The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-01-25
ODDITIES OF ENGLISH
PUZZLES OF PRONUNCIATION THAT
ONE MEETS IN ENGLAND.

Proper Names That In sound Have
Little In Common With the Way
They Are speIIed--WeIsh Names q
Source Of UnfaiIIns Confusion.
English as 1t is spelled and pro
nounced In the United States is GER
tainly confusing to a degree to any
foreigner, but In old England his lot
is still harder when 1t comes to proper
names.
"If," said an English writer, the
amlable foreigner is driven to the
verge Of distraction by our vagaries IN
pronounclng words ending in 'ough,' ana
cannot for the life of him see why, II
cough spells kof,' though should not
be 'thof' and 'sough' 'sof,' what must
he think of our phonetic eccentricities
in the pronunciation Of place names,
which are such a sore puzzle even to
ourselves2
"Why, for instance, In the name OF
all that's reasonable, should we have
to say Amesbury when we write and
mean Almondesbury, and, when we
are in Lancashire, inquire the way to
Oost'n when It Is Ulverstone we wantf
These are mysteries which are not
even revealed, one would think, unto
babes, and which certainly make the
upgrown man feel foolish.
III you happen to be In Suffolk and
want to find your way to Waldring.
field, near Ipswich, you must avoid at
any cost pronounclng the word as IT
Is written. You will be looked at as q
freak or foreigner, but ask for Wun'
nerf'l and you will be sent on your
way rejoicing. One may be prepared
to find that Belyoir Is pronounced
Beaver, but who Is to know that AS
patrla, in Cumberland, is only recog
nlzed locally as Spethry? You may
ask the native the nearest way to AS
patria till you are black In the face
and he will stare blankly at you for
your pains, but breathe the word
Spefhry and you will get your direc'
ton quickly enough.
little Urswick Is place unknown
to thousands Of Lancashire folk who
are familiar enough with the village
Of that name, but call II Lilosick, and
their faces will brighten at once with
intelligence. Pontefract Is not unrec'
ognizable to the southerner even as
Pomfret, but why should Keighley be
known locally as Keethley and not as
Keeley, which Is the obvious render
ing?
"But the North county has no mo
nopoly of odd pronunciations. Go te
Deyonshire and ask for Brithembot'
tom. The odds are you will be told
there Is no such place. Brimbottom
they know right well, and that is the
place you really want. Thurlescombe'
by similar or worse perversion, be-
comes Drizzlecum, which may or may
not be n tribute to the dampness Of its
climate. There is In Clouceshire vii
lage called Churchdown, which foE
some inexpllcable reason is always
spoken of locally as Chosen. The good
people of Churchdown appreciate the
Joke as much as anybody and tell you
how, when the trains were asked tC
stop there, some one said, Make they
Chosen people joyful
"Congresbufy, In Somersetshire, Il
known far and wide as Coomsbury
and, shades Of our Norman ancestors
Hurstmonceaux, In Sussex, has lonl
degenerated on the lips Of many t
Horsemounces. ST. 0syth is a namt
that ought not to present any lingua
difficulty, but Its favorite form In the
district seems to be Toosy, and, whil'
the educated man has long been recon
clled to call Greenwich 'Grennldge.
there are many who still persist (ant
they are right, though it sounds
strange to the eap in pronouncing thu
name as 1t is spelled.
"Chelmondiston, In Suffolk, has beer
cut down to the more convenient Chin
ston, and Sandiacre, q smau town II
Derbyshlre, is Senjlker to those whit
know what they ought to say. Welsl
names are a source Of unfailing con
fusion to the Englishman, who's
tongue refuses point blank to grappl
with them, and yet some of them q
least have been made simple enough
such as Rhudbaxton, In Pembroke
shire, which as Ribson is simplicity II
self. In Hertfordshire the formidabl
Sawbridgeworth has been reduced t
the handy compass of sapser, bu
what shall we say of Woodmancote
which to the good people of Glouces
tershlre is often known as Udden
muckat~-New York Herald.
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