How Did Each English Region Get Its Name?

[@General.Knowledge]

*Which country's regions / provinces should I make a video on next?*

[@benjiestcor3232]

Spain's provinces!! (Not autonomous regions)

[@Expert_Noob]

RUSSIA!

[@furawatchi23]

I think you should do the Indian subcontinent

[@danhess2]

Switzerland’s cantons are super fun and fascinating because you’re sourcing names not just from medieval sources, but medieval sources of like 4+ different ethnic groups. Different Germanic tribes, Frankish, Celtic, Roman, and more

[@DavidLimofLimReport]

New Zealand's historic provinces

[@Ibis117]

A worthy effort on the pronunciations: the Map Men (Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones) have a video pointing out the complete lack of logic/consistency in English place name pronunciation. It's almost as if we've designed to be unintelligible.

[@General.Knowledge]

They do! They make great videos.

[@CardinaliamYT]

@@General.Knowledge Yeah, those videos are addicting.

[@Omni_Shambles]

Crazy how they call "them" "African Americans" but we just call "them" British. 💯

[@sophiejohere]

@@General.Knowledge love your videos and this one is great, but you could have researched the pronunciations… perhaps you should have contacted either Jay Foreman, History with Hilbert, Rob Words or Simon Roper ;)

[@skylark.kraken]

It does amuse me when people complain about "Worcestershire", the trick is to not read it and just say "wuhs-ter-sheer"

[@leemycookiesofficial]

The way you pronounced "shire" in Yorkshire is how it should be pronounced in every single one of these 😊

[@fabovondestory]

Yorkshaya

[@DylanSargesson]

17:23 It's not "North Hamptonshire", its "Northamptonshire", which like many of the -shire counties is just named after its County Town, Northampton.

[@Omni_Shambles]

Crazy how they call them "African Americans" but we just call them British. 💯 Excuse me on the pronounciation. 🤣

[@Omni_Shambles]

Cuckold. Clown. 🤡

[@jacobparry177]

Henffych well i fy nghyd-wladwyr yng Ngymbria! Greetings to my fellow compatriots in Cumbria. Extra fun facts: the Cy in Cymru is pronounced exactly like the Cu in Cumbria. The Cy/Cu in the two names mean Fellow, together. The mru/mbri means Land. The older Latin name for Wales was Cambria, before it got replaced with Wallia (The Latinized form of Wales, or older Wealas). Another interesting point is that the name Cumbria looks a lot closer to the Brittonic word Kombroges, because it retains the mb sound cluster, which has disappeared in Welsh. Some of the oldest Welsh Poetry, like Y Gododdin (The Votadini, note that Latin V = a W sound, and that Common-Brittonic Wo became Go in old Welsh), is set around Northern England and southern Scotland. There were also Brittonic (essentially old welsh) speaking kingdoms around modern day Cumbria, the most notable Being Rheged, after which a cultural heritage centre in the county is named. There are also a few Old Welsh placenames in the county, such as Penrith (Pen = Hill, headland, rith could either be Rhyd, a ford, or Rhudd, ruddy) and Carlisle (Caerliwelydd- Caer = fort, Liwelydd, Lugus, a Celtic god). In the aforementioned poem, Y Gododdin, a few places are named, and some of them have modern names: Llwyfennydd - Lyvennet Arfderydd Gwenystrad Derwennydd - Derwent. Some people believe that a unique Celtic language was spoken in and around Cumbria, linguists call it Cumbric, and it survives through placenames and personal names, like Gospatrick (Gwas Padrig- gwas meaning servant). Others believe it was merely an early dialect of Old Welsh and not too dissimilar to the dialects of Welsh spoken in modern Wales and what we now call Shropshire and Herefordshire. And to finish off my nerdy facts, here's a quick guide to Welsh pronounciation: Welsh has 8 vowel sounds represented by 7 vowel letters: A E I O U W Y A as in Hand, bat, father E as in End, friend, and the a in care. I as in Sweet, heave, and as in the Y in yes, yellow. O as in Gone, on, horn. U as in the i in kit, fit, hit. W as in Cool, fool, pool, also as in Water, wait. Y as in the U in Run, fun, and as in the Y in Wynne, win, pin. Consonants: B as in bet, never doubt or debt. C as In Cumbria, never science, cell. Ch as in the proper Scottish pronounciation of Loch, or scouse book. D as in Do, dare. Dd as in the th in This, that. F as in Of, very, voice Ff as in Off, find, fair. G as in Gone, never gel, germ. H as in Help, never hour. J as in Jam, never fjord. L as in Label. Ll = place your tongue in the position you would to pronounce an L, but sort of hiss from one side of your mouth, keeping the tongue jn the same position. M as in mam, merry N as in No, never P as in Pen. Ph as in Physics R rolled R. Rh an aspirated rolled R. S as in See, said, never as in dogs, dares. If followed by an i and another vowel, e.g. Siarad, the the Si is pronounced Sh (sharad) T as in Ten, twenty. Never a glottal stop as in Bohle (bottle) waher (water) Th as in Thin, think. Also, quick look at the celtic family tree: Proto-Celtic > Proto-Brittonic: Welsh Cornish Breton Possibly Cumbric and Pictish. Proto-Celtic > Proto-goidelic: Irish: Scottish gaelic Manx Possibly Pictish (Pictish is disputed, but from what evidence we have, we can say it was most likely a descendant of Proto-Celtic.

