Really strange PIS pronunciations

[D6975]

Damn! I was wrong about somebody telling us about Slaithwaite/‘Slawit’.
It might help if posters tell us how they think things should be pronounced compared with the PIS.
I lived in Southampton in the late 70s, and Micheldever was always pronounced ‘Mitchell-deever’ over the PA. Perhaps @Bob M can tell us the right way to say it!

oh alright then.

It's not pronounced Slaithwaite by anyone local
It's either
Slowit (the ow as in 'how')
or
Slathwaite (note first 'i' not pronounced)

and as for Shrewsbury..

Frome, the river in Bristol and the town are both pronounced FROOM

 

[Acc3lerat1on]

At stations, Montpellier is pronounced as Mont-peeeel-lieerr. It should be Mont-pel-ler (pel, like pen).

 

[scotrail158713]

Should it be pronounced without the l as Anmouth?

I always thought that - similar to Alnwick. However I know announcements say the l.

 

[fgwrich]

A few of the Cornish ones are often a source of contention - it took several attempts by FGW & GWR to have stations such Lostwithiel & Liskeard pronounced correctly, and that’s before you add in further local pronunciation’s of places such as St Austell.

Though it could be worse, as the PS first used by the new “GWR” franchise was awful, adding in an extra Ssss to just about everywhere, like Sssssswindone.

 

[aliceh]

The announcements at London Waterloo had a very awkward pronunciation of Vauxhall, with the stress on the final syllable. It made "Vox Hall" sound very posh!

 

[John Griffiths]

re Alnmouth: I'd almost agree with Allenmouth, but the syllables less stressed: swallow the 'e', and the 'mouth', as with many place names, is reduced to 'mth'. Stress on the Aln.

 

[Andy Pacer]

Always thought Alnmouth was pronounced "Allenmouth".

That was my understanding also.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The Bakerloo line says Marlee-bone which is so lazy as opposed to Marral-a-bone as it would be in standard English

Anne says Shroesbury which I flipping hate

For Havant, Celia says Hav-Annt. instead of Havent, she also said Farnborough as Farn-bruh (correct) on stations before being replaced, yet says Farn-bu-rah on trains

possibly weirdest of all is Southern Julie saying Boh-zam instead of Bosh-am (Bosham)


Oh and worst of all is on 800s to Swansea

We’ll be calling at: Reading. Didcot Parkway. Ssssswwwwinnnnndon. Newport. Cardiff CentralBRIDGEnd. Portalbot Parkway

and on return:

LENdun Paddington

 

[Whistler40145]

I assume that Flitwick is pronounced Flittick?

 

[Huntergreed]

Scotrail station text to speech announcements always say “A naan” for Annan, which can be quite amusing.

 

[_toommm_]

The auto announcer at Manchester Victoria pronounces East Garforth as Gar then forth as in henceforth. Really annoys me as it should be just Gar-fth.

 

[4-SUB 4732]

Falconwood.

PIS suggests the Falcon is like Fall like a Ball (as in Football, Tennis Ball) but it’s actually Fal (as in the Mal in Malcolm or Sal in Sally) so it’s a Falconwood.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I actually only learnt the correct Slaithwaite pronunciation today whilst on a TPE service!

"Slawit" is a bit of a false "correct" pronunciation, it's more of a dialect thing as well as something that's been revived in recent years by "Professional Yorkshiremen/women" such as Patrick Stewart, Michael Parkinson and Jodie Whittaker. The most common pronunciation locally is (or at least was 15-or-so years ago) "Slathwaite" with the first syllable rhyming with "Path". The oft-heard example with the first syllable rhyming with "Play" is entirely wrong though.

The way PIS voices say "Brighouse" always winds me up, far too much emphasis on the "h" and too much stress on the second syllable. The stress should be on the first syllable, and the "h" of the second should barely be hinted at. It's "BRIG-ous" not "Brig-HOUSE".

 

[TheEdge]

I've seen people in this thread complaining about Shrowsbury. I've picked my hill to die on and its that hill, Shrowsbury is right and Shrewsbury is just plain wrong.

I'm not sure if its still the case but back in ATW days the auto-announcer on the 175s used the put massive stress on the a in Cwmbran. CwmbrAAAAAAAAAn.

 

[swt_passenger]

I always thought that - similar to Alnwick. However I know announcements say the l.

It’s only a silent L in Alnwick. The name of the river includes the “L”. IIRC the usual discussion is about exactly how many syllables “Aln” has, either one or two, and whether it’s mouth or muth!

