Nene/Nen Controversy settled

[Guest]

23 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

If it's pronounced Nen, then why is it spelled Nene?

 

 

Probably for the same reason that locals around here call Chop Gate 'Chop Yat' and Staithes 'Steers'. Particularly older locals. I should add.

 

Local adaptation of place names is pretty common.

 

Hence I have always pronounced Nene Neen, as I'm not local to there.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by The Happy Nomad
Add a bit

[doratheexplorer]

26 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

 

Probably for the same reason that locals around here call Chop Gate 'Chop Yat' and Staithes 'Steers'. Particularly older locals. I should add.

 

Local adaptation of place names is pretty common.

 

Hence I have always pronounced Nene Neen, as I'm not local to there.

 

 

Clearly my sense of humour is lost on most of this forearm.

Edited May 18, 2021 by doratheexplorer

[Dav and Pen]

This controversy has been going on ever since the people from the upper Nen went on an outing to Peterborough in the olden times and couldn’t understand the accent of the natives there. (even more difficult now). I have lived near the Nen for nearly 80 years and live in a village near where one of its branches comes out of the ground, the other branch which starts in the hills near a village called Hazelbeach is also called the Nene and they meet in Northampton. My father who worked for the NBC brewery , now Carlsberg, told me they had a wharf on the west bridge arm and had malt brought by boat. On my way to School there were often boats tied below South bridge and a timber yard there had occasional loads. At the end of the arm there was a depot belonging to the GU which stored rolls of newsprint for the local paper known affectionately as the comical and echo due to the large number of misprints.

One of the northamptonshire town which catches people out is Higham Ferrers and I once heard Terry Wogan pronounce it as Hig am  Ferrers. Tow cester instead of toaster is another. Everywhere has local pronunciation and the old boatmen had a way of saying place names that really had you thinking, maffus, and coorsgrove being just a couple.

[mark99]

14 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

This controversy has been going on ever since the people from the upper Nen went on an outing to Peterborough in the olden times and couldn’t understand the accent of the natives there. (even more difficult now). I have lived near the Nen for nearly 80 years and live in a village near where one of its branches comes out of the ground, the other branch which starts in the hills near a village called Hazelbeach is also called the Nene and they meet in Northampton. My father who worked for the NBC brewery , now Carlsberg, told me they had a wharf on the west bridge arm and had malt brought by boat. On my way to School there were often boats tied below South bridge and a timber yard there had occasional loads. At the end of the arm there was a depot belonging to the GU which stored rolls of newsprint for the local paper known affectionately as the comical and echo due to the large number of misprints.

One of the northamptonshire town which catches people out is Higham Ferrers and I once heard Terry Wogan pronounce it as Hig am  Ferrers. Tow cester instead of toaster is another. Everywhere has local pronunciation and the old boatmen had a way of saying place names that really had you thinking, maffus, and coorsgrove being just a couple.

 

 

Round here instead of saing "Youwell" strangers call Ewell, "Ee-well".

Edited May 19, 2021 by mark99

[Athy]

Round here, they sidestep the Neen/Nenn issue by calling it Well Creek.....or is that Crek?

[cuthound]

8 hours ago, mark99 said:

 

 

Round here instead of saing "Youwell" strangers call Ewell, "Ee-well".

 

I used to live in Ewell. I found if you corrected people as to the correct pronunciation they looked sheepish! ?

 

Often used to get letters addressed as "Yule, Surrey".

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by cuthound