[@ferretyluv]

That’s interesting. There’s a kid in a class of mine who goes by Rhys, which should be pronounced “hrrus” according to you but he pronounces it “Reese.”

[@jacobparry177]

@ferretyluv @ferretyluv So, the thing with the Welsh Y is that it can be pronounced two ways, as mentioned in my main comment. In names like Rhys the Y is pronounced with a long version of the i in Kit (I'll represent long vowels with a doubled vowel) so Hrriiss (as opposed to Hrriss which would rhyme with Kiss) There are rules which dictate when Y is pronounced like the U in Run, or like the i in Kit, but as a fluent speaker of Welsh, the rule just comes naturally, so I couldn't really explain why Y is sometimes pronounced like the u in run or the i of Kit. Some words with 2 Ys have both pronounciations, like: Tywys (to lead) - Tu-wiss Mynydd (mountain) - mun-ith (th as in the) A safe bet is to assume that if a word is longer than one syllable, the first Y will be U, and the second i. But in words/names with only one syllable the Y will most likely (but not always) be the i sound: Rhys - Hrriiss Tŷ (house) - tii Tyst (witness) - tist Yw - iw (think of the w here as in the w of Ew) But: Dy (your) - du Dylan (du-lan. Not di-lan) And so on. Apologies if that was overly long and made no sense👀

[@andrewwhelan7311]

The root words of this ancient language are far older than Latin.

[@jacobparry177]

@andrewwhelan7311 They're not. If by 'Ancient language' you mean Brittonic, then it's the same age as Latin. Both languages, along with Germanic, Greek, Albanian, etc. Are basically the same age and come from Proto-Indo-European.

[@davidhillyeah]

Worcestershire is pronounced Wuss-ter-sher (UK) Don't over complicate it. The city of Worcester is Wuster. Shire is pronounced "sheer" So it's "wustersheer".

[@thomasbowers5199]

From what I remember from Map Men's episode on the topic, it depends on the UK accent. "-shire" can be pronounced "sheer" or "sher". Then again, there might be a preferred pronunciation per county kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnTGYYKprrKVh80

[@davidhillyeah]

@@thomasbowers5199 lets be honest its the worcester part that people struggle with the most. sheer or sher is either or really. but in the midlands area we probably lean more to the sheer pronouncation.

[@noahbrock349]

And Leicestershire is pronounced "Lestersher", Hertfordshire is pronounced "Hartfordsher" and the "Here" in Herefordshire is has two syllables.

[@ferretyluv]

He’s Portuguese, give him a break.

[@cdanerz3677]

He's Portuguese and lives in Portugal so we should just give him the past cos even Australians would probably say shire not sheer

[@CaseyJonesNumber1]

1:46 in England (and British English) it is pronounced "Leftenancy".

[@docksider]

You are right about rivers, many rivers in England are called Avon, from the Welsh word Afon, which means river (the single f is pronounced as a v).

[@perfectallycromulent]

Why so many letters? Germany has 12 rivers named "Aa".

