Bristolian/ Bristonian

[Marijn]

Is "Bristolian" correct? If so, why do lots of people say "Bristonian"?

[Peter Pedant]

when they say bristonian
they are in fact saying bristolian

ya knew Bristol's name was Bristow ?
Bristol dialect was to add a soft 'l' on the end of words
so they said Bristol
and then they changed the spelling

There are two el sounds in English - the one at the beginning of words is a linguodental - the tongue touches the teeth as we say 'l'

and in the middle of the words the el is a velative - tongue against the palate. Try it and see

the en is also a velative and so they get confused

The Oirish accent sounds odd to us Brits as they only have one el sound (lingui dental I think _)

srry technical explanation for a technical linguistic question

[Marijn]

Thanks. So are you saying that when people who come from Bristol say "Bristolian", it comes out sounding like "Bristonian"?

[Old_Geezer]

I have never heard anyone say Bristonian, and I lived in Bristol a very long time.

Are you sure this isn't all to do with a vivid imagination ?

[Old_Geezer]

Anyway it's more like adding an au than an l, truth be known.

[Marijn]

Hello OG. No, I've heard people say it :-) And if you Google the word "Bristonian", you can see that other people have also heard it 'mispronounced' as well.

[Old_Geezer]

Must be folk who don't live there, and as a result have a strange accent.

[Marijn]

True :-)