Talk:Ingatestone
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Does anyone know how to pronounce Ingatestone properly? I can imagine several ways. Thanks -Willmcw 23:21, May 3, 2005 (UTC)
I lived there 15 years and I noticed 2 main ways... the first seems to be adopted by recent movers as 3 equally weighted syllables IN-GATE-STONE, but alternatively heard is ING-UT'STONE (or perhaps ING-AT'STUN) where the stress is defintitely on the first syllable and the A (or U) is clipped very short (U as in BUT or A as in HAT). An old friend of mine once worked as a telephone operator when they used to connect national calls manually back in the early 1960s before STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling)... my operator friend asked the elderly caller for his number and the answer kept coming back as "Engaged Tone 012". (In British English, Engaged Tone is what in US english is the Busy Tone). My poor operator friend thought the man was a bit deaf and kept asking the same question and getting the same answer. Eventually the old boy said "Engaged Tone in Essex, are yew stewpid?"... and then the penny dropped ... (or 4d as I think it was in those days).
- Thanks very much for that information. I suspected that there might be a particular pronunciation. Cheers, -Willmcw 17:10, May 4, 2005 (UTC)
- PS - great story! -W