[@Hendricus56]

I feel like you should have watched the MapMan video on English county/city names. Would have probably cleared up a lot of confusion for you

[@MTPF2903]

Love your content! I have a small correction: Londinium is not a pre-Roman name, that is a Latin name theorised to be based on a pre-existing Britonnic name, which has been reconstructed as Londinion and is generally accepted. The segment is otherwise correct as far as I know, and it would still mean the same thing, but the -um suffix is Latin.

[@MTPF2903]

Also, Leicestershire is pronounced like Lestershire, and Worcestershire is pronounced like Wustershire. They both have three syllables when spoken but it looks like four when written if you are unfamiliar. I can't explain why, and I know plenty of English people that make these mistakes! Overall, great attempts. No criticisms here just looking to provide some extra info :)

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks for the correction!

[@rogink]

@@MTPF2903 Burk-shire, Durby-shire!

[@andrewwhelan7311]

Llud the ancient native king - see Lud gate .The gate needed a wall to hang on long before the Romans

[@MTPF2903]

​@@andrewwhelan7311 There is literally no historical evidence that Lud was a real person. The original source for his existence is Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'Historia Regum Britanniae', a pseudo-historical text written in 1136 that has absolutely no standing in actual historical discussion. The parts that can be corroborated with actual history are inaccurate. It has no historical value beyond being a piece of fantasy history literature. Monmouth even claimed to have sourced much of his material from an ancient book written in Brittonic which he translated to Latin, whereas the actual primary source appears to be the writings of Bede, his imagination, and myth, such as the Welsh tale of Lludd and Llefelys. This is the same book that talks about King Arthur, and literally has a chapter dedicated to Merlin's prophecies. It is believed by scholars that Lud was based on Lludd Llaw Eraint, a mythological Welsh hero, for whom it has been suggested a memorial once existed at St Paul's Cathedral, near Ludgate. Lludd Llaw Eraint is probably based on Nudd Law Eraint, an even early mythological figure from Welsh history, who's name is cognate for the Irish mythological figure Nuada Airgetlám (silver hand/arm), although they are separate figures in myth. Lud, in the Welsh version of Monmouth's text, is called Lludd fab Beli, supporting the connection. The Welsh Nudd, or the Irish Nuada, is thought be related to Nodens, an ancient Celtic healing God. The name ""Llaw Ereint" is thought to mean "of the Silver Hand", but can be interpreted differently in Wales and Ireland. In Irish myth, Nuada Airgetlám was the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a mythological race of people that eventually morphed into the fairies of folklore. The most famous story is of Nuada losing his hand in battle and thus no longer being the King, but the hand (or arm) is then magically healed, which is likely to be the 'Silver Hand', and the Silver-hand name has further possible connection to Nodens. The name Nodens can be speculated as having Proto-Indo-European roots with similar meanings to acquiring, using, and hunting, connecting to Lydney Park where Noden's-related dog or beast votive have been found, and there are connections to the Roman God Mars as a healer, and Silvanus, a hunting God. Tolkien suggested Nuada could stem from the Celtic 'noudont' or 'noudent', meaning to acquire, to make use of, and perhaps earlier to catch or entrap as a hunter, which Tolkien connected with the story of Nuada's hand. The actual etymology of Ludgate is largely thought to be "hlid-geat", an Old English compound meaning postern or swing gate. It has also been suggested it could mean 'Flood gate', or 'Fleet gate', from 'ludgeat' meaning either back gate or postern. This is plausible considering Ludgate's position within the Ancient Roman city, on its Western edge, and the London Wall was built around 200AD, based on an existing mound and ditch wall. London Wall was constructed by the Romans, it did not exist prior to their presence as anything more than earthworks. The lack of walls was one reason Boudica and the Iceni were able to raze the burgeoning city in around 60AD, and the later Pictish invasions are believed to be the reason London Wall was built. The period directly before Roman Britain was the British Iron Age, with most constructions still mud and lumber. Gates were still made from timber, and a hillfort was still the typical seat of power. Early Roman London was no larger than Hyde Park is today. Furthermore, the word gate is derived from the Old Norse 'gat' and thus would have entered the English lexicon in approximately the 9th century. The word originally referred to a gap in the wall, rather than an actual physical gate, therefore it would not be expected for Ancient Britons to typically have physical gates, just manned gaps in the wall, although some would exist. Other terms for a gate from old English include 'yett' and 'port', which more specifically mean a grille, and a gap in the wall. A portcullis covers the gap in the wall. The Old English port comes from Old French, and in the Welsh version of Monmouth's history, Ludgate is called Porth Llydd - 'porth' means gate in Welsh. It should noted here that the English and Welsh versions of Monmouth's work do not fully align. It remains an outside possibility that the mythological Lud did influence the name of the city, but there is no historical evidence for Lud's existence, or any actual evidence that the city is actually named after him. There are accepted scholarly beliefs that are based on scientific and historical plausibility. It is likely we will never state London's etymology with an absolute certainty as it largely impossible to state anything that happened over a few hundred years ago with absolute and unquestionable certainty. The view of actual historians however, is that Lud did not exist.

