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What is the correct pronunciation of Lerwick ?

(120 Posts)
NotAGran55 Tue 05-May-20 06:38:40

I am listening to an audiobook book by Ann Cleeves set in Shetland narrated by Kenny Blyth .

He is alternating between ‘Lerrick ‘ and ‘ Lurwick ‘ which is rather odd .

Deedaa Thu 07-May-20 20:21:36

Daddima Milngavie is a brilliant one. Years ago I had to deal with some customers from Milngavie who were always very impressed that I could pronounce it.

mcem Fri 08-May-20 21:02:04

Friockheim (upthread) is Freekum!

NotAGran55 Sat 09-May-20 07:08:57

I watched the first episode of Raven Black yesterday and they pronounced it as Lerrick .

Dottydots Sat 09-May-20 10:04:20

My son's friend lives in Cowbit, pronounced Cubbit.

pollyperkins Sun 10-May-20 08:28:08

I got Uttoxeter wrong it should be Ucheter not Utecher! Im confusing myself now!
Dalziel is also a surname pronounced Diel as in Dalziel & Pascoe .
Reminds me of Captain Mainwaring (in Dads Army ) pronounced Mannering.

Alexa Sun 10-May-20 09:34:46

Re Dalziel pronunciation:

The z is a printer's misprint of an old letter called a yogh which was pronounced like we pronounce y. The yogh looked like an elongated 3.

Elegran Sun 10-May-20 09:44:28

And The Y in things like "Ye Olde Shoppe" is an interpretation of a letter for "th", called "thorn"which looked like this - Þ, þ

It was in the Old English, Gothic, Old Norse, Old Swedish, and modern Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English.

Elegran Sun 10-May-20 09:46:02

This is a yogh - Ȝ ȝ (capital and small letters)

Alexa Sun 10-May-20 09:47:58

Thanks Elegran. Some keyboard you have there that uses runes!

Alexa Sun 10-May-20 09:53:57

Actually I have theory the yogh was pronounced with the uvula like Geordies do for r. So the yogh might have been not quite like a y more like a vocal ch as in loch but voiced. I bet Geordie pronunciation is quite ancient.

Are you a specialist in the speaking of ancient languages such as Anglo Saxon?

Marmight Sun 10-May-20 10:25:39

Kingussie anyone?!
or Burntisland...

timetogo2016 Sun 10-May-20 10:32:08

As long as we all understand what we mean i don`t think it matters too much.
I really get annoyed when people correct others when really they can`t be 100% sure.

Elegran Sun 10-May-20 10:59:59

No, it is not my keyboard. I copied and pasted from the internet, but it is surprising what foreign letters and symbols there are in the fonts on a perfectly ordinary keyboard.

Alexa I'm no expert, but Old and Middle English and a little bit of the old Scandinavian languages were a part of my English language course long-ago. I found the links between languages facinating. They map the influence of colonisation and trade - history embedded in speech. The main influence at the moment is from across the Atlantic!

Elegran Sun 10-May-20 11:07:57

Indeed, timetogo2016, but it is also annoying when someone is believes that something is right (or OK) when you do know they are talking rubbish. We had visitors once from the States. When we drove them over the Carter Bar ( a high point on the English -Scottish border which has had its name for centuries), they really did think that it had been named after President Carter. That is how misconceptions turn into myths and mistakes become normal usage.

Calendargirl Sun 10-May-20 11:09:40

The place name ‘Burgh’ is pronounced differently. Sometimes as Burr, sometimes as Bruff, and sometimes as Burrow.

annodomini Sun 10-May-20 11:19:16

Marmight, when I was a child, we drove over to Fife every summer and it wasn't until I was a student, travelling by train around the Fife coast, that I realised that Burntisland wasn't 'Burntis land', but actually Burnt island!

grumppa Sun 10-May-20 12:10:50

pollyperkins, in the dim and distant past I played rugby for Magdalen against Magdalene, and both colleges called themselves Maudlin. We actually were maudlin, we lost.

pollyperkins Mon 11-May-20 10:52:24

Grumppa- I stand corrected over Magdalene college - Im more familiar with Oxford than Cambridge!
Alexa - very interesting about the pronunciation of Dalziel - makes sense!

Alexa Mon 11-May-20 11:20:26

Elegran, I love etymology too for the same reason "They map the influence of colonisation and trade - history embedded in speech". I especially love toponymy which holds clues to the most basic names such as rivers , which link to social history by way of who used rivers for navigation and so forth.

For instance the main sort of navigable rivers that connect with the North Sea have names such as Tay, and Thames, all have the same Sanscrit root.

Alexa Mon 11-May-20 11:29:31

Arguably

Elegran Mon 11-May-20 11:33:43

There is a hill somewhere (I forget where now, but the present name incorporates elements like Dun, Pen, and so on.) which was named and renamed by successive waves of inhabitants, who each took the previous name in the previous language and incorporated it with their own word for "hill". As the first name just meant "the hill", the next became "hill hill", the following one translated as "hill-hill hill" and eventually it was "hill-hill-hill hill"

grumppa Mon 11-May-20 14:56:27

Like Avon or Avon meaning river. So Shakespeare's Stratford is on the River River.

grumppa Mon 11-May-20 14:57:25

Afon or Avon! Autocorrect should be put down.

Alexa Mon 11-May-20 18:02:59

Avon is Q-Celtic (Irish and Scottish Gaelic) for abhainn which means a large stream. Or from the p-Celtic(Welsh) afon.
Other river names are from the Q-Celtic uisge which means water, and has also given its name to the water of life= whisky.
The River Usk and Esk are uisge names.

The old peoples did not like to do away with original old river names as rivers were inhabited by spirits that might take their revenge on people who tried to interfere with them too much.

MawB Sun 17-May-20 17:45:22

Elegran thank you so much for recommending the book of Marsali Taylor! I am hooked.
Incidentally the glossary at the back gives the pronunciation of Lerwick as Lerook
So that answers OP’s question.