I always assumed that it was either Eye-zl-dn or Eye-yl-dn, but apparently
Isledon was the old name for Islington. This makes me think it must be
Iz-ler-dn, since that's the only pronunciation which could conceivably drift
into Islington.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

In message , Basil Jet
writes

I always assumed that it was either Eye-zl-dn or Eye-yl-dn, but apparently
Isledon was the old name for Islington. This makes me think it must be
Iz-ler-dn, since that's the only pronunciation which could conceivably drift
into Islington.

The Anglo-Saxon name was apparently Giseldone (Gisla's Hill). IIRC, g
before i was pronounced as y, and the i in this position was long, like
the i in "machine". So Yee-zl-dn (and later Ee-zl-dn) was probably the
original pronunciation.

The disappearance of the initial y sound was very common: Gyppeswic
(pronounced Yipswich) became Ipswich, for example. The i probably became
short during the 15th century, as part of the 'great vowel shift' -
although one can always find exceptions to vowel shifts (such as
Gistelesworde, now Isleworth, the i sound here mutating into a
dipthong).

Having said all that, I don't know how the locals now pronounce Isledon!

--
Paul Terry

Paul Terry wrote:

Having said all that, I don't know how the locals now pronounce
Isledon!

Hehe. Thanks.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Basil Jet wrote:

I always assumed that it was either Eye-zl-dn or Eye-yl-dn, but
apparently Isledon was the old name for Islington. This makes me think
it must be Iz-ler-dn, since that's the only pronunciation which could
conceivably drift into Islington.

I say aisle-dn. But i've only lived round there for a couple of years, and
have never actually heard anyone local pronounce it.

I suspect both those names are separate corruptions of whatever the
anglo-saxon original was (Isildur?), and when anglo-saxon gets corrupted,
it sometimes gets really properly corrupted, so i wouldn't try to infer
too much about the pronounciation of one from the spelling of the other.

tom

--
Yulava? Niob Yam!

Tom Anderson wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, Basil Jet wrote:

I always assumed that it was either Eye-zl-dn or Eye-yl-dn, but
apparently Isledon was the old name for Islington. This makes me
think it must be Iz-ler-dn, since that's the only pronunciation
which could conceivably drift into Islington.

I say aisle-dn. But i've only lived round there for a couple of
years, and have never actually heard anyone local pronounce it.

I've always pronounced it like the toilet paper - Izal-dun - the same as
Isleworth.

When I was on the 360 bus the other day, I noticed that the recorded
message said Pel-ham Street, as in Pel-[green eggs and]ham. I have
always (of course!) said it like pellum; but perhaps TfL "knows
something".

BTW, the 360 bus route is "a route of two halves":-
Kensington, Queen's Gate
South Kensington Station
Chelsea, Draycott Place
Sloane Square
Chelsea, Lister Hospital

All the above are about as posh as you can get; but then begins the
slow descent into Hell:

Pimlico Station
Vauxhall Station
Kennington Cross, Black Prince Road
Imperial War Museum
Elephant & Castle, Newington Causeway

On Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:15:54 -0800 (PST), Offramp
wrote:

When I was on the 360 bus the other day, I noticed that the recorded
message said Pel-ham Street, as in Pel-[green eggs and]ham. I have
always (of course!) said it like pellum; but perhaps TfL "knows
something".


Perhaps the pronunciation was taken from Peter Sellers' magnificent
1958 travelogue on Balham, in which he pronounced it "Bal-ham" in a
mid-Atlantic accent? Hilariously funny. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTWk9QIKS0

When I was on the 360 bus the other day, I noticed that the recorded
message said Pel-ham Street, as in Pel-[green eggs and]ham. I have
always (of course!) said it like pellum; but perhaps TfL "knows
something".

There is a bus stop in West Ealing which used to be "The Leedo"
but has now been re-recorded to "The Lydo". (I don't know how to
pronounce "lido" myself, to be honest)

In message
,
David writes

There is a bus stop in West Ealing which used to be "The Leedo"
but has now been re-recorded to "The Lydo". (I don't know how to
pronounce "lido" myself, to be honest)

Lido is an Italian word, referring to a beach used for bathing (the most
famous being the Lido di Venezia, but there are many others), and is
pronounced Leedo in Italy (and America). But the Anglicized version
(Lye-doe) seems to be more common in this country.

--
Paul Terry

On 17/01/2010 16:43, David wrote:
When I was on the 360 bus the other day, I noticed that the recorded
message said Pel-ham Street, as in Pel-[green eggs and]ham. I have
always (of course!) said it like pellum; but perhaps TfL "knows
something".

There is a bus stop in West Ealing which used to be "The Leedo"
but has now been re-recorded to "The Lydo". (I don't know how to
pronounce "lido" myself, to be honest)

Tramlink pronounces Centrale (stop for a Croydon shopping centre of the
same name) as "Centraal", but buses seem to use "Central".

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK