Burrer, Burr Or Burg.

[AndyTBoater]

Morning all. 

As the title suggests is it 

......... St Peter

......... Castle 

......... Something something

For all my local life it's been Burrer but recently I heard an old Norfolk boy refer to it as Burr. 

Please tell me I haven't been getting it wrong all these years?

[FairTmiddlin]

Born and bred in Norfolk with Suffolk Parents

Always been Burra to me

[Turnoar]

I concurr with FT except when it’s just plain singular Burgh, near Aylsham, in which it’s just burr like the Norfolk boy said. Shame there isn’t some old boy sat out by their front gate watching the world go by to ask, I only see one doing that regularly nowadays outside a care home.

[Vaughan]

Certainly Burra St Peter but I have often heard it called Burr Castle in the past.

For that matter, what about Trowse? Or Sprowston?

[grendel]

here in kent we often have different pronunciation between town and country, for example castle, canterbury has a cast-tle, but castle road in barham is pronounced cassle road in the northern style, then there are chim-neys and chimbleys.

and as for village names, forget how its spelt, trottiscliffe is pronounced trosley

now a while back there was a great debate amongst locals in the village kingston, there were some that thought it was missing an e - ie kingstone, they were correct, but not in where the e went as properly it should have been kingeston (the hunting lodge or tun, of the king)

[oldgregg]

It's very much 'Borough' Castle and 'Borough' St Peter...

I think in most of these scenarios it probably dates back to the locals not being able to spell / pronounce the name quite right and over time the simpler version was adopted as the 'correct' one.

This is definitely not just a Norfolk thing!

[DAVIDH]

Costessey, a district of Norwich, is pronounced Cossee (I think). It's another world down there!

[oldgregg]

5 minutes ago, DAVIDH said:

Costessey, a district of Norwich, is pronounced Cossee (I think). It's another world down there!

Yup, sure is.

Let's not get started on Wymondham or Happisburgh.... I've even heard people mispronounce Acle.

[FairTmiddlin]

Yeah Definitely Coss E

Wind' M and Hayes burra

And Aye Cull

 

[floydraser]

Being from nowhere near Norfolk I would go by whatever Allan Smethurst would say...

Best listen to all of his albums; he's bound to mention them all somewhere! 

And when visiting my boat I turn off the A47 at Postwick.

[FairTmiddlin]

The Singing Pustman or Alan Smethurst was a furriner born in Bury (and not even the St Edmunds one)

He didn't even come to Norfolk till he was 11.

And Floyd you turn at Posick

[Paul]

When we started boating in the 70's it was always "Burrer" St Peter, but "Burr" Castle, and so that is what we use to this day. But then I used to go to Chris De "Burr" concerts, and now apparently it's Chris De "Berg" 

My dads family are Norfolkians many of them still around Mundesley, Cromer etc, though dad himself was Rutland born an bred as that branch of the family followed work westward. His dad's dad would tell you he was a man of Cley, pronounced like the stuff potters use, he got quite uppity if somebody started pronouncing it Cl-eye which he credits to incomers that can't talk proper. 

He didn't quite call them incomers, he had a slightly different name of local dialect. I am led to believe it is far from polite.

[AndyTBoater]

So. Just to muddy the waters

 

Potter Hi am

Potter Heyam. 

[Vaughan]

6 minutes ago, AndyTBoater said:

Potter Hi am

Potter Heyam. 

Potter Hi am is on the Thurne.

Heyam Street  is in Norwich.

[YnysMon]

The thing is, language isn’t a fixed, as much as the dictionary writers and language police would like us to think. I studied Early English ((Anglo Saxon) and Middle English (the stuff between 1066 and Shakespeare) in Uni. The wonderful thing about Middle English was the lack of standardised spelling, variations in dialect etc. I recall our tutor showed us a map of different variations of spellings of ‘church’. An incredible variety.

I gather that the French are very concerned about the purity of their language. Big mistake in my opinion. The more open to different influences, the more vibrant the language.. 

[Smoggy]

As for the beecham arms or is that beauchamps?

I thought it was potter'ham too.

[marshman]

Always been Clay, whatever poncy outsiders call it!!!!

[Mouldy]

1 hour ago, YnysMon said:

 . . . . . . . . . . .I gather that the French are very concerned about the purity of their language. Big mistake in my opinion. The more open to different influences, the more vibrant the language.. 

Perhaps we should be as proud of our language as the French and as proud as our desire to be ‘British’ outside of the EU as we apparently wanted to be.  We wouldn’t then see the bastardisation of the language as is so often the case now.  Things that really get my goat are basic grammar misuses like ‘should of’ instead of should’ve (should have), confusion over the use of there and their, text speak, such as ppl instead of people and made up phrases like ‘totes amazeballs’ that are so often used on tv programmes.

Grrrrrrrrrr!!  Now climbs off soapbox to await a barracking.

[dredger]

My home town was  Beccles so not a native of Norfolk, It was always "Burrer" to us. I've lived in Sprowston for thirty plus years but still seldom pronounce it like a local so who am I to say. Elocution lessons needed?

[Cheesey69]

The beauty of English is that is a language that is readily adaptable to change and has very few structural laws. eg masculine and feminine words
 

[SwanR]

Met a local a few years ago who pronounced it the same way as you would Edinburgh but without Edin on the front of course. I suppose that’s described as Brugh. 

[YnysMon]

Some of the ‘rules’ of modern English were imported from other languages. For instance, in Anglo Saxon if you wanted to emphasise a negative you could, just pile them on. Whereas in modern English negatives cancel each other out.

Let’s face it, English is a very ‘mongrel’ language, and the key to its strength. It’s very adaptable.

[floydraser]

4 hours ago, FairTmiddlin said:

 

And Floyd you turn at Posick

My Brother in law put me right on that one, although I was sort of suspicous and asked him before I even attempted it! 

[Lulu]

When I lived at Raf Coltishall, we regularly fished at Belaugh, but never knew how to say it.  Beelaa? 

[Broads01]

Having been born nowhere near Norfolk for many years I followed my parents' pronunciation of Acle as Accle. I know it as Aycul nowadays, I hope that's right.

I think there was a thread about St Olaves a while back. What's the right way of saying that - St Olives?