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Ed'n'bruh will do fine.
In our local Edinburgh dialect the initial E is a lot more "closed" and "long" than the guys down here say it!
With regard to the "shire" pronunciations in the names of counties in the three UK countries (discounting Irelands North and South here) it depends where you live I reckon. In Scotland many people (but not all by any means) actually pronounce it as "shire" to rhyme with "fire" - with the "R" clearly rolled. So "Worcestershire" comes out as "WOOS-turr-shire" (Rs defined) while down here in England it's something like "WOOS-tuh-shuh (Rs non existent). Posh RP English English people from Surrey or Berkshire etc may well say "WOOS-tah=shah" :-)
Berkshire is interesting - some mates and I recently went to Windsor along the A40 and the signs as we entered the county said "Welcome to the Royal County of Berkshire" but we could already see Windsor Castle on the horizon long before we came to that sign.....somewhere as we approached Slough (rhymes with "cow"). Berkshire - I say "BARK-shire" - my mates say "BARK-shuh". I'd like to hear them have a go at our own Scottish county of Kirkcudbrightshire - in Galloway region, in the SW corner of Scotland. Ha!
FYI it's pronounced "KIRK-cu-bree-shire" (the "cu" bit the same sound as the French "du"_ - or if you're English like my mates here: "KIRK-coo-bre-shuh".
The Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce (made in Worcester itself) is great sprinkled over cheese on toast or a Welsh rarebit (same as C on T but with onion and tomato added) or on a well done Aberdeen Angus sirloin or fillet steak.
I think the Americans have it right when they say "tom-ay-to" rather than out "tom-ah-to" - but where does that leave "potato"? That should stay as it is and we should go "tom-ay-to" so that it's uniformity all round. Actually some Brits (not many by any means) do say it the American way as it's more logical really. "Pot-ah-to" just sounds ludicrous....nobody says it that way as far as I know.
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WORCESTERSHIRE
To me, the sauce is woosta-shur. (There is, after all, a "Wooster" [Worcester] in Massachusetts. So Lea and Perrins may be a UK company, but I always associate the sauce with MA.)
BERKSHIRES
The mountains in the eastern part of Massachusetts are the Berk-sheers (and gorgeous, too, I might add!) -- although my relatives in South Dartmouth (Sowth Dartmuth) would say "Bu'ksheeahs", with the ' representing the weirdness that happens when you've altered the U as before an R, but can't quite get the R itself out. You non-rhotic Brits know the sound -- it's what you all do when you say "bird".
SHIRE
THe huge draft horse is still a "shyer" -- probably the only time poor "shire" gets pronounced as spelled!
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Yep, I always pronounce "the Berkshires" as [D@ "b3`kSI@`z] or "the burk-sheers", but I always pronounce "New Hampshire" as [nu "h{mpS@`] or "noo hampshur".
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Silly boy! Everyone knows it's really "noo 'ampshah"! ;)
Just kidding. Live Free Or Die!
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As I live in Worcester (UK), born and bred, I pronouce it HOME! :-)
Joking aside. Locally we pronounce it Woos-ter and Woos-ter-sher respectively. According to a local history documents it has been called Uueogorna (vii cent.); Weogorna ceastre (ix cent.); Wirccester (xi and xii cent.); Wigornia (xii to xvii cent.). If my memory serves me correctly the Roman name for the city was actually Vertis.
By the way Uriel. Shire is always pronouced like the horse when not prefixed by a town name. Have you never read Tolkein? A Shire is simply an administrative area. In times gone by they were prosided over by a "Shire Reeve" which later became "Sherrif".
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I did know that. Of course, there are no "shires" in the US so I really have little occasion to use the word unless I'm talking about the horse! (One of my favorite breeds since I was a kid, by the way.)
My dad lived for a couple of years in Huntingdonshire (that's just too many suffixes tacked together for me!) and was always careful to say "shur". Also had to learn to buy things by the gram, which I never was able to wrap my head around, but that's a different thread. ;) The Z at the end of our last name was also a different problem ... one that caused tons of confusion until he learned to call it a "zed" instead of a "zee".
