The new Kickaround with a WSC on the outside

[pebblethefish]

If someone asks who were EPL champions in 2016, how do you pronounce the reply?

[ad hoc]

If someone asks who were EPL champions in 2016, how do you pronounce the reply?

wɒt ðə fʌk ɪz ði iː-piː-ɛl

[elguapo4]

I think we need an independent arbitrator to judge this Shrewsbury/Shroesbury issue,someone like Joey Beauchamp or Norman StJohn Stevas

[Gangster Octopus]

When Mark Steel did Mark Steel's In Town from Shrewsbury, the audience was split half-and-half over the pronunciation.

[nmrfox]

If someone asks who were EPL champions in 2016, how do you pronounce the reply?

Us

[imp]

If someone asks who were EPL champions in 2016, how do you pronounce the reply?

Most likely: "2016? Fuck, I can't remember. Ask me one from the 70s. Go on."

[Various Artist]

Ahh, the Shrewsbury thing. We (as a nation) don't seem to have a mass problem with Derby or Leicester or Norwich or Worcester not being pronounced the way they look. Nor, indeed, London – which is never remarked upon in such discussions, but after all if we went on appearances alone we'd conclude it's said Lon-don to rhyme with 'bonbon'. So why the eternal struggle with Shrewsbury in this regard?

Es and Os were sort of interchangeable once weren't they? Which is why it's often shew meaning show in Shakespeare and such like. (You'd know this if you came from a place with history and not a new town like Lincoln.)
Also to add to the confusion it was often spelled Shrowesbury or Shrowesburg back in medieval times.

This – I always recall visiting Shrewsbury Abbey once over a dozen years ago and noticing reference somewhere to it being called "Shrobesbury" in the 12th century or thereabouts. For me, this was all I needed to be convinced of the basis of the "oh" (as opposed to "ew") pronunciation: clearly it dates from before the Great Vowel Shift and the passage of all those subsequent centuries which created a distinct difference in pronunciation of ew/ow.

The shew/show thing in Shakespeare or the Bible is the perfect demonstration of how the two once overlapped, and it was surely the equivalent here: back then "Shrews–" would have been spoken the same as as shrose not shroos, so they'd have been just as likely to spell it with an E as an O. It seems the town's modern spelling is merely an unfortunate bit of convergent evolution with that of the common word 'shrew', when it has nothing to do with the small mammal.

Well then they're wrong, because if it was Shrosebury it wouldn't bloody well be spelt Shrewsbury, would it?

Aside from what I wrote above, though, and in contrast to imp's suggestion here, I've long thought it proves quite the reverse. That is, if it were spelled Shrewsbury and meant to be pronounced Shroosbury, why would anyone ever call it anything else? You wouldn't just pluck the shrose alternative out of thin air for no reason, any more than you'd spontaneously pronounce Gloucester as Gloster or Leamington as Lemmingt'n, if it wasn't the correct traditional pronunciation in each case.

So for me, the simple fact that half the populace do still pronounce it a different way from how it looks tends to suggest that they're harking back to some historical truth, whereas the people pronouncing it shroos are mistaken because they're only basing it on how it superficially looks today.

Sadly, as I view it, the tendency over time is likely to be to drift towards the 'literal' reading: it's just the same as how, if I recall my Bill Bryson correctly, somewhere like Norfolk, Virginia, was once known as Nor-f'k as in the English county but has drifted to a more literal Nor-folk as incomers and the passage of time gradually shrivel the proportion of older locals left in the population.

[Patrick Thistle]

The club had a Shrew on its badge once.

[wittoner]

Thankfully Arsenal weren't so literal minded.

[N est à?]

Yes they were m8 they had a canon

[Etienne]

I think that the history of the spelling of the town's name suggests that Shroesbury is closer to the original pronunciation than Shroosbury. However, I don't think that inevitably means it is the correct pronunciation, they do change over time, and my experience is that Shroosbury is much more common usage in the county.

[imp]

Finally read the Blackburn-Shrewsbury report - I'd take it as read that the keeper is punting the water bottles back at the home supporters. Otherwise you'd have to assume that he took a bunch of water bottles out with him with the express intent of at some point punting them into the home crowd.

Enjoyed the interview with Andy Holt. I agree with a lot of Sean Cole's piece on VARs, but not necessarily that we shouldn't have VARs. Although I do have more doubts now than when they were first introduced. Köln had a 90th-minute winner disallowed on Saturday against Hannover, due to a slight case of offside during the build-up. All that drama and celebration snuffed out a minute later. That seems much more wrong than the infringement.

[seand]

Enjoyed the interview with Andy Holt. I agree with a lot of Sean Cole's piece on VARs, but not necessarily that we shouldn't have VARs. Although I do have more doubts now than when they were first introduced. Köln had a 90th-minute winner disallowed on Saturday against Hannover, due to a slight case of offside during the build-up. All that drama and celebration snuffed out a minute later. That seems much more wrong than the infringement.

For me this is one of the big problems with var. If you look hard enough you'll find something wrong with almost every goal. Certainly nobody would ever score from a corner and we'd have to retake every penalty a dozen times for encroachment. Even if the Koln goal had stood you've ripped the heart out of the moment by going to var.

[Patrick Thistle]

.

[imp]

.

Good point.

[Patrick Thistle]

Whatever, Ian.

[Satchmo Distel]

John Peel went to private school in Shrewsbury but I don't recall how he pronounced it.

[Etienne]

The school is universally pronounced Shroesbury. If he said it differently then it would have been an affectation.

[sw2borshch]

It's like the classic Redcar/Redker debate.

[imp]

Whatever, Ian.

That was the title of an ex-girlfriend's break-up album. Or it would have been if she'd been a singer-songwriter.

[imp]

John Peel went to private school in Shrewsbury but I don't recall how he pronounced it.

'Pry-vut skool'.

[Patrick Thistle]

I'd deleted a comment thanking you for telling us what the writer meant to say and wondering what we'd do without you as an interpreter. But then I thought that was snark for the sake of it.

[Various Artist]

It's like the classic Redcar/Redker debate.

But smart old Blue he took the Milky Way.

[Satchmo Distel]

If IMP gets rude, you can call him Ian Curt Is.

[Patrick Thistle]

I misread that then and thought it was a bit over the top