I'm deaf as a stump, so I'm never surprised when what I hear is not what was said, but in the present case, I wasn't the only one who burst out laughing.

It was probably the only good thing to come out of the London bombings -- a local newscaster referred to "the Kings Cross Station" as "the Kings Crustacean."

Close, but no cigar.

Alan Moore

But it is King's Crustacean, Alan Leastwise, it is to an outsider, who would hear the name that way.Locals (viz of London and the South East ) elide 'cross' and 'station' into 'crostation'. Their vowel sound in 'cross'is close to 'crus' too.If the newscaster was not local to the region then they have to be congratulated on picking up our lazy ways so quickly. They've probably learnt to say 'ho-bun' for Holborn,two stops down the line,instead of 'hole-borne' or 'holl- born' too .

And what about Leicester Square?

You aren't mishearing things, they have no idea how to pronounce things in English.

Or as Fred pointed out a few months ago in re a query of mine:

Names: What sounds like Chombley is, in fact, the name Cholmondeley which is more often pronounced chumm-lee. Fawnshaw ? Think you have in mind 'fan-shaw' , which is sometimes a pronunciation of the surname Featherstonehaugh. However not every Featherstonehaugh so calls themself. Some Featherstonehaughs are 'feather-stun-hew' and some 'feston-hew' (and, for all I know, there are yet others ) Of course, there are people with the surname Fanshawe.Disappointingly, they are 'fan-shaw' too.

I'm sure there are others
2 locations on the London Tube Network could give rise to Mispronunciation
1) Marylebone I say it as Ma-l-bone Have heard television News say it as Marl-ebone which is acceptable.But they have a book of Pronunciation to fall back on (BBC)Think it's available to buy.And there is a unit within the BBC Centre on Wood Lane whose only job is to find the right way of saying words
But You get the odd talking head who does not consult the book or the unit and comes up with
a real double dutch effort!
and the other in the northeast corner Hainault in Essex which I'd say as Hay-no but the locals would say something else

Try these How would these place names be said locally?
Burscough
Barnoldswick
Leominster
Builth Wells
Beaulieu
And I'll include Bolton which looks easy yet the Locals say something different (dialect)
All of the above get mangled in how to ask them if you are a stranger in the area looking for directions

Leominster: Lemm-ster
Builth Wells : Bilth (as in filth) Wells
Beaulieu : Bew (as in 'mew' )-lee
Bolton is Bolton to everyone, even of the county, Lancashire, except to true-born inhabitants of the town. They call it what sounds, roughly, like BOW (as in bows and arrows)-tun.
Hainault is Hay-norlt

Barnoldswick and Burscough must be small Northern places. Anywhere more than 60 miles due North of London is a strange, foreign,land where nobody from the South goes without an interpreter, but I'll guess 'Barnzee' and 'Burr-scoh'

Score on Fred pronunciations
Leominster: 10/10
Builth Wells : 5/10 its Buallt or Buellt (as in the Welsh pronuciation) Got this from my Welsh Brother in law www.builth-wells.co.uk
Beaulieu : 10/10
Hainault is Hay-norlt 10/10

Barnoldswick and Burscough must be small Northern places.
Barnoldswick and Burscough small?
In Barnoldswicks case its a town on the Yorkshire border map here
and if you Google the Name the answer is at the top of the list
Your effort 2/10 sorry
Its always Barnoldswick on the TV and Papers unless you are a Local
Finally Burscough which is a village located 3 miles north of Ormskirk Lancs.MapI live directly South East of here about 2-3 miles
Burr-scoh is One of the ways Its said close to the answer I need Try again? score 6/10
And a clue to the answers they are both corruptions, in Barnoldwicks case a severe one
PS Theres another local place called Scarisbrick 2 miles west of Buscough. try figuring how to ask for that locally? (Thats got mashed many times in the radio/tv readers way of saying it! )

quote:

Originally posted by aminator2002:
And what about Leicester Square?

You aren't mishearing things, they have no idea how to pronounce things in English.

Oh, they know all right. Last time I was in London, the Cockney bus driver calling the stops called "'Annover Square!"

An excessively pedantic passenger replied: "Oh driver, you dropped an 'H'."

"Not to worry, Gov'nor. I'll pick him up again at Hoxford."

Alan Moore