[@dnstone1127]

Berkshire, Derbyshire, Hertfordshire are pronounced 'Bark', 'Darby', 'Hart'.

[@samuell.foxton4177]

Parish Councils are a different type of entity... Counties are (usually) divided into Boroughs or Districts, which are the municipal (local) authorities. Many of these are "parished", having local Parish councils which usually cover a village, town or part of a town (and these are called "Community Councils" in Wales). To make things even more confusing, a "Town Council" is usually the level of a Parish council, and there can exist Town and Borough/District councils with the same name. Also, some local authorities are only partly parished, with areas that don't have a Town/Parish Council. Oh, and some Counties are now either non-existent as authorities (eg Berkshire) or a Unitary Authority of themselves...

[@brianlewis5692]

Anglo-Saxon England lasted up until 1066~1154 AD. 'Derbyshire' - this is pronounced like "DARB-i-shur"

[@IkarosWaltz]

Your Old English pronunciation is pretty good, a few minor mistakes, but I can correct if you need to use Old English again haha. Sc in Old English is "Sh", so the "scir" in words is just "Shire" pronounced "Sheer" back then. Most (but not all) Cs are a soft "Ch" (typically marked with a dot: ċ, to differentiate from the hard C), which is why the "Castra" became "Chester". Brycg Stowe would be pronounced "Bridge Stow". Eoforwic would be something like "Yover witch" or "Ever witch" or somewhere roughly between the two. "Scrobbesbyrigscir" would be "Shrobbas bee-ree sheer". þ and ð are both "Th", typically ð would be as in "Then", and þ in "thing" but they can and were often used interchangeably, and W is always W, rather than V, which was a later development in Continental Germanic languages, which used to use W too, but only English and Dutch seem to have kept. But, otherwise you did pretty well for someone with no experience, certainly better than my first attempts lol.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

They pronounced it “Efferwitch” in The Last Kingdom.

[@IkarosWaltz]

@ That could be correct, but generally an “F” between two vowels became a “V”. For Example: Cnīf to cnīfas (Knife to knives) Līf to līfas (life to lives) Wīf to wīfas (wife to wives) Þēof to þēofas (thief to thieves) Wulf to Wulfas (Wolf to wolves)

[@RandomLifeOfDarren]

Great video! I’ve lived in Dorset, Wiltshire, Tyne and Wear and now Greater Manchester and never knew the name origins

[@johntauren]

You showed the wrong Humber (at 17:50) The picture you showed was of the same named river and bay in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although the river is certainly named after the same river in the UK.

[@General.Knowledge]

Aaaaaah! My bad. Thanks for the correction.

[@brettevill9055]

The Saxon term "wealas", which appears in the etymology of "Wales" and "Cornwall", is a bit more specific than "foreigners". It referred to speakers of Latin and Romance languages, and subjects of the Roman Empire. Its cognates appear in, for example, "Wallachia" (in Romania), "Wallonia" (in Belgium), "Valland" in Old Norse legends. It seems to come originally from the name of a prominent Celtic group, the Volcae or Οὐόλκαι, who were as far as the early German were concerned the people who lived across the Roman frontier from them.

