The Pronunciation of "Cambridge"

[Taliesin]

In one of my odder moments of curiosity, it recently occurred to me to wonder why the name of the town of Cambridge is pronounced the way it is. Standard English pronunciation would suggest that the "a" be pronounced as in "cap", or possibly as in "calm". Instead, it is pronounced as in "cape". As far as I'm aware, the river which the bridge crosses is pronounced "Cam" as in "cap". Cambridge's pronunciation must presumably date to before the seventeenth century, because Cambridge, Massachussetts is pronounced similarly.

I have come up with two conjectural theories which might explain this, but I have no actual evidence and no reason to suppose that either is true. One is that it is a simple case of vowel mutation. I don't know what forces or factors might have caused people to gradually move from "calm" through "cap" to "cape", but it might be nothing more than this accidental process.

Another possibility is that the shift reflects a corruption of Cambridge's name dating from when English still featured strong inflection according to case. The town might conceivably have been referred to as "Cames brycg" (the Cam's bridge") or "Brycg-on-Came" (Bridge-on-Cam), either of which would put an "e" after "Cam". It might be the case that this "e" was preserved in the spelling long enough to influence the pronunciation of the town's name, when the standard pronunciation rules had evolved.

But neither of these theories is very satisfactory. If anyone has a better one, or knows why the pronunciation has changed, I'd love to hear it.

 

[Sidhe]

There are all sorts of English Cities/towns/Villiages whos names are pronounce oddly or slightly out of sorts with their spelling and all sorts of English words.

Worcester is not wor-ces-ter but woos-ter: not too hard to see why here though

And look at Magdellin: pronounced Mag-delin no maudlin?

Portchester: pronounce port-chest-er no por-chest-er

most are just the way words get slurred with use.

e.g

Godsport-becomes Gosport

I tihnk in your case though the later would be the case, but names in England have always fascinated me.

Edinburgh: Edin-burgh nope Edin-borough

I think 99% of odd pronunciations can be put down to as you say the original word being corrupted to a different one by local pronunciation and by changes by language use.

But I'd very much like to know?

 

[amadeus]

Here in Minnesota, it's "came-bridge."

 

[The Great Apple]

And look at Magdellin: pronounced Mag-delin no maudlin?

*cough* Magdalene *cough*

It is a weird one. The main pronounciation I hear here is Maud-al-in.


EDIT: It's Came-bridge here too.

 

[Taliesin]

Yes, I know how it's pronounced, in case anybody else intends to tell me. To my knowledge, all towns called "Cambridge" are pronounced "Camebridge", not "Cammbridge". My question is why this is so.

 

[jamiethearcher]

isnt Greenwich pronounced Grenich? (i.e. as in gren, not the colour green, and no w?)

 

[koondrad]

Yes, it is.

 

[Sidhe]

Yes, I know how it's pronounced, in case anybody else intends to tell me. To my knowledge, all towns called "Cambridge" are pronounced "Camebridge", not "Cammbridge". My question is why this is so.

To be honest I think you answered your own question. English is a strange beast made up of at least 3 or 4 original languages and maybe 5 or 6 later ones. The actual origin no doubt resides in the transition from Old English - Middle English - Modern English.

 

[Taliesin]

The actual origin no doubt resides in the transition from Old English - Middle English - Modern English.

No doubt. Unfortunately, my fascination with premodern English doesn't permit me to be satisfied with that-- it demands an explanation of the process! Language doesn't change for no reason.

 

[Urederra]

Is Worcester also pronounced weirdly?

It was the non funny part of taking the train when I was in England. I had to be careful in the pronunciation so the teller wouldn't give me strange faces when I asked for a ticket.

I really miss my trips by train to british cities.

 

[Dell19]

Leicester. Four totally pointless letters.

 

[Sidhe]

No doubt. Unfortunately, my fascination with premodern English doesn't permit me to be satisfied with that-- it demands an explanation of the process! Language doesn't change for no reason.

Well no of course not, but the reason often even without constant invasion and alien influence is just because language evolves over time. The English I'm writing here now in 1000 years without any outside invasion or influence might read like this

transaltion of above text into modern English: welncoursent, buforthersn oftn witht cons inv a alinf sjustcoz ling voles vrtime. English mwritin henow in thouyr out any inv or influ mared lk ths.

To me it would be incomprehensible but speech might have slurred into a more efficient way of communicating in time. or just be influenced by world internet use, Who knows?

I do see your point though, but you'd really need to speak to a linguistic expert.

 

[MrCynical]

Yes, I know how it's pronounced, in case anybody else intends to tell me. To my knowledge, all towns called "Cambridge" are pronounced "Camebridge", not "Cammbridge". My question is why this is so.

There is actually another town called Cambridge in Gloucester, but its name is pronounced Cammbridge, probably deliberately to distinguish from the other Cambridge.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Worcester is not wor-ces-ter but woos-ter: not too hard to see why here though

Where I live, the "r" is pronounced.

 

[Masquerouge]

Why is breakfast pronounced like wreck-paste and not freak-fast ?

Seriously ?

 

[Sidhe]

And there you go if enough people pronounce it a certain way its pronuciation changes.

Kos-hem is now pronounced Cosh-am

Why is breakfast pronounced like wreck-paste and not freak-fast ?

Seriously ?

Breaking of the fast becomes Break-fast it get's slurred to brek-fst freak fast is not anything like the b sound and wreck paste, is merely a slurring of the true QUEENS ENGLISH

[national anthem starts playing...]

of the proper form brek-fst God save the queen

 

[The Last Conformist]

My favorite English place-name is Featherstonehaugh, pronounced like "Fanshaw".

I'll ask some real lingüistas about "Cambridge".

 

[GinandTonic]

Where I live, the "r" is pronounced.

Well in the west country people say arr for no reason at all. The influence obviously goes as far as Bath.

 

[Taliesin]

Why is breakfast pronounced like wreck-paste and not freak-fast ?

Seriously ?

"Break" is a very old word in English. In Old English, the infinitive form of the verb, "brecan", is pronounced something like "break-on" would be today. However, in the conjugated form used in the word "breakfast", the spelling is "bræc", pronounced like "brack". I think this is more likely to mutate into "breck" than "brake"-- the sounds are much closer. (Certainly, too, English people pronounce it even closer to "brack" than North Americans do.)

Also, I've only ever heard the "-fast" part pronounced as an unvoiced vowel (a schwa), not as in "paste".

 

[Sidhe]

Interesting but one small point it's never brack or anything close always breck sometimes breack or breeak whether northern, west country or southern. Even the Celts from the north(scottish) pronounce it Breck. Only people who pronounce it brack are Irish I think?