Also, English has the 5 vowels of the Latin script representing some 25 vowels sounds, to the point that consonants can turn into vowels with no rhyme or reason. The best way to learn that English is nonsense is to live in Britain and learn local city and village names. They all have made up pronunciation rules, evolved over the centuries, sure, but they forgot to update the bloody name on the map to match the sounds.
As a descendant of the Romans, I can only shake my head at such barbarism.
Ha! And don’t even get me started with the Scots and their whiskey. Bruichladdich, Pittyvaich, and Tè Bheag? Bunnahabhain Stiuireadair? Auchroisk??
I swear they only do this to mess with people.
In these cases it's all Scottish Gaelic, which has a complex but very consistent phonics system. Complaining about it would be like complaining that Russian vodka brands are hard to pronounce because you can't read Cyrillic
So true. I always wondered why is Leicester pronounced as "lester" and not as "laichester".
Because the components are Leice-ster, not Lei-cester. Same for Glouce-ster, Worce-ster etc. A very refined pronunciation might emit both "s" sounds, but colloquially they get smooshed together into one.
Grenich anyone?
Soderk (Southwark), Marlibon (Marylebone), Reding (Reading), Bister (Bicester), Sozbery (Salisbury), Frum (Frome), Worick (Warwick), Noridge (Norwich), Darby (Derby), and the various Gloster, Lester, Wooster
Yeah but Greenwich is a place known world-wide, and I guess a high percentage of people mispronounce it (I was one of them).
It's known worldwide, but many people never heard an actual Britt pronouncing it.
In my country, it was always pronounced as green-each. Only in this thread I realised it's written Green-wich and pronounced gren-each.
And I'm pretty sure I'll forget it quickly and just keep calling it green-each.
... Hoyk (Hawick), Kircoodbree (Kirkcudbright), Mullguy (Milngavie), Cooriss (Culross), Geeree (Garioch), Eyela (Islay)
However, some Americans even have trouble with Glasgow (Glaz-go, not Glass-gow) and Edinburgh (Ed-in-burra, not Edin-bro)
Edinburgh is morr commonly pronounced “edinbruh”.
Glasgow and Edinburgh are pronounced "Glesca" and "Embra" by their natives but I wouldn't recommend it to others.
I've heard some Americans pronounce it "Edin-bo-ro" which is entirely off.