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I will never forget

The first time someone told me it was pronounced Wash-your-sister-sauce
ArishMell · 70-79, M
I had to read the thread to work out what you were trying to tell us, as you'd been told completely wrongly!

Right, so let a Briton, a English Southerner of Midlands ancestry at that, and living within 200 miles of Worcester, set you somewhere near right [i]in general[/i].

SophieSmiles has it nearest but pronouncing her "Wusta" is heavily affected by local accent, of which England has a huge range, and the 'u' is normally given a Northern touch, as we will see. As Harevstofahundredfields illustrates with his Geordie (Newcastle or near) phonetics, also perhaps 200 miles from Worcester.


The name [i]Worcester [/i]is of the country-town of the county of [i]Worcestershire[/i] in the English Midlands.

Locals may have their own versions, and the distinct Midlands dialects and accents change markedly over fairly short distances. However, we generally pronounce town names containing the Roman '... cester...' element, by omitting the 'ce'. (Its variants, 'chester' and 'caster', are pronounced as spelt. Gloucester is pronounced 'Gloster'; but Dorchester and Doncaster, as those.)

SO.....

"Wooster" / "Woostershire", the 'woo' rhymes with that in 'wool' or 'book'.

The "shire " suffix on a few ([i]not[/i] all) English county names is un-stressed, often shortened to nearly rhyming softly with either ' eah' or 'Huh'.

Again, both do depend on the speaker's own regional accent.

So the condiment is normally named after the town and usually [i]Wooster Sauce[/i].

Much more rarely after the county ('Woostershuh Sauce') - in fact I have hardly ever heard that.

Hope that helps!
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Abstraction I was once camping with friends in a village in South Wales.

One of them asked a resident the correct way to pronounce the village's name - spelled [i]Ystradfellte[/i].

With his strong Scots accent, he had no hope!

( I think it's something like 'Ustradvelthter', but that 'v' sound of the single 'f', and the double-ll, especially adjoining a consonant, are hard for non-Welsh speakers. )
Abstraction · 61-69, M
@ArishMell Welsh - and trying to read Irish Gaelic and make sense of how to pronounce it - both slightly out of my league.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Abstraction I don't know any Gaelic either, and my smattering of Welsh is only some of the more common geographical name elements, and a rough idea of pronunciation!

If I recall correctly, Ystradfellte means something like "(In the) Valley of the Mellte". [i]Mellte[/i] means [i]lightning [/i]and is the name of the local river, which can flood very rapidly after heavy rain.

While the word for river, [i]Afon[/i], appears in English as [i]Avon[/i], giving at least three separate waterways with the bilingually tautological name, River Avon!
Tastyfrzz · 61-69, M
I had no idea w u at you were talking about until i read the comments!! 🤣
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@Tastyfrzz Ditto - and I live in England where is situated the town of Worcester! :-)
SarithBorn · 18-21, M
Worcestershire sauce is heaven on melted cheese. 🤤
4meAndyou · F
@SarithBorn https://www.landolakes.com/recipe/20421/the-original-chex-party-mix/
SW-User
🤣🤣 I’ve never heard that, it’s just wusta sauce
SW-User
@SW-User You could go all Geordie and say "Aye, that's wor sister, Shiree!"
Jlhzfromep · M
And all this time I have been pronouncing it “whiskey sour sauce”
Abstraction · 61-69, M
rhymes with push. WUS ter sheer sauce.
SW-User
@Abstraction watch your sister while I shower sauce
I will always say worshershire 😂
SW-User
[media=https://youtu.be/WgEP2HO9nsg]

 
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