[ssba] It seems that we are all united by a strange relationship with London’s place names – at Pronunciation Studio we have never received such a big response to an article before last month’s 10 Horrible London Place Names. Thank you for all of the suggestions you sent on Facebook and on the blog, we’ve gone through and selected 10 more horrible names, and this time we didn’t forget HOLBORN! Home to tennis /ˈtenɪs/, but why is the ‘e’ after the ‘l’? Imagine it’s spelt ‘el’ and the last syllable contains a schwa: The ‘ou’ is just /ɒ/ as in HOT, then there’s exactly the same problem found in ‘Leicester Square’ – ignore the ‘ce’ completely! Don’t say the /s/ in ‘Grosvenor’, and the ‘o’ is a diphthong /əʊ/, the ‘r’ in SQUARE is silent: Now we’re down saaaaf but the ‘th’ isn’t pronounced /θ/ as you may expect. Instead the ‘h’ is silent and you pronounce the ’t’. The ‘ea’ is just an /e/ sound: Designed to confuse us – it doesn’t do what most names ending ‘ham’ do and kill the ‘h’. Instead you pronounce ‘sh’ as /ʃ/ as in shhhhh BE QUIET! [thrive_leads id=’7075′] A bit like GREENWICH with its silent ‘w’, but also be careful with the ’s’ – it’s pronounced /z/: Full of hipsters, but it’s also weird because although the only written vowel is ‘e’, it creates 3 vowel sounds – /ɑ:/ /ə/ and /e/: Don’t look for an explanation, just take our word for it that the ‘ui’ is pronounced as /aɪ/ as in WHY. Oh why oh why… Where to begin with this one? Start with a long /ʃɑ:f/, don’t say the ’t’ or the ‘u’. So /ʃɑ:fsbri/. Then the ‘ue’ in AVENUE contains a /j/ sound like YOU: Home to Pronunciation Studio and by far the most requested name in this article, many say it should have been top of the list. It’s actually pronounced in several ways by native speakers, but if you remove the ‘l’ and the ‘r’ and use the diphthong /əʊ/ in the first syllable, you won’t go wrong:More Horrible London Place Names
11. Wimbledon
12. Gloucester Road
13. Grosvenor Square
14. Streatham
15. Lewisham
16. Chiswick
17. Clerkenwell
18. Ruislip
19. Shaftesbury Avenue
20. Holborn