[@brittakriep2938]

In Switzerland a Canton Wallis exists. From view of germannic Alemannen the french speaking people of Wallis had been , die Welschen '. In german language for a long time ,welsch' was used to describe foreign languages, things and persons, mostly slavic or romanic. This word is now out of use, the last and only time i heared it spoken in my life, was 40 years ago.

[@martinzihlmann822]

Wallis is from Valley not Welsch. Even though they speak an unintelligible language, this time it's a coincidence :).

[@citationneeded-hy9iz]

This is your best video to date.

[@bellaususfitzpinguidpalate8732]

Amazing video!!! Thank you for all your hard work!!! 😊

[@krisinsaigon]

Shire is pronounced to rhyme with Fire But when it’s on a county it is pronounced differently, with an -uh- not and -I- sound Cheshuh Lancashuh

[@calum5975]

Depends on your accent. For me it's "Lanca-shih"

[@chipremel8594]

Cambridgeshire has the shire pronounced as 'sheer'

[@kidcreole9421]

Lancashire Lass here from Preston and we pronounce it Lanca-sher

[@williambrooker2030]

I am from Bristol! Great to hear some of these facts!

[@thespectre717]

When your pronouncing shire it’s always pronounced as sheer, example being Berkshire is pronounced Barksheer, Derbyshire being Darbysheer, Cheshire being Chesheer, Hertfordshire being pronounced Hartfordsheer, and Leicestershire is pronounced as Lestersheer but honestly you did your best, much love from Wiltshire Uk 🇬🇧

[@stuiec]

Tbf personally I don't really pronounce the r bit at all unless the next word starts with a vowel (and I think a lot of people are the same) it's just sh and a "schwa" /ə/ sound.

[@MorleyGames1]

Shuh not sheer. Much love from Derbyshuh

[@RandomNonsense1985]

Berkshire is pronounced “Birksheer” if you’re in Massachusetts.

[@z0phi3l]

Now you gotta do Scotland and Ireland (both )

[@JoeBidenOfficial]

And Wales

[@Redcoat_]

Also Northern Ireland.

[@OscarPlymouth]

@@JoeBidenOfficial Don't do that to him. That's just cruel!

[@calum5975]

Scotland's a little confusing as they no longer use Counties though.

[@z0phi3l]

@@calum5975 Like for this video he can use the old traditional counties or whatever they're called

[@stephenmcnally8583]

Darling the pronunciations are cray cray ❤

[@annehersey9895]

I love learning more about Geography from the General! For Geography nuts like me, there is a great game NOT Wordle BUT WorLdle about the World. You get a new place every day and I know my Geography but this tests us well! Another one just about the US is called Statele which is also challenging and you also get a new one daily. That’s how I prefer to keep,my brain sharp-not words or number puzzles but Geography puzzles!

[@eliasmarud2791]

The "monster" on the Moomin mug is called "Morran" in Swedish, they are deeply missunderstood and just wants to have company =(

[@General.Knowledge]

They do look very nice!

[@mattihp]

Maybe the Map men will do a video on your stuff now :D great vid as usual

[@charlievaughan7823]

I think you made the right decision on which map to use. Most people in England know the ceremonial counties best and they're the ones whose borders are on the road signs.

[@D.B-s9x]

NO! I for one will never accept them!!

[@animatechap5176]

Me neither, my home county of Warwickshire has been robbed of Coventry and Birmingham lol

[@noahbrock349]

@@charlievaughan7823 I will never except such vain, artificial constructs.

[@catherinehiley3274]

Very informative and 10 out of 10 for effort mate

[@mammuchan8923]

An excellent job!

[@General.Knowledge]

Tjaml ypi!

[@jonathanwebster7091]

The 'Lynn' in respect to Lincoln (my home city!) and by extension Lincolnshire, originally referred to Brayford Pool (the enclosed body of water-not quite a lake as its connected to the sea via the River Witham and Fossdyke, but almost) that the city was built around. When the Romans arrived, there was already celtic settlements (Oppida) around what is now Brayford Pool, and they built their city on the ridge above it, and built the Fossdyke (Britain's oldest working canal) to connect the Brayford to the rivers Trent and Humber, and ultimately the sea in the opposite direction. The original celtic name was probably something like 'Llandun' or 'Lynndon'. So from that, it was latinised and became 'Lindum Colonia'-a Colonia or Colony being a Roman city where retired soldiers were allowed to settle once they retired (Cologne had a similar origin to its name, as it was also a Colonia). And when the Saxons invaded and took over the area, they simply shortened 'Lindum Colonia' to 'Lin-coln'-Lincoln.

