Speak a ommon spelling error list (hints on demand)

[Piggybacking here; I don't seem to have received the original.]

Another case of a rule with exceptions is the notorious -cester place
names. Almost all have a perverse pronunciation that you just have to
learn:

Leicester = Lester
Gloucester = Glosster
Towcester = Towster (usually to rhyme with toaster, which I think is
absurd - rhyming the first syllable with cow sounds less like a
kitchen appliance!)
Bicester = Bisster

There are two towns in this region called Gloucester and Forster. They
both rhyme with the English Gloucester.

In the case of Forster, I don't know whether the "r" was accidentally
added to the spelling, or dropped from the pronunciation.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

On 2017-09-15 1:04 AM, Peter Moylan wrote:
[Piggybacking here; I don't seem to have received the original.]

Another case of a rule with exceptions is the notorious -cester place
names. Almost all have a perverse pronunciation that you just have to
learn:

Leicester = Lester
Gloucester = Glosster
Towcester = Towster (usually to rhyme with toaster, which I think is
absurd - rhyming the first syllable with cow sounds less like a
kitchen appliance!)
Bicester = Bisster

There are two towns in this region called Gloucester and Forster. They
both rhyme with the English Gloucester.

In the case of Forster, I don't know whether the "r" was accidentally
added to the spelling, or dropped from the pronunciation.


Last summer, I encountered one of those classic confusions of towns. One
of my sisters came to visit, touring the island en route with a friend
who wanted to visit her ancestral homeland for the first time. One of
the main points of her visit was to see a very elderly uncle in English
Harbour, which she would do while my sister was visiting me. It wasn't
until she was partway across the ocean that she discussed these plans by
phone with a relative saying that they'd travel together as far as
Clarenville, at which point my sister would continue to St. John's and
the friend would go to English Harbour. There was a long pause on the
other end of the line, and the relative said "Wouldn't it be better if
you leave the Trans-Canada at Grand Falls?" (That is, some 240 km west
of Clarenville.) There are two English Harbours in Newfoundland, the one
in Trinity Bay and one, better known (for some value of "better") as
English Harbour West, in Fortune Bay. That's opposite sides of the island.

The friend did visit her uncle, but it took a LOT more driving than she
had expected!

--
Cheryl