 

[lightbulb]

I assume that Flitwick is pronounced Flittick?

Indeed it is.

I've seen people in this thread complaining about Shrowsbury. I've picked my hill to die on and its that hill, Shrowsbury is right and Shrewsbury is just plain wrong.

I agree: it may be relevant that the word "show" was spelt "shew" until relatively recently. The spelling appears to have begun to change during the last century, and by the end of that century "shew" had become archaic. Whether shew or show, the pronunciation was as it is today.

 

[Lewlew]

possibly weirdest of all is Southern Julie saying Boh-zam instead of Bosh-am (Bosham)

She's correct, it's Bozzum, definitely not Boshum

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

She's correct, it's Bozzum, definitely not Boshum

No way really? That’s so weird that the h is silent

 

[Andy Pacer]

We had an automatic announcement fir trains on Syston station that incorrectly announced Sileby as "SILL-B".

This issue is now resolved as we no longer have audible announcements on the station!

 

[Bob M]

Damn! I was wrong about somebody telling us about Slaithwaite/‘Slawit’.
It might help if posters tell us how they think things should be pronounced compared with the PIS.
I lived in Southampton in the late 70s, and Micheldever was always pronounced ‘Mitchell-deever’ over the PA. Perhaps @Bob M can tell us the right way to say it!

It is Mitchell-devver. However the local river is the Deever.

 

[tommy2215]

The middle 'd' in Guildford is silent, but Rodger on the SWR network pronounces Guildford with the middle 'd' in

 

[365 Networker]

I remember First Capital Connect era announcements at stations used to pronounce St Neots as "Saint Kneeee-uts"

Honourable mention of course goes to Great Northern's Class 387's which happily announce themselves as "This is a, service, to London Kings Cross." I assume the PIS doesn't know how to say Great Northern as they were originally Southern units?

The 365s also used to announce ‘This train is for bLondon kings cross’, before the system was replaced.

 

[yorkie]

Marylebone has so many different pronunciations that there isn't really 1 correct way of pronouncing it.

By that logic any place that people pronounce incorrectly has no correct pronunciation! I don't agree.

Marley-bone is correct pronunciation, as stated in the Bakerloo Line announcements

If people from the Midlands get it wrong, I'd like to know what they would think of someone calling Leicester 'Lei-cester' instead of 'Lester'; it's the same principle.

 

[Andy Pacer]

If people from the Midlands get it wrong, I'd like to know what they would think of someone called Leicester 'Lie-cester' instead of 'Lester'; it's the same principle.

I think they sound very silly

 

[peteb]

Rowley Regis is often mis pronounced as "Rowlee" i.e. as in row row row your boat! Instead of row as in argument!

 

[farci]

There was much hilarity in the Glasgow area some time back when new automated announcements rendered Wemyss Bay as ‘Weem-eez Bay’ instead of the historically correct and usually accepted ‘Weemz Bay’. Here’s an article from The Scotsman on the perils of pronunciation of Scots place names https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/...ardest-place-names-scotland-pronounce-1404993

 

[Parallel]

"Abererch" is probably the worst of several awful pronunciations of stations on the Cambrian Coast: it is announced as Abba-rurch, when it should be, well, I can't really type how it should be said!

To be fair, it is announced correctly onboard TfW trains and at their stations. It’s other stations between Wellington and Birmingham International that get it wrong. They also get Talsarnau wrong too and say TAL-SARN-NOOOO

On board GWR trains, Pembrey is announced as pemBRAAAY. It’s said Pembree

 

[rg177]

I remember when MetroCentre had that naff text-to-speech announcer for a while she would absolutely butcher some of the names.

Heworth was HeeWORTH
Seaham was, for some reason, just "Sea"
Hartlepool was Hartle-pool rather than HartLEpool
Seaton Carew was Seaton Care-oo.

 

[rf_ioliver]

"Abererch" is probably the worst of several awful pronunciations of stations on the Cambrian Coast: it is announced as Abba-rurch, when it should be, well, I can't really type how it should be said!

But you *did* type exactly how it should be said I always cringe at the pronounciation of the LLs in Llanelli for example, but overall the timing and some of the intonations of the automated announcements are always slightly off.

Maybe the mods should enforce the use of IPA in these pronounciation discussion. This is the best I can do: a b ɛ r eː r χ

 

[Class800]

IPA is not known by the general population