[General] How to pronounce 'Warwick'?

[Olympian]

Hello,

I came across this last name in a TV serial - Warwick. Some characters in this serial pronounce 'Warwick' without the second 'w', but one character pronounces it with the second 'w'. So, I am curious about how to actually pronounce it.

Thank you.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hello,

I came across this last name in a TV serial - Warwick. Some characters in this serial pronounce 'Warwick' without the second 'w', but one character pronounces it with the second 'w'. So, I am curious about how to actually pronounce it.

Thank you.

The answer is "both". There is a hotel in New York City named The Warwick. I have heard it pronounced both ways. I have a colleague from Australia named Warwick" and he pronounces it without the second W. This may be partly a difference between AmE and BrE.

 

[Olympian]

The answer is "both". There is a hotel in New York City named The Warwick. I have heard it pronounced both ways. I have a colleague from Australia named Warwick" and he pronounces it without the second W. This may be partly a difference between AmE and BrE.

@MikeNewYork, thank you :up: It's a win-win situation. ;-)

 

[bhaisahab]

In BrE it's pronounced "worrick".

 

[emsr2d2]

The place in the UK is, as bhaisahab said, pronounced "Worrick". Apparently the singer Dionne Warwick gets very cross when she comes to the UK and hears her name being pronounced "Worrick" as it should be "Wore-wick".

 

[Olympian]

In BrE it's pronounced "worrick".

@bhaisahab, thank you. This reminds me of 'Worcestershire', which I understand is pronounced 'Woostershire' (please correct me if this is incorrect).

Never did understand why the French, and, in this case (Worcestershire) the British, have letters in their words when they don't intend to pronounce them. ;-)

 

[Olympian]

The place in the UK is, as bhaisahab said, pronounced "Worrick". Apparently the singer Dionne Warwick gets very cross when she comes to the UK and hears her name being pronounced "Worrick" as it should be "Wore-wick".

@emsr2d2, thank you. Interesting to know. So it is not only the non-Western names that get mangled. ;-)

A long time ago I had been told that proper nouns can be pronounced in any way (or various ways). Is this true? From the 'Warwick' example, it seems true. But I can't understand why Dione Warwick gets cross if the British pronounce it in the British way. Isn't the word from the UK, after all? Perhaps, being a celebrity, she expects people to know how she pronounces it.

Talking about mangling names, recently the new Chinese premier Li Keqiang visited India. Some Indian TV channels had his name written in Indian languages (phonetically) as Lee Kay Key-ahng (when it should be khuh chee-ahng). I don't know if the Chinese would be amused or cross when they read this phonetic spelling in Hindi, especially since now some Chinese can read Hindi as this ad for 'The Economist' shows. :lol:

 

[emsr2d2]

@emsr2d2, thank you. Interesting to know. So it is not only the non-Western names that get mangled. ;-)

A long time ago I had been told that proper nouns can be pronounced in any way (or various ways). Is this true? From the 'Warwick' example, it seems true. But I can't understand why Dione Warwick gets cross if the British pronounce it in the British way. Isn't the word from the UK, after all? Perhaps, being a celebrity, she expects people to know how she pronounces it.

In my opinion, proper nouns can't just be pronounced in any old way! Someone came up with the name and it should be pronounced in whatever the original way is. However, of course some people have only ever seen the word written down, not heard it spoken. The problem crops up though with quite a lot of brands - the one that springs to mind is "Nike". Some people make it rhyme with "bike". Some say "Nye-kee", some say "Nee-kay".

As far as Dionne Warwick is concerned, yes, I think it is because she thinks everyone should know how to pronounce her name because she is famous.

 

[5jj]

Some years ago, one of my students on a French course for adults admitted that he was rather disappointed when he met me at the first session. He had imagined that my name in the course description, Five, was pronounced /fi:fi:/.

I was disappointed when Tdol said that his name was pronounced /ti:dɒl/. I had always thought of him as /tɪdl/

 

[Tdol]

Isn't the word from the UK, after all?

That's no reason for the pronunciation to stay fixed when the word travels around.