Why do people say Burmanham?

[stanwixman]

It really gets my shackles up when people say Burmanem instead of BIrmingham - Whyyyyyyyyyyy do they do this ie Ian wright on Premier All stars ? its Birmingham not too dificult to pronounce is it?

[China Doll]

Oooh... I'm one of these people I'm afraid!

I blame my accent (south east London), it's actually one of those words I just can't say. (Although i'm sure plenty of other londoners don't have this problem!)

[andy-hughes]

It is for ian Wright - who'se undoubted skills as a footballer have not translated into his place as a 'pundit', or a (suddently absent) 'TV personality'.

he may be a likeable, even knowledgable guy, but inarticulacy on TV is always a no-go area - eventually.

On the subject, why does every single newsreader on TV or radio - surely chosen for, and trained in elocution, say 'secatary' when the word is clearly spelled and pronounced 'secretary'?

That bugs me daft!

[stewey]

Same thing in my neck-of-the-woods: people say 'Trono' for 'Toronto'!

[taichiperson]

My pet hate is 'everythink' - uttered many many times by BBC newsreaders, who ought to know better. Is it written like that on the autocue??

[THECORBYLOON]

Ah, but do you pronounce it Burmingum?

[China Doll]

Sighs...

I pronounce it exactly the way TLC wrote it.

I'm sorry. I really can't pronounce it unless I do it very slowly and then I sound like a loon.

Walks off to hang head in shame

[Loosehead]

What about "East Angular" then! and Saaaaafend!

Then there's the whole Bath/grass/laugh thing!

[Ice-Maiden]

I've heard it pronounced Burn-ing-um.

[B00]

I pronounce it the same way as TCL too, with an emphasis on the 'gum' bit.

Mind you, as long as I don't actually have to visit the place that'll do me ;-)


legs it

[Loosehead]

I live in Bournemouth, quite often prounounced "Bawmuff"

[weggiewabbit]

Well, Ian Wright appears to be as thick as two short planks, like many footballers ... but I must mention that Scottish and Irish players seem to be more articulate than their English counterparts for some reason.

I�ve heard Canadians pronounce �Toronto� as �T�ronno�.

[cazzz1975]

Im from Birmingham and I pronounce it Birmingham, footballers are notorious for their dodgy accents, due to incessant mumbling that they spend their lives doing

[Goodsoulette]

I have heard it said more how TCL has written it. Im from Somerset and I say Birmingham.

[jh004j7891]

accent of the birmingham / black country area england - loads of people around here say bermungum instead of birmingham just one of those dialect things i'm afraid, like forred for forehead, sqalling for crawling (that one drives me crackers)

[THECORBYLOON]

B00 I don't pronounce it as I wrote it in ma last post, I was wondering if that was the way stanwixman says it. I pronounce it the way it is spelt, Birmingham because it ends wi "ham" and not "um."

[Hammond Egg]

TCL: How would you pronounce Leicester? Or Norwich? Or Milngavie?

[THECORBYLOON]

As far as I'm aware, there's only one way to pronounce Leicester and Norwich and two ways to pronounce Milngavie, the one I use is Mull-gie.

[Hammond Egg]

Presumably at some stage the spelling and pronunciation of 'Norwich' and 'Leicester' would have matched each other more closely, but through popular usage the current pronunciations have become accepted.

Plenty of English place names ending in -ham, -mouth or -ford have the final syllable shortened. 'Birmingum' just sounds worse the way Brummies say it because of the emphasis we put on the 'g'.

Though as for the original question - I don't know why some people drop the 'g' entirely.

Ice-Maiden, Barry Fry, who was the Birmingham City FC manager, used to pronounce it as 'Burningum.'

[texol]

Im from Hull (Ull) H is dropped here a lot, one thing that really annoys me is correct pron of BATH, since when was there ever an R in the middle, also LAUGH, i say in the words of Roy
Walker "Say what ya see"