[@iml_mistikk2592]

You forgot that Leicestershire has its etymology from The Guinness Book of World Records category for hardest tongue twisters

[@dnstone1127]

A 'Derby' in football comes from the famous Epsom Derby horse race, meaning a big event, which local rivalries always were.

[@puro459]

This video is really useful. Greetings from Derbyshire, cheers!

[@General.Knowledge]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@andyjwall2]

Brave attempt. Bristol is. CUBA (the County Used to Be Avon) but also next door there is BANES (Bath and North East Somerset) ceremonial counties have limited relevance in The UK. The main issue is what colour your bins are! 7 out of 10, good effort

[@dude12494]

Long time watcher, i think for the first time commenter; would love to see the origin and meanings of some of the eastern us state counties, such as Pennsylvania with the large amount of native tribe names and language used as well as European influence

[@noahbrock349]

The idea of entities, such as "ceremonial" counties and "local government" counties are an absolute anathema to our culture and heritage. "Merseyside", "Greater Manchester" and "Greater London" are artificial constructs with no real cultural or historical significance. Liverpool and Manchester are in Lancashire, Central, North and West London are in Middlesex, South London is in Surrey, South East London is in Kent and most of East London is in Essex.

[@General.Knowledge]

It does seem rather odd. Why were they created in the first place?

[@hpsauce1078]

As a brit i actually prefer the new ceremonial counties, they just make more sense to me, the old Lancashire exclave will forever bug me.

[@noahbrock349]

@hpsauce1078 I think you're in a minority.

[@noahbrock349]

@@General.Knowledge I think the Local Government Act of 1972 was designed to devolve more power to metropolitan regions, although they could have kept the historic counties as the ceremonial counties while introducing new administrative boroughs.

[@foundationofBritain]

@@noahbrock349 The historic counties were never abolished and still exist, though only really for cultural and historical significance/purpose, they are essentially preserved and have been since the creation of administrative counties by the Local Government Act 1888. Administrative counites was a first-level administrative division from 1888 to 1974, its this that got abolished in 1974, not the historic counties. Administrative functions were transferred from the quarter sessions to the new elected county councils.

[@maiquedrop]

Fellow tuga here, I think "-cester" is pronounced "stuh" and "-shire" is pronounced "shuh", so Worcestershire should sound like "Wostuhshuh" if i'm not mistaken Great video though, keep it up :)

[@jacobduncan2142]

In the UK most place names ending in shire are pronounced sure. Like New Hampshire in the US.

[@outerheaven8797]

Sher or sheer

[@leehallam9365]

The historic counties are the ones that are alive in people's heads. No Yorkshireman thinks of themselves as a West Yorkshireman. I live in a part of Greater Manchester that was in Lancashire and people still consider themselves Lancastrians, still use Lancashire on their addresses. The big modernisation was over 50 years ago, but the pull towards old names has been strong. East Ryding of Yorkshire is a recently restored name to an area renamed Humberside in the 70s. Bristol is the last bit of the modern county of Avon, the rest of which escaped back to Somerset and Gloucestershire to which they originally belonged. Rutland had been encorporated into Leicestershire, but has since reappeared as a unitary authotrity. Just last year Cumbria ceased to operate as local authority with the reappearance of the two original counties of Westmorland and Cumberland as unitary authorities, I suspect eventually they will become counties and Cumbria which is a ancient name for the area, but never a county till the 1970s will go back to its vague position. That will continue some cities that are too big for the counties they were not the focus of will continue as Bristol has done, but gradually as more places become unitary authorities the old counties will return.

