List of places in England with counterintuitive pronunciations: M–Z

This is a sublist of List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations.

Pronunciations for the following common suffixes are regular pronunciations, despite being counterintuitive at first glance:

  • -b(o)rough and -burgh – ,
  • -bury – ,
  • -cester –
  • -combe – ; although the standalone word 'combe' or 'coombe' is (including in place names such as Castle Combe and Coombe Bissett)
  • -gh – silent
  • -ham –
  • -holm(e) – ,
  • -shire – ,
  • -quay -
  • -wich - ,
  • -wick – '''{{#tag:ref|Accordingly: Southwick, Hampshire -
    Anomalies: Southwick, West Sussex is pronounced , like Painswick, Gloucestershire, Prestwick and Hardwick as well as Pickwick a former village in Wiltshire through which the novel The Pickwick Papers got its title, but these by population represent a very small minority.|group= n}}
  • -mouth –

Pronunciation of the following common prefix is variable depending on dialect:

  • Al- ;

Place names in England

M

  • Magdalen Hill, Winchester, Hampshire –
  • Manea, Cambridgeshire -
  • Marholm, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire –
  • Marlborough, Wiltshire –
  • Marylebone, London – , or {{#tag:ref|Wells also lists but that is obsolete.|group= n}}
  • Masham, North Yorkshire –
  • Meols:
    • Meols, the Wirral, Merseyside –
    • Meols Cop, Southport –
  • Meopham, Kent –
  • Mildenhall, Wiltshire –
  • Mousehole, Cornwall –
  • Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire –

N

  • River Nene, Northamptonshire – (intuitive also heard)
  • Norwich, Norfolk – {{#tag:ref|Like Berwick, the fact of the "r" being pronounced with the last syllable negates an intuitive interpretation. Many people outside of its area/history would have a very low chance of guessing this.|group= n}}

O

  • Olney, Buckinghamshire – (local pronunciation);
  • Osbournby, Lincolnshire –
  • Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire – (local pronunciation);
  • Ovingham, Northumberland –

P

  • Plaistow:
    • Plaistow, Newham, Greater London –
    • Plaistow, West Sussex –
  • Plymouth, Devon –
  • Portesham, Dorset – (old-fashioned), currently or
  • Postwick, Norfolk –
  • Poxwell, Dorset –
  • Prideaux Castle, Cornwall –
  • Prinknash, Gloucestershire –
  • Prudhoe, Northumberland -
  • Puncknowle, Dorset –

Q

  • Quadring, Lincolnshire -
  • Quernmore, Lancashire -

R

  • Rainworth, Nottinghamshire –
  • Rampisham, Dorset -
  • Ratlinghope, Shropshire – {{#tag:ref|Sometimes intuitive also.|group= n}}
  • Reading, Berkshire – {{#tag:ref|Can be taken as a group with Beaminster, Leamington and Yeavering|group= n}}
  • Rievaulx, North Yorkshire –
  • Ruislip, Greater London –

S

  • St Ive, Cornwall – {{#tag:ref|c.f. St Ives in Cornwall as well as Cambridgeshire and Dorset |group= n}}
  • St Teath, Cornwall –
  • Salisbury, Wiltshire – , {{#tag:ref|Or occasional, traditional, informal pronunciation|group= n}}
  • Sandwich, Kent - ,
  • Shrewsbury, Shropshire – or
  • Shaftesbury, Dorset (and the associated earldom) – ,or
  • Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire – pronunciation varies , {{#tag:ref|Many more variants are researchable, rarer, down to /sluːwit/ and /slaʊwit/|group= n}}
  • South Elmsall, West Yorkshire –
  • Southwark, Greater London – {{#tag:ref|locally and in some dialects |group= n}}
  • Southwell, Nottinghamshire – or intuitively{{#tag:ref|Racecourse commentators always use former rather than the latter.|group= n}}
  • Sproxton, Leicestershire –
  • Staithes, North Yorkshire – locally
  • Stawell, Somerset –
  • Steyning, West Sussex – ;
  • Stiffkey, Norfolk – or intuitively
  • Stivichall or Styvechale, Coventry –
  • Stroxton, Lincolnshire –

T

  • Tacolneston, Norfolk –
  • Teignmouth, Devon –
  • Teston, Kent –
  • Thame, Oxfordshire, and River Thame -
  • River Thames and all names derived from it – {{#tag:ref|cf. Thames River (Connecticut) pronounced |group= n}}
  • Threekingham, Lincolnshire –
  • Tideswell, Derbyshire – {{#tag:ref|The family name Tideswell locally and in its senior branch pronounced , e.g. 4crests.com Coat of Arms and A dictionary of English surnames Percy Hide Reaney & Richard Middlewood Wilson|group= n}}
  • Tintwistle, Derbyshire –
  • Todmorden, West Yorkshire – {{#tag:ref|The source notes only the BBC uses |group= n}}.
  • Torpenhow, Cumbria – locally or an intuitive
  • Towcester, Northants -
  • Trewoon, Cornwall –
  • Trottiscliffe, Kent –

U

  • Ulgham, Northumberland –

W

  • Warwick – {{#tag:ref|likewise in road names and Warwickshire|group= n}}
  • Wavertree, Lancashire – mostly obsolete
  • Market Weighton, East Riding of Yorkshire –
  • Welwyn (and its Garden City), Hertfordshire –
  • Wesham, Lancashire -
  • Whittingham, Northumberland –
  • Widecombe, Devon –
  • Wisbech, Cambridgeshire –
  • Witham, Essex –
  • East Woodhay and West Woodhay –
  • Woolfardisworthy, Devon – or
  • Worcester –
  • Worstead, Norfolk -
  • Wressle, East Riding of Yorkshire –
  • Wrotham, Kent –
  • Wybunbury, Cheshire –
  • Wycombe, (High) and (West), Buckinghamshire –
  • Wymondham, Norfolk – {{#tag:ref|Regional pronunciation.|group= n}}
  • Wytham, Oxfordshire – {{#tag:ref|Similar to Witham, Essex|group= n}}

Y

  • Yeavering, Northumberland –
  • Yeaton –

Z

  • Zouch, Nottinghamshire –
  • Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire –

See also

  • List of places in England with counterintuitive pronunciations: A–L
  • Grapheme
  • English spelling
  • Pronunciation of Chinese names in English - counterintuitive Q, X, C, Zh, etc. in words romanised in Pinyin.

Notes and References

Notes
References