trottiscliffe or Meopham both in Kent.
I was born in Hampshire and what locals says is the correct pronunciation confuses me.
Trottiscliffe is pronounced Tros-Lee and Meopham is pronounced Mepam.
I would suggest York if you want to visit a famous Viking settlement steeped in Roman and Viking history.
The same thing happens in the USA, for example New Orleans is pronounced "Norlins" by the locals !
More like "Naw'linz"
I don't mind being stuck in "Abereest wyth" as much as I did, lol.
Just one word…Arkansas (especially compared to Kansas)
We can blame the French for that. Also, Mackinac Island (MAK-in-naw).
If you want to explore and do some review videos on British comedy try 'Fawlty Towers' an iconic English comedy TV series.
Great channel - your reactions are interesting and entertaining :)
Main thing is Edinburgh is pronounced Edinborough not Edinburg (Scottish capital). Other names come from experience, watching the news and using trains. Of course if you were a tourist you'd make mistakes. That's OK. English people not from that area likely would too.
A few key examples to get you going are:
Leicester Lester
Bicester Bister
Loughborough Luffborough
Worcester Wuster
Beaulieu Bewlee.
Marylebone Marlebone
You're never going to know all of them.
Hi from Grimsby. Really.👋😀
my favourite place names are within a few miles of each other in the Peak District Derbyshire. Firstly the village of Shatton, just past Hathersage. The second id the Devils arse in Castleton.
What about Gropecunt Lane in York amongst other locations en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gropecunt_Lane
They missed one in Scotland. Milngavie which is pronounced by locals as Mull-Gai.
What about Burntisland? Even the locals aren't sure. Burntis-land or Burnt Island?
They forgot the Picts! Their presence is felt still in Pittenweems (pronounced as it is spelt, just to confuse you further). In the N of Scotland any place name which includes 'Pitt' is Pictish. But two definitely non-Pictish tongue twisters are Cogenhoe (Northamptonshire, pronounced Cookknow) and Kingston Bagpuize, a derivative of Norman French and pronounced - don't ask me!
I'm Welsh and I once suffered stinging derision from a friend from Suffolk for pronouncing ALDEBURGH as ALL-DEE-BERG (which would be the way we say things in Carmarthenshire) where the Suffolkians say it as Allbrah. So there you have it - no-one's safe -
ps. his efforts at pronouncing Welsh place names was even worse, so there !
You guys crack me up. 🤣🤣😄
3:39 STOMPED right over that excellent joke...pffft
They are extremely British, and yes this is British Humour ... Check out their channel ...
BTW Godmanchester is pronounced Gum-ster ...
Note one of the place names of their map is Ynysybwl ... a place my grandparents came from which has no vowels ... so I am biased ...
Strictly, W and Y are vowels in Welsh. After all Y is a vowel in English fairly frequently.
@@missharry5727 Yes I know ... But 'mericans don't
The best advice to any tourist is “have a sense of humour” and be willing to laugh at yourself. The Brits will accept and like you immediately if you can do that. Don’t take things like mispronunciating place names too seriously and don’t feel offended. Then you will be fine
If Im correct There is six different spellings of London. Down south we say Lunden. London is from the Queens (God bless)/Kings English. England history is within our names, and dialects and her people. PS Vikings were all over the Uk.
A video on a similar subject is David Mitchell's Dear America. The English language is a glorious mess of imported words and grammar stretching back millennia. Until the 17th century, most communities were fairly isolated, so pronounciation drifted around a lot, so much so that communities separated by as little as 30 or 40 miles would speak mutually unintelligable dialects. Spellings in English weren't really codified until the early 19th century (and even that took a long time to filter down to the general population).
Compounding this is the fact that English dictionaries are by design descriptive, in that they record how language is used rather than how it SHOULD be used. Other languages (I believe that French is one, but I could be wrong) have a much stricter, prescriptive approach, resulting in a language that actually makes sense!
Oh please do more map men and Jay Foreman reactions 😂
I live near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the name is fairly recent and was just for tourism, it's referred to as Llanfair-PG locally.
The correct pronunciation of Llanfair PG makes a good party piece. Unlike English, Welsh is a phonetic language, so once you know the rules you don't get ambushed by irregularities.
Heard a story once about an Australian over here mis-pronouncing Clitheroe in a slightly inappropriate way...........
How about Cholmondeley - Chumlee, Tarporley- Tarplea or Mainwearing - Mannering. Or how about Bwlch-y-Ddwy and Bwlch-y-Mynydd.
Heckmondwike …. Viking village in Yorkshire …. Or Maryland if you’re in the USA but with no Vikings … unless it was the man with Viking ancestors who moved from Yorkshire to Maryland and couldn’t think up a simple name for a new town … but it has been proven that Vikings landed in the USA before the other Europeans by the BBC so it must be true …
“You can tell a place was named by the vikings if it ends in thwaite, thorp, kirk or by”
The town I live in is called Kirkby, literally two Viking roots stuck together 😂 I think it’s something along the lines of “Church Farm”
"By" means village or town. It still does in Scandinavian languages.
@@stoferb876 Yes. "Kirkby" means "Church Village". Kyrkby in Swedish. Kirkeby in Danish.
For British comedy you need to watch Yes Minister!
Blackadder
Only Fools and Horses
Porridge
Life of Brian (Monty Python)
The Holy Grail (Monty Python)
Kevin Bridges
Billy Connolly
Michael McIntyre
Meet the Richardsons
Doc Brown especially 'My Proper Tea'
Because these place names have different origins ie Grimsby is nordic grim is a norse name and by means farm hence Grims Farm from the Danish and Norse invasions of the 860 AD onwards.