TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4878, 16 September 1925, Page 3

TRAPS FOR THE UNWARY

QUEER NAME PRONUNCIATIONS. EXPERIENCES IN ENGLAND. An American Journalist In the followering amusing article tells pf his experiences in England when trying to pronounce English names:— i naa never suspected that such idiosyncrasies in pronunciation existed, and I fell into a good many pitfalls before I got out of the country, and got a good many shocks from first to last. I had a little business to do along with my pleasure, and an American friend in London gave me a lettei- to an English business man. I say a “friend,” but he was, not at all a friend, else he would have pronounced the Englishman’s name for me ; but the truth of the matter was that he wanted me to get caught. He’d been caught himself and he wanted to let another squirm. The Englishman’s name was Colclough. I pronounced it as it was spelled, and he blandly said, “Pronounced Cokely, if you don’t mind.” Of course, I didn’t mind in the least; but I was awfully shocked.

Mr “Cokely” was a good sort, iff spite of his-name, and lie gave me several business cards, but without pronouncing the names on tnem. I took them unsuspectingly, never dreaming that there were any more freaks in pronunciation, and thinking “Cokely” only a coincidence. I found out soon after, however, that it was a habit, and not a coincidence. •One of the cards read, Messrs Harenc and Harenc. I pronounced it Harenc, giving every letter its due ; but I was up against Jshpck number two when the clerk superciliously pronounced it Haren.

I was beginning to wake up. I looked at the other cards carefully, and they seemed very innocent. One read Hayhurst and Hough, and the other Ralph and St. John. They were dead easy. There could not be anything to twist about them. They had a good American appearance. No pitfalls there ! So I sailed in on the first one, and when.it came back to me Hurst and Huff it was a worse shock than the first. Then I got fresh and just low-down American and said, “What’is the matter, with the Hay." and the fellow, who attached an R to all his A’s, said, “I beg your pardon And then I remembered that one must not expect a sense of humour to appear in England, and I said, blithely, “Oh, nothing, nothing,” and he looked a_ little dazed - and amazed, and of course set me down as one more of those crazy Americans.

I was getting timid by this time ; so when it-came to speaking Ralph and St. John out loud I trembled a little. Of course there was only one possible why to pronounce the two names that I could think of, but I was not quite sure, so I shirked my duty and just merely asked if these gentlemen were in. The boy in buttons and no chin said Mr “Rafe” was out, but Mr “Sinjin”- was in. So I saw Mr “Sinjin,” but could hardly speak ; I was so dazed.

.After that it got to be a sort of still hunt with me. I ran down every queer name I could find and set it down in a little black book just to show slow-going,, Americans at home what was doing in the language. It is na incredible list. Some of the twistings are so grotesque' that my good Yankee friends won’t believe me when I pronounce them. It’s like learning English all over again. I met a lovely woman, who was introduced to me as Mrs Bewly, and I lost my heart to her ; but that’s another story. I found out afterwards with another terrible shock that she spelled herself Beaulieu. I said, “How can you do. such things ?” and she 'never knew what I meant. But, Bewly or Beaulieu, she was adorable. I played golf with a fine chap at St. Andrews, and called him Claverse, and —alas !—spelled him Claverse ; but he did the trick as Claverhouse. A Mr Bly., turned out really, according to his card, to be a Mr Blythe, and Mr Cunsbrp came out very handsomely on paper as Conisborough. It seems that the average American knows all about the eccentricities of such well-known names as Cholmondeley and Belvour and Buccleugh and Mainwaring and Marjoribanks and Madeline ; _but I didn’t. I pronounced them as they were spelled, and Was duly astonished when they were translated for me like this: Chumler, Beever, Manhering, Marshbanks, and Mawdlin.

I bought some golf clubs qfi a man named Klore; but he spelled it Clogher. The milliner who made a hat for my mother had a nice shining sign over her shop that read Bethune; but I knew she called herself something else, you couldn't fool me, and sure enough upon inquiry' I found the trick was Beeton.

Gladstone’s old home is spelled Hawarden, but pronounced Harden. I felt sorry for that; for I liked to think the Grand Old Man was above such things; but they all get the habit in England, it seems, for there’s that other grand old man, the Earl of Wemys, who calls himself Weems. A Mr Ruthven was in a shooting party with me. He called himself Riven. A little girl with a face like an angel, and the manners of half a dozen angels, told me her name was Muriel Sillenger, and I asked her slyly to spell it for me. It turned out to be St. Ledger. “It’s a pity I said right out loud. She said, “What is ?” with her angel eyes upon me, and I answered with a deceptive smile, “That you don’t belong to me,” and site neve* knew how sorry I was for her.

The most beautiful woman' in England is Lady Pole-Carew, and do you know her Ladyship pronounces it Pool-Cary I And hese are only a tenth of the strang perversions in my liult black book. Now who do the funnier things with the English tongue, the English themselves or the denizens f the “States ” 1