Pronouncing Names

Why is it that English people cannot pronounce Scottish names? We have been sharing this island with them since they joined us about 2000 years ago (yes -we were here first) but still they can't say 'Loch' properly. What the hell is so difficult about it? Today on the BBC news we had reports of a small earthquake in somewhere called DUMfries. In Scotland this is pronounced dumFRIES, but on the news from London its DUMfries - get the difference? There are so many examples of this. Yet if we go down to England and mention in passing Greenwich, or Gloucester, or Cheadle Hulme or countless others, we are laughed at if we don't get it right.

A foreign correspondent who happened to be Scottish, was in Iraq reporting on the war there. His counterpart from another channel, who was English, was practicing the pronunciation of Iraqi names to get it right, and asked the Scottish guy how it sounded to him. He replied "That's it perfect. Now maybe when we get home to the UK you can try 'Loch Lomond'. He didn't get the point!!

And for the record, since it is that time of year, Auld Lang Syne is pronounced auld lang ssine, not old lang zine. For Auld Lang Syne is difficult to translate into modern English, but means something like 'here's to the old days'. Robert Burns wrote it. He is almost never called Rabbie Burns in Scotland. Its either Robert or Robbie.

Incidentally , as I was spell-checking this document, the UK dictionary didn't recognise 'Dumfries' or 'Lomond'.

Are we on the same island or what?