I love how obtuse the answer is. A perfectly correct response to the grammar of the first statement, but utterly obtuse. And exactly what I'd expect of my eldest daughter. https://www.reddit.com/r/technicallythe ... _and_cats/
Sent this to a Christian friend of mine. Her reply was along the panicky lines of "I've always been a cat person... has my entire life been a SHAM??" To which I reassured her by saying that, in truth, the cat owned her.
Without inflections in the language, you have to add verbs to make sure the correct meaning is gained!
Yes, I'm afraid it is a bit UK-centric... One of my favourite bits in an opera called (I kid you not) Elisabetta al Castello di Kenilworth, is a character singing "Lie-chester, Lie-chester" when calling out to the Earl of Leicester.
On the subject of unlikely opera settings, Donizetti once wrote Emilia di Liverpool. Yes, really.
Looking at Leicester why wouldn't you pronounce it Lie-Cester? The actual pronunciation of 'Lester' seems irrational.
Why would you pronounce 'Woolfardisworthy' (Devon) as 'Wool-sery'? Or Trottiscliffe (Kent) as 'Tros-lee'?
And it's so weird hearing Kevin Kostner in 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves' talk about Notting-HAM when locals pronounce it closer to 'Notting-gum'. [Not to mention the fact it takes him 1 day on a horse to start at Dover, go past Nottingham, and continue to Hadrian's wall, then return 100 miles back on himself to get to Nottingham. 400 miles on one horse in a day is a most startling feat. It's hard enough in a car in the UK with the current state of the roads, 30 miles a day in mediaeval times would have been hard to achieve.]
Indeed, Richard. There is a very good reason why the abbey at St Albans was so rich: it was the favoured first stop outside London for any king or nobleman heading north: 19 miles, and that was a push.
Re pronunciations: In my early years here last century, I often was tripped up by the way place names were spoken. When one has only read the name, well, let's say Lie-chester wasn't the worst possible crime! Scotland has a few, too; one is Drymen along the West Highland Way. Nope: Drimmon (probably originally something to do with the Drummond family). And let's not even try to sort out -burg, -burgh, ok?
In one episode of the 1970s American sitcom Nanny & The Professor Nanny's fiancé arrives from England. He rejoices in the name Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh, pronounced Chumley Fanshaw.
Edited: Apparently at least some people blessed with that last name insist that pronunciation is a myth, and pronounce it as spelled