From: Geraint.Jones@comlab.oxford.ac.uk (Geraint Jones)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Shrewsbury (Re: Southwell (was Re: Edinburgh...
Date: 13 Oct 92 10:36:46 GMT
Reply-To: Geraint.Jones@comlab.oxford.ac.uk (Geraint Jones)
Organization: Green Shoots of the Revolution, Praetorian Inscrutability Brigade
Originator: geraint@pierrot.comlab
Comment: just another lyrical coffee-break

R0664@vmcms.csuohio.edu wrote:
(  In article <1992Oct8.122911.7950@cs.hw.ac.uk> nick@cs.hw.ac.uk
 ) (Nick Taylor) writes:
(  >And if you want some real fun ask a Brit to pronounce Shrewsbury or Sou...
 ) >You'll get the oh so clever responses of Shrowsbury and Southall. The 
(  >natives of these places pronounce them as they are spelt however.
 )  
(  The other variation of Shrewsbury is Salop, which I heard quite
 ) often when I lived in Bridgnorth, Shropshire.  Caused confusion though
(  when the name of the county was also Salop!!

	High the vanes of Shrewsbury gleam
	Islanded in Severn stream;
	The bridges from the steepled crest
	Cross the water east and west.

	The flag of morn in conqueror's state
	Enters at the English gate:
	The vanquished eve, as night prevails,
	Bleeds upon the road to Wales.

	Ages since the vanquished bled
	Round my mother's marriage-bed;
	There the ravens feasted far
	About the open house of war:

	When Severn down to Buildwas ran
	Coloured with the death of man,
	Couched upon her brother's grave
	The Saxon got me on the slave.

Well, there's natives and natives.  Being in the Welsh Marches it isn't
enough to say that it is `pronounced as it is spelt'.  When it was Pengwern
it was pronounced as it was spelled, at least by the Welsh.  (And it is the
subject of some of the most moving poetry about the costs of war.) Shrewsbury
is pronounced SHOE-sb(r)y by the locals from the English side of the river,
and since we are more careful of our `r's as SHRIWS-brie by the locals from
over the Welsh bridge.  You will hear both from the announcers at the 
railway station.  Shrowzbray is a the accepted pronunciation (pronounced 
pronounciation) of the Boys' School, home of a generation of satirists and
minor scandals.  Shropshire, is of course a formation from of Shrewsbury-shire,
and Salop is (cod-)Latin for the same.  It used to be the postal abbreviation
for the county name, and was briefly, after the Maud reorganisation, foisted
on the county as its name.  And Salopia is (or was) a bus company.  Oh, yes, 
and Shrewsbury is really called yr Amwythig, pronounced as it is written, that
is 'Mwythyg.

	Stafell Gynddylan ys tywyll heno,
	  	Heb da^n, heb wely;
	   Wylaf wers, tawaf wedy.
	
	Stafell Gynddylan ys tywyll heno, 
		Heb da^n, heb gannwyll;
	   Namyn Duw pwy a'm dyry pwyll?
	
	Stafell Gynddylan, neud athwyd heb wedd,
		Mae ym medd dy ysgwyd;
	   Hyd tra fu ni bu dollglwyd.
	
	Stafell Gynddylan ys tywyll heno,  
		Heb da^n, heb gerddau;
	   Dygystudd deurudd dagrau.
	
	Stafell Gynddylan, a'm gwa^n ei gweled
		Heb doed, heb da^n;
	   Marw fy nglyw, byw fy hunan.
	
	Stafell Gynddylan, a'm erwan pob awr
		Gwedi mawr ymgyfradan
	   A welais ar dy bentan.

Another one for you to try is `Bangor is y Coed', site of a famous massacre
of (Welsh) monks by the Saeson, and now a (horse-)racecourse.  So it goes. 

	The sound of fight is silent long
	That began the ancient wrong;
	Long the coice of tears is still
	That wept of old the endless ill.

	In my heart it has not dies,
	The war that sleeps on Severn side;
	They cease not fighting, east and west,
	On the marches of my breast.

	Here the truceless armies yet
	Trample, rolled in blood and sweat;
	They kill and kill and never die;
	And I think that each is I.

	None will part us, none undo
	The know that makes one flesh of two,
	Sick with hatred, sick with pain,
	Strangling - When shall we be slain?

	When shall I be dead and rid
	Of the wrong my father did?
	How long, how long, till spade and hearse
	Put to sleep my mother's curse?

_______________________________
Before anybody asks: bits of A E Housman's Shropshire lad, and Canu Heledd
from so long ago that it is well and truly out of copyright, inadvertently
modified and improved by the inadequacies of a memory burdened by exchange
rates, last year's examinations and income tax returns.                  g
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.politics.british,soc.culture.celtic