By the way, am I right in understanding that the UK has no sheriffs anymore, and is faintly amused that they are still common in the US? (We always have county sheriffs. Only county. City cops are never sheriffs.)
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When I was in the US I had an absolute nightmare ordering 'TER-MAR-TERS' with my salad. After about the tenth attempt the bloke finally cottoned on and said "oh you want TOE-MAY-TOES". I suppose I could have said "those red vegetable/fruit things that they make tomato sauce out of" to speed things up, but it was too funny - bless his cotton socks.
For the record, I say WOOS-TER-SHA for some reason (this is the 'plummy'or RP pronunciation I think) whereas everyone else in my area pronounces it WOOS-TER-SHEAR. Same with Berkshire, I say BARK-SHA but most say BARK-SHEAR.
I work with many Americans and I have heard the pronunciation WAR-CHESTER-SHIRE a few times!!! All Americans, to my knowledge Berkshire as it is spelt - BERK-SHIRE.
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That should read as "All Americans, to my knowledge pronounce Berkshire as it is spelt - Berk-shire".
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Jono:
Worcester.........the Faithful City is it not? :-)
King Charles II fled from Worcester and hid up an apple tree. You couldn't make it up could you? The tree at Boscobel is still there apparently even though it's been hit by lightning a few times since 1651.
Lovely view of the Malvern Hills from Worcester Nice looking racecourse not far from the railway lines and bridge - like the New Road Worcestershire County Cricket Club ground it often becomes a lake when the Severn overflows - like recently when Upton on Severn became Upton under Severn and Tewkesbury became an island
Foregate Street train station
Shrub Hill train station (why do you need two train stations?)
Powick bridge - old and new
The Commandery museum Lowesmoor
The magnificent towered Cathedral - last resting place of luminaries like King John (who lost all his jewels in The Wash and was the monarch of England who first set out the English Constitution through the Magna Carta in 1215) and also the once Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin who had to deal with the King Edward VIII affair with the American social climber and King Nicker Wallis Simpson c 1936
Street market in Angel Place...I loved that butchery/meat guy selling all kinds of stuff and yelling out from his shop on wheels...
....and a shopping street mysteriously called The Shambles! What's with that then? :-) How did it get that name? It looked anything but a shambles to me....the shops are cool. Friar Street is nice. And a pub called The Ketch - easy to get away from....M5 close by.
Worcester and the River Severn. Nice. Does the Bore reach up to there or does it stop short at Gloucester? I'd love to see it. Seconfd biggest in the world. The biggie for this year has already happened apparently.
I'm getting to know more about England than I do about Scotland now!
Cheers
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I know this about England as well....Huntingdonshire. It no longer exists! It was swallowed up by Cambridgeshire years ago - greedy old Cambs.! They should regurgitate it so that it can take its proud place again on the map of England, like the even tinier Rutland was after Leicestershire first swallowed up little old Rutland but was forced to spit it out again in local government reorganisation. Rutland is once more a county in its own right even though its population is not much bigger than the average Scottish (or English, I suppose) small country town.
Bring back Huntingdonshire!! Oliver Cromwell was a son of Hunts. - born and bred in Brampton in 1599, not far from Huntingdon town itself.
A recent UK Prime Minister John Major was the MP (Member of Parliament) for Huntingdonshire....one of the safest Tory (Conservative) parliamentary seats in the whole of the UK. They don't count Conservative votes there - they simply weigh them. :-)
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Tom-ah-toes /tom-may-toes are actually fruit are they not? Anyone fancy a tomato crumble with custard? eek!
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Sheriffs - in Scotland they certainly exist in a legal capacity - they are judges and preside over Sherrif Courts as they are known, as opposed to the higher level Supreme Courts. Just one of the differences between Scotland and (jointly) England and Wales in legal and constitutional terms.
I believe that England and Wales also have beings who are called High Sheriffs of all counties - apparently it's mostly ceremonial and is in effect a chief executive representing the Crown in each individual county...such as the High Sheriff of WOOS-tuh-shuh or BARK-shuh or LES-tuh-shuh or GLOS-tuh-shuh or CHESH-uh and all the other -shuhs across the land.
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Here we just give them a dusty old car and a badge. They probably have to supply their own guns. ;)
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