[@CaseyJonesNumber1]

I once had a Yorkshireman tell me my home county of Middlesex no longer existed. I pointed out that it was only the Middlesex County Council that was abolished in 1965, not the county, but he was adamant: no county council = no county. He wouldn't have it, so I pointed out that there is no "Yorkshire County Council" as such, to which he agreed. I suggested to him that on that basis then, Yorkshire as a county didn't exist either! He shut up then! 😄

[@calum5975]

A bit more on Bristol. The W became an L due to snobbery. In some accents in England (namely around London), Ls at the end of a word get reduced into a kind of W. So, ball becomes baw. Bristol doesnt have this accent quirk, but rich londoners who despised the working class londoners who did have this accent quirk, decided that "Bristow" must have been an 'incorrect' form of Bristol. The name was then spelt with an L to 'correct' it.

[@catherinebutler4819]

Interesting - I've always thought it's because of the quirk that the Bristol accent does have, of adding an "l" to words that don't have a consonant ending. "Area" becomes "areal", etc. So, "Bristow"' --> "Bristol" makes sense.

[@Mark.Andrew.Pardoe]

@@catherinebutler4819 You are, of course, quite right.

[@councilofknowledge]

Great video man! 👍🏻 You inspired me to work on my channel and similar videos! Cheers!

[@brahmhenkins8732]

The "shire" suffix is pronounced as "sher". :) The pronunciations take a while to wrap your head around. But then there is Wales. Thank you for the interesting facts.

[@JesusLovesYou-nd1rz]

English counties are specifically complicated to understand, how many there are depends on what version of the map you look at, etc. The counties of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are easier to understand.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

Counties of the United States are a lot easier to understand, despite there being hundreds of them.

[@andrewlewis9231]

All your pronunciation of county names are spot on - except for Herefordshire! (which is where I come from). It should be pronounced 'Hairy' (without the H as Herefordian's don't pronounce it in any word) 'Ford' (is pronounced 'third' as in the number) and then the Shire as in Harry Potter.------ Airy-third-shire. As to its meaning - its more likely to derived from its Welsh name - Henffordd - 'Old Crossing/road due to the old Roman route still found in Stretton Sugwas (pron 'Suggas;)

[@z_1599]

The "Ford" part was sooo ineresting to me, since my city of Vilvoorde, Belgium has a similair etymology (Villa by the Ford) Also since it shows another germanic similaritie between English and Dutch

[@brittakriep2938]

Oxford is a town in Great Brittain, Ochsenfurt is a town in Germany,means the same ,pure translation. See also Frankfurt.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

The jurisdictional insanity is from England's long history where it has broken up and reformed many times and old constitutions are rarely overwritten even when they are obsolete. America and Canada has this same problem but it is so new that they mistakenly believe they have a "one size fits all" constitution.

[@General.Knowledge]

Okay! That explains it. Thank you.

[@Stant123]

Except that your statement is NOT true for America (not Canadian so I cannot speak on their behalf). The US has one constitution at the Federal level that provides a base level of rights for the people. For example, our first amendment, giving us all the right to freedom of speech. Outside of that, the laws and rights you have depend entirely on where exactly you are because every state is different, every county is different, and every city is different. Nothing is one size fits all in the US except for the bare minimum set of rights given to all people at the Federal level, and even this in some cases isn't true as multiple laws conflict with each other. For example, the US constitution's second amendment says we can all own guns, however various states, counties and cities progressively limit what is legal and what isn't, getting as far as some cities effectively banning guns because of all of the restrictions they have in place. Each State has a constitution of their own that grants a lot more rights locally to the people that live there. We have 50 states, so that means Americans are governed by 51 different constitutions. An example of rights granted by the states, the big issue is abortions. Some states allow it outright all the way to birth, some allow it up to a certain point, and some only allow it in very specific circumstances. No state flat out bans it, contrary to the popular narrative going round. The rights you have do vary by state. Another right that varies is recording someone. Some states require two party consent, meaning both the person recording and the person being recorded must give consent to being recorded in order for it to be legal which is why you may often times see signs posted outside of businesses openly stating that you agree to be recorded by entering their building. By entering you effectively are giving your consent. Some states only require single party consent meaning if you record a phone conversation to use in court, only one person being recorded needs to know they are being recorded, usually the person doing the recording is giving consent, but this isn't always the case as sometimes corporations record their phone systems while in use which means at least one party on the line must be aware and agree to it that recordings are being made. Things vary by state because we openly acknowledge one size does not fit all and we have accounted for that. Where we really begin to differ is the county level and lