Comments on: -ham, -ingham, -ington, -ford.

By: Jeff Lilly

Jeff Lilly — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:11:20 +0000

No, don’t try to be consistent! You already are!

Bear with me as I try to explain.

English has stressed and unstressed syllables, right? In Bedford and Concord, the first syllable is stressed, and the second syllable is not. In Ford, there’s only one syllable, and it’s stressed.

English has a rule — has always, for a thousand years, had a rule — that unstressed syllables are “reduced”; that is, their sounds are less distinct, less carefully pronounced. This is a Good Thing — it helps distinguish the two kinds of syllables, and is part of what gives English its distinctive, slow, rolling rhythm.

Even those of us who don’t pronounce Concord and Bedford properly DO reduce the sounds of -cord and -ford, just not as much. We pronounce them rather like KON-krd, BED-frd. (Notice the missing ‘o’.) But the correct way to pronounce them takes the reduction further, reducing the ‘r’ to ‘i’ or ‘uh’ (which is as reduced as you can get).

As for Ford, you wouldn’t reduce that syllable, since it’s the only one in the word, and it’s primary and stressed.

Does that make sense?…

By: Nio

Nio — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:50:25 +0000

Bedford, and the surrounding communities, was a farm community which was suburbanized post-WWII. Many of those I knew as a kid grew up in Bedrock, but their parents were from elsewhere, generally Boston or one of its urban neighbors (white flight after Brown v. Board of Education). Thus, there was always discussion on how to say Billerica (Bedford’s neighbor). Those from outside Bedford say it “Bill-er-ica” while those of us who grew up there say “Bill Rica.”

I had no idea there was another way to say Haverhill until I moved to Florida (for two whole months). People kept giving me directions off of Haverhill Street, which I could never find. Turns out, their pronunciation is what had me so confused: I would ask where “Have-rill” street was and they would wonder what the f–k I was talking about.

And no, I don’t say I drive a Fid. But maybe I should to be consistent.

Oh, and it’s Concid, not Con-cord. They say it wrong on West Wing.

By: Jeff Lilly

Jeff Lilly — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:24:23 +0000

Yes, you wouldn’t say you drive a Fid, would you? (That’s because in “Ford”, the ‘ford’ is the primary stressed syllable, so all its sounds get pronounced more carefully and distinctly. In “Bedford”, ‘ford’ gets no stress, so it gets mumbled and compressed. Don’t imagine that means people are lazy and don’t pronounce their words carefully enough — that’s just part of how English works.)

According to Wikipedia, Billerica is definitely pronounced Bill Rica. It’s named after a town in England, Billericay, which (nowadays at least) is pronounced Bill-er-ik-ee. But I don’t know where that name comes from. Haverhill is named after the town of Haverhill in England, which is also pronounced Hay-vrill; again, I don’t know why.

Man, I love this stuff!

By: Nio

Nio — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:34:12 +0000

Well, lookey there. Very interesting.

What I find amusing is I drive a Ford, but I’m from Bedfid. There are those who call it “Beffa,” thinking it should be pronounced like Medford (”Meffa”, although I say “Medfid”), but those of us from Bedford will correct anyone who says “Beffa” because we don’t want to be associated with Medford (Bedford snobbishness to be quite honest). And, many of us who grew up in Bedfid call it Bedrock, as in the Flintstones.

Now the question is, is Billerica pronounced “Bill-er-ic-a” or “Bill Rica”? (we say the latter) Similarly, is it Hav-er-hill (short a, three syllables) or “Have-rill” (long a, two syllables).

Thanks for clearing up a mystery for me!