• Home
  • About
Linguism

Tag Archives: place names

March 7, 2020
by Graham
0 comments

Coronavirus

This seems an unlikely heading for a post from me – how can this possibly have any interest for pronunciation nerds? Until this week, I have only heard a single pronunciation for this – the ‘obvious’ one: koROHna(virus). (I’m sorry … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: english, family name, place names, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

July 14, 2018
by Graham
0 comments

Thai cave rescue – some language notes

My regular correspondent in Thailand has sent me the following, which includes IPA script. I hope that it doesn’t suffer the same fate as other of my posts, where the IPA has become corrupted over time. “Good old BBC. No … Continue reading →

Categories: General, Language, Names | Tags: bbc, culture, journalists, meaning, place names, pronunciation, speech | Permalink

January 15, 2018
by Graham
1 Comment

Rohingya

I can claim no expertise in either the languages or the peoples of the area of the Bay of Bengal littoral. Today, 15 January 2018, the BBC has been highlighting the plight of the Rohingya people with a series of … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: bbc, place names, pronunciation, radio 4, spelling | Permalink

September 12, 2016
by gpointon
8 Comments

How many ways to skin a cat?

I don’t usually watch the BBC’s science programme “The Sky at Night”, but last night I accidentally caught the beginning, and was hooked for the full half hour. What struck me, apart from the science, was the number of ways … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Latin, Names | Tags: bbc, english, Latin, place names, pronunciation, speech | Permalink

May 11, 2016
by gpointon
0 comments

A Little Learning

Until the end of the 19th Century, when, in Britain at least, we began to have universal education, most people, however intelligent they were, didn’t have access to as much knowledge as we have today. The ‘educated’ classes tended still … Continue reading →

Categories: Greek, Language, Latin, Names | Tags: english, place names, pronunciation, spelling | Permalink

March 28, 2016
by gpointon
9 Comments

Palmyra

All three of the current standard pronouncing dictionaries of English give only one pronunciation for this historic Syrian place name – /pælˈmaɪrə/. I assume that this is still the recommendation of the Pronunciation Unit, and yet today, almost every commentator, … Continue reading →

Categories: Language | Tags: bbc, english, journalists, place names, pronunciation, radio 4, reporters | Permalink

March 3, 2016
by gpointon
2 Comments

Amiens

A Franco-British summit is being held in Amiens today. The name is pronounced in French /amjɛ̃/, which is often misinterpreted in English as /ˈæmiɑ̃ː/. The BBC’s recommendation is the closer /æmˈjæ̃/. Chris Aldridge, Radio 4’s Chief Announcer, had obviously not … Continue reading →

Categories: French, Language, Names | Tags: bbc, journalists, place names, pronunciation, radio 4, reporters | Permalink

January 10, 2015
by gpointon
8 Comments

French place names – again

The tragic events in France have once again shown the difficulties reporters have in knowing how to pronounce the names of the places involved. Obviously, they have rather more important things on their minds, but when names are constantly repeated, … Continue reading →

Categories: French, Language | Tags: bbc, place names, pronunciation, speech | Permalink

August 11, 2014
by gpointon
4 Comments

Confusing place names

We’re used, in the British Isles, to place names that have more than one pronunciation – Shrewsbury (/ˈʃrəʊzbÉ™ri/~/ˈʃruːzbÉ™ri/) is probably the best known, although those with long memories will recall that there was a veiled threat to my position over … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names | Tags: journalists, place names, pronunciation, speech, spelling | Permalink

February 22, 2014
by Graham
17 Comments

Ukraine

The present upheavals in Ukraine bring the pronunciation of its place names into prominence. Even the country’s name is now subtly different from what it was thirty years ago. Then the geographical area was always called “The Ukraine”, which was … Continue reading →

Categories: Language, Names, Russian | Tags: bbc, english, place names, pronunciation, speech | Permalink

← Older posts

Follow Linguism

  • @Linguism on Twitter
  • Linguism on Facebook

Books

The Routledge Student Guide to English Usage

Categories

  • Genealogy
  • General
  • Language
    • Chinese
    • French
    • Greek
    • Latin
    • Norwegian
    • Russian
    • Spanish
  • Music
  • Names

Recent Posts

  • Accentism
  • How do you pronounce ‘GH’?
  • B(e)aring all
  • Flexible truths
  • Shielding
  • Course and Sauce
  • Coronavirus
  • Gumomics
  • Buttigieg
  • What is Rudy Giuliani’s job?
  • Cheops
  • Greta Thunberg
  • Heatwave
  • Hindemith and Violas
  • Slivers or Slithers

Recent Comments

  • Accentism (3)
    • Sidney Wood: Graham, that’s a neater way of putting it. No deliberate decisions to change. And which direction...
    • Graham: Sidney – I can’t say that my accent is the same now as it was fifty five years ago, just before I...
    • Sidney Wood: Graham, regarding the last paragraph. In the 1950s as my national (military) service was coming to an...
  • How do you pronounce ‘GH’? (2)
    • Graham: Good point! I wasn’t considering such compounds.
    • Laura Nass: also “stronghold” and “bighearted”
  • Slivers or Slithers (6)
    • Graham: Mink – I’m sure you’re right. Your phrase “phonetic overgeneralisation” is what...
    • Mink Schapper: I have been wondering whether the sliver / slither convergence is a phonetic overgeneralisation of...
  • B(e)aring all (2)
    • Graham: Paul – I did have my suspicions, but didn’t like to ask the young lady who answered the door...
    • Paul Hopkins: Also “Before they will allow you…”. Possibly the writer’s first language...
  • Regionalisms (13)
    • Graham: Malc – You have a far more optimistic view of the sophistication of the 19th century urban population...
    • Malc: Graham, Coventry schools, in the 1940s, taught us, that Britain’s prevailing wind is typically from the...
    • Graham: Malc – That’s an interesting hypothesis, but I’m not sure that the working classes of the...
  • Buttigieg (3)
    • Graham: Bernard Shaw (and before him, Oscar Wilde) once said that the UK and the USA were two countries divided by a...
    • Larry: “…but because despite Americans’ well-known difficulty with languages other than English (some...
  • Apostrophes (3)
    • Gordon Mylam: As I had been losing sleep, thinking about whether Potters Bar should be Potter’s Bar or...

Tags

accent afghanistan bbc cognitive culture dari david crystal dialect digital edinburgh england english family name French German haiti hertfordshire hospital intonation Italian jack windsor john humphrys john wells journalists Latin meaning moshtarak music norfolk orbital place names port-au-prince pronunciation punctuation radio 4 reporters rhythm scottish social standing speech spelling uttoxeter wymondham wymondley

Favourites

  • Alex's phonetic thoughts
  • BadLinguistics
  • Clinical Linguistics
  • David Crystal’s blog
  • Discourse and Function
  • English matters
  • Jack Windsor Lewis’s blog
  • John Maidment's Blog
  • John Wells’s phonetic blog
  • Kraut's English phonetic blog
  • Language Log
  • Languagehat
  • Learn that Language Now
  • Peter’s Pursuits

Links

  • Best Served Cold

Site managed by Best Served Cold | Theme: Yoko by Elmastudio

Top