The last one was a little tough, so now for an easier challenge. Lytham is an old seaside town where I spent many a happy hour in my childhood. Picture full length woollen bathing suits, and bathing machines! It has now really grown into the neighbouring town, St Anne's, and is often referred to as Lytham-St Anne's - those of you who really want a challenge can try and limerick that!
It is famous as one of the locations where the British Golf Open takes place.
I don't know the IPA system, but the stress is LYtham; pronunciation Lyth- rhymes with with, and the -am is really somewhere between -em and -um

Is the th pronounced like th one in bath or bathe?

[Typo.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

As in with -- or bathe.

As in with -- or bathe.

Funny, the th in with is not the same as the th in bathe in my brand of English.

I agree, z. They are slightly different.

As in with.

I sent a couple to somebody.

As Arnie said, zmježd, it's as in with. This was how I described it in the original post, but you asked me to choose between bath and bathe, and bathe was the closest

Although, in my brand of English there is very little difference between the th sound in with and bathe.

Just so that we are clear. It is /ˈlɪðm/ or /ˈlɪðəm/ rather than /ˈlɪθm/ or /ˈlɪθəm/.

OK but I still don't get it, because I don't understand the pronunciation symbols.

Is the LY Lie or Leigh or as in lip?
Is the TH as in thin or as in them?

Whatever it is, I reckon if anyone can rhyme all 4 syllables of Lytham-St. Annes twice, they should win. I don't think I will even try.

Actually Michael, for those people thinking of taking up your tough challenge, according to the British Open website it's "Lytham and St Annes" not "Lytham St Annes"?

quote:

Is the LY Lie or Leigh or as in lip?
Is the TH as in thin or as in them?

As in lip and in thin.

I think that the "and" is included in the name of the golf club, but the name of the town is just "Lytham St Annes" (no apostrophe either). See Wikipedia.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

quote:

Originally posted by Greg S:
OK but I still don't get it, because I don't understand the pronunciation symbols.

Is the LY Lie or Leigh or as in lip?
Is the TH as in thin or as in them?

Whatever it is, I reckon if anyone can rhyme all 4 syllables of Lytham-St. Annes twice, they should win. I don't think I will even try.

Odd arnie, very odd. I'd always say

Lip and them.

and although rhyming every syllable twice would be... er... challenging... it wouldn't be necessary as the last stressed syllable is Annes and that's the only one that would HAVE to be rhymed.

I agree with Bob, lip and them. As I said in the original post, Lyth- rhymes with with (and has approximately the same 'i' and 'th' sounds).

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Daws:
As I said in the original post, Lyth- rhymes with with (and has approximately the same 'i' and 'th' sounds).

....from Wikipedia: Pronunciation of English th

The final consonant in with is pronounced /θ/ (its original pronunciation) in northern Britain, but /ð/ in the south, though some speakers of Southern British English use /θ/ before a voiceless consonant and /ð/ before a voiced one. A 1993 postal poll of American English speakers showed that 84% use /θ/, while 16% have /ð/.

Either way I don't see many rhymes!!

quote:

Originally posted by stella:

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Daws:
As I said in the original post, Lyth- rhymes with with (and has approximately the same 'i' and 'th' sounds).

....from Wikipedia: Pronunciation of English th

The final consonant in with is pronounced /θ/ (its original pronunciation) in northern Britain, but /ð/ in the south, though some speakers of Southern British English use /θ/ before a voiceless consonant and /ð/ before a voiced one. A 1993 postal poll of American English speakers showed that 84% use /θ/, while 16% have /ð/.

Either way I don't see many rhymes!!

This is just another demonstration of why it's unwise to rely on Wikipedia as, in this case, it's flat out not true. Many regional differences exist in UK English: this isn't one of them. I can think of many words that have quite distinct regional pronunciations but none that have a regional variation on this particular sound. For example the word "bath" has a (broadly speaking) North-South distinction, being /bæθ/ in the north and /bɑ:θ/ in the south. The distinction is in the vowel NOT in the "th". I am not aware of a single word that can be reliably categorised as having "/θ/ in northern Britain, but /ð/ in the south".

To add to what Bob said, being from northern England myself, I can confirm that I've always heard with pronounced /ð/ when the 'th' is pronounced - often the word is shortened to wi'. I've certainly not heard it pronounced /θ/.

Come on! Let's get some to Michael. Apparently I'm the only one who knows how to write.

Should have mine now.

I'm predicting rather a lot of similar rhymes.

Sorry for disseminating misinformation about the UK pronunciation of “with”, Bob. I quite like Wikipedia and I need to remember it’s not always factual. I realised too late that particular article was tagged “not verified’ – shoulda been a warning.

Anyways, that was mostly a way of keeping the discussion going so that I could procrastinate a little longer

..... now I have a spore of an idea... Michael, there'll be a mushroom on your doorstep by sunup.

quote:

Apparently I'm the only one who knows how to write.

Surely there's no point writing a limerick for a town until you know how it is meant to be pronounced. Now that I do - I'm in.

quote:

Surely there's no point writing a limerick for a town until you know how it is meant to be pronounced.

That never stopped me!

Mine's finally in.

Well, I've received a few limericks now. I'll set up the poll tomorrow, so if there are any stragglers, send me your efforts within the next 24 hours.

I added a syllable to L1, which again was a problem child.

By the way, my husband (Shufitz here) claims (I am skeptical) that I woke up in the middle of the night and said, "There once was a someone from somewhere."

I truly hope I am not that utterly boring that I dream of limericks for this game.