{"id":3261,"date":"2016-05-09T09:06:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T15:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richyrocks.com\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2018-03-03T15:47:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T21:47:22","slug":"u-may-be-pronouncing-leicester-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richyrocks.com\/coolenglish\/u-may-be-pronouncing-leicester-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"u may be pronouncing leicester wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

congratulations to the leicester city f.c. foxes<\/strong><\/span> who against ridiculous odds<\/em> <\/strong>(probabilities) clinched<\/strong><\/em> (secured, guaranteed) the english premier league<\/strong> last monday and celebrated their championship over the weekend\u00a0after their\u00a0final home match of the 2015-2016 campaign. before the season started, the foxes were a 5,000 to 1 pick to win the league.<\/p>\n

\"leicester
leicester city f.c. celebrates their premier league championship with their fans. (tom jenkins\/the observer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

over the course of the season, as leicester continued to shock everyone, football fans around the world began to ask, “why is leicester pronounced lester?”\u00a0grammarphobia.com <\/a>citing the oxford english dictionary, explains<\/p>\n

\u201cchester,\u201d [is] a long-defunct<\/em> noun that originally meant a roman encampment in ancient britain. \u00a0this word, spelled\u00a0ceaster<\/em>\u00a0in old english writings, comes from the latin\u00a0castra<\/em>\u00a0(camp), and is \u201coften applied to places in britain which had been originally roman encampments.\u201d<\/h4>\n

defunct<\/strong><\/em> means doesn’t exist anymore<\/em>. \u00a0chester may be defunct as a common noun<\/em><\/strong> (thing), but it still exists as a proper noun<\/strong><\/em> (name): it is both a first and a last name.<\/p>\n

\"jack
john candy as jack chester in the 1985 movie ‘summer rental’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"cheetos
chester, a cheetah who loves cheetos (restaurant-mascots.deviantart.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"chester
neil patrick harris as chester creb in ‘american horror story’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"chester
chester a, arthur: the 21st u.s. president is recognized by his facial hair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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the final two syllables of leicester are\u00a0not pronounced chester<\/em> though. grammarphobia.com continues<\/p>\n

the names of [the] english cities (worcester, gloucester &leicester) are much easier to say than to write. they sound like WOOS-ter (with the \u201coo\u201d of \u201cwood\u201d), GLOSS-ter, and LESS-ter. \u00a0the names of the corresponding counties\u2014\u201cworcestershire,\u201d <\/a>\u201cleicestershire,\u201d and \u201cgloucestershire\u201d\u2014are pronounced the same way, except that each has another syllable (\u201csher\u201d) at the end.<\/h4>\n

so when did chester<\/em> become just ster<\/em>? \u00a0nobody knows. \u00a0grammarphobia says<\/p>\n

it would seem at first glance<\/em> that the \u201c-ster\u201d pronunciation established itself sometime between 1709 and 1764 \u00a0assuming lexicographers [of the day] were in touch<\/em> with local usage. however, as a\u00a0reader of the blog points out<\/em>, the names \u201cworcester,\u201d \u201cleicester,\u201d and \u201cgloucester\u201d\u00a0appear dozens of times in the works of shakespeare [1564-1616].<\/h4>\n

at first glance<\/em> means just looking once but not analyizing closely<\/em>. a lexicographer<\/strong><\/em> is a dictionary writer<\/em>.\u00a0in touch<\/em><\/strong> is\u00a0familiar with<\/em>, connected.<\/em> point out<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>means show, indicate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

based on the rhythm of the lines of shakespeare where leicester and the names of the other cities appear, the pronunciation was probably the same as it is today.<\/p>\n

fun english practice\u00a0\":)\"\u00a0richyrocks english on youtube<\/a><\/h4>\n

regardless<\/a> of when it happened, the correct pronunciation of the current champs of english football is “lester”. \u00a0to folks<\/strong><\/em> (people) not from the region, including native english speakers, this is confusing. \u00a0lester is also a common first and last name; with a more obvious spelling.<\/p>\n

\"cleveland
cleveland (left) losing pateince with his friend lester (right) on the now defunct<\/span> ‘the cleveland show’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"chicago
jon lester is the starting pitcher for the chicago cubs tonight. (ap\/keith srakocic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"lester
lester holt has been the anchor of the nbc nightly news (u.s.) since last year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"martin
martin freeman was one of the stars of first season of the series ‘fargo’. his character’s name is lester nygaard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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were u impressed by leicester’s improbable championship? can u name any other chesters or lesters? share your comments under leave a reply<\/strong><\/p>\n