@Sheal -my Dad was from London, and he worked very hard at getting names correct after he moved up here. Growing up, I suppose we never thought anything of it, but when we were older, he'd never fully lost his accent, so there were a few little 'twinges' in there that we could detect There's always local/regional accents and a manner of speaking, so that certainly affects the way a word is pronounced, or how it's heard. The ross part of Culross often sounds like russ, so it depends on individual sounds etc. I forgot about Clachertyfarlie @Philippa - it's pretty much as it looks. The ch can be more of a ck sound though. Either's fine for that. I was on Ben Venue last year [Trossachs] and I met a nice couple from the north of England with their 2 children. The Dad asked me how to pronounce the Venue part of the name. He thought it would be as in the word for a location. I just said it's Ve -noo. The emphasis is much more on the ue part rather than the ve, a bit like saying Gnu. I thought about it later, and I could understand why he thought it was that way, due to the spelling. What always gets me is - how come my Dad could pronounce 'loch' correctly, but many others can't. I bet if you asked them to say Johann Sebastian Bach, they could manage it
Aukenshool @fairygirl ? You cn tell I've been working on it can't you I think I might get away with Milngavie now but I'm not sure I could even attempt the ClakertyFairyKnows job - it would come out as "You know, that Clackety Wotsit's name place" . Now to get my own back........... can anyone pronounce Chedzoy ( west Somerset village) correctly ? Despite it only being a few miles away, it was only when I mentioned it to an elderly neighbour and she said " Oh, you mean ******* ?.
Ok- give us the spiel on that one @Philippa ! Clackerty wotsit's fine A lot of our place name have their origins in Gaelic, so that can make it harder. Even Milngavie can sound like Mull-guy rather than Mill- guy, depending on where you're from. I saw this yesterday on our tea time news. Made me laugh. Oxford English Dictionary is hoaching with new Scottish words 'Aye right' is a particular favourite in the west, especially Glasgow. You need the accent to really pull it off!
