AT one stage or another, every Scot will have had to grit their teeth as they listen to people butcher names of places up and down the country.
The Tories struggle with even the basics at times, with Education Secretary Gillian Keegan previously making reference to the “Eljin marbles” during an interview – as opposed to the Elgin marbles.
With this in mind, The Jouker asked National readers to send in the worst (or best depending on how you feel) mispronunciations of places across Scotland.
'The Elgin Marbles are actually protected under law and under that law they have to stay in the British Museum' Education Secretary @GillianKeegan says 'it's very clear' the Elgin Marbles should stay in the UK https://t.co/j7fxZFmVoB pic.twitter.com/NLaBoHSS8G
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) November 28, 2023
Despite modern technological advances, one standout came from Facebook user Janine Adkins, who commented: “It’s AI but our sat nav used to pronounce Arkleston (pronounced ark-ul-stun) as ‘ark-less-ton’. It’s changed now, someone must have complained.”
Meanwhile, Irene McFarlane said: “On holiday in Italy we met an American couple who said they’d been to Scotland.
"One of the places they’d been was Muckhart which they pronounced ‘muck-rat’.”
Some of the greatest hits made their way into the comments as well, with Edinburgh becoming “edinborrow” – a sound that will have burned many a Scots ear.
Although not quite as specific, many others pointed out they had often heard iconic Scottish lochs mistaken for “gigantic locks”.
Another user took aim at Sky Sports and joked: “On Sky News/Sports they can’t seem to pronounce Falkirk. It’s every time on Sky Sports News on a Saturday.”
The Jouker also heard from one user who again commented about meeting an American couple who pronounced Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow with a ch- as in church.
They didn’t seem to bothered though and were kind enough to add: “Love how they pronounce them.”
“Hearing ‘glass-cow’ instead of Glasgow,” was the suggestion from another user.
Some pronunciations had gone so wrong that people couldn’t even bring themselves to write down how it had been misspelled.
“I heard an interviewer murdering the pronunciation of Auchtermuchty,” said one Facebook user.
Another person said: “I live in Burntisland which most people in Scotland can pronounce but when I’ve been abroad I have often been asked what had caused it to burn.”
And of course people have trouble with "Kirk-cud-bright" and the classic "Miln-gav-ee".
Unfortunately, The Jouker doesn’t have time to go through every comment and mispronunciation or we’d be here all day.
One thing is for certain though – getting the names of these places right certainly isn’t as easy we make it look.
