Pronunciation of Some Proper Names

New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1906, Page 34

Pronunciation of Some Proper Names

in.n,J *H le cult , ured Englishman wants to realize how ignorant he really is,' writes Mr. Audrey Lang, ' let Si i.m 7 ,- 1 *? P ronounc « a selected list of, say, a hundied.'Lnglish proper names. He will certainly be ennrnmS P himself on the back if he succeeds in pronouncing a score of them at all correctly ' linnl «F oUrS n'i lhere are certain eccentric pronunciations of well-known names which would not present SLn bs J*cle to most men, such as Grosvenor, BeauviiSik mond , ek T, and Farquharson ; Reuter comes O«rv Ji? i, ■ lps ', and *° do such names as Lo JJutx arHtl Majonbanks ; but let us get away from this select and familiar circle and we shall soon find m»rK ay oo n ground, although the landhv »ny m a l * n " h^ enough lo the rye. It is not by any means eveiy man who knows that LevesonCrowcr is properly pionouneed Loosen-Gore • that a well-known general is called by his friends Bay-den roti ; that anolhei popular soldier is riehtly addressscd as Pool farcy , or that Lord Knollys, the Kings private secretary, is known as Noles. men who, without special enlightenment would pronounce DaUell, Dee-ell ,' t'laveihoiSe Clayvcwe ; or hi! Si?' W lecn v alihoiißh he would certainly convict himself of ignorance if he failed to do so ' How thJ ny n' n ' 0 1 -. ll^ who are familiar with the names of Mr. Bourchit-r, the actor, or Mr. CarSlo'S 10 ' lhe milhonajn-philanthropiht, gl ve them the corIcc..nt P n? UI Vi latXOns *"5 Owch , cr ancl Ll amay-ghie, with the ' l on . the sec °nd syllable ;or who would pronounce Abergavenny as Abeigeimy, Aastruther as Anslei, ol Beauheu as Bewly ? shn.K'i ln ii h ° J iame , - Of aI! lhat is reasonable H.S«m • rf bC c , han S c(l Ulto Hume, and Hotham into i£ Sn t S // ervis \ Keighky is pionounced Keely by aH except the good people who live in that Yorkshiretown and they call it Kecthly ; while KeightiL •', ' i° S k Wh ° know ' KeetJ y- Pulteney loses Ihr™ Vm* becomes I'ole-tny , Magheramoine drops three letteis and is abbreviated to Maramorne ; while Kuthyen, for some equally obseuic reason is metamorphosed ,nto Rivven. Sir Claude de Crespigny anilo% °, fl6f 16 *lame1 ame ,l, l re Pl»ny • Lord B«ry, heir to n,?, *\ ° Abe;inalle - i& addressed as Bcny ; but CharieviUe, "?%£?* °' the " tinct ™ ld ™ of r , Ca . i ;r w .is Cairie or C'aroo, just as you please • Cassilhs is Camels; but Cheyne, as most of us know from the famous Row of that name, is Chayney. Urquhart is shoitened into Uikurt ; Vaux beSf' U \ ( \ n / !L ot , hiD * morei; lllc hu »ter of big game is not Mr. Selous, but Mr. Seloo ; Lord ValleVille« S Y al t k>ytort ' a » fl Lord Jersey's family nwS is i.,i 4nHh US t eVer n \ ake the Inistak e of pronouncing Smith as ,t , s spelled, Smythe we must call Mr ] S ri l We must address Mr. Sandys as Sands SrHmlr S T'^ tha t gOod oltl Scottish name, as Scnmjer, and Mr. Tyrwhitt as Tir-rit, to rhyme with spirit. Menaies is not what it seems in print -it is Ming-ies or Meen-yes ; Meux degenerates into Mews ; while Lord Wemyss would not know he was addressed unless you pronounced his title Weems ■ you must always call Mr. Wriothesley either Ri-othsly or S? n best pleases him', and do nS forborough answers to the name of YarOuless and 001-ess -(the correct pronunciation) are near enough to pass unquestioned ; but why should Pennefathcr in print become Prnnyfeather in speech » to Koth-is, the oth ' Tjeing sueerstivelv nroiiniinf.M as in the. word 'bother.' Be sS?e to proJS Bel mgham with a soft ' g '-Bellinjam ; Geoghegan that honorable Irish name, as Gay-gun, 'or Gcegun and bt. Leger as Sil-lenger ; while we must it equally careful to speak of Lord Coke as Cook of Mr Featherstonhaugh as Mr. Festunhaw, or ' Fanshaw (though Fetherstoji-foaw would pass muster), and Lord In^estre as Ingestry. And, to give but a few more examples of these eccentric pronunciations, if we arc to pass as men of the world and of knowledge we nnisT never fail to pronounce Foljambe as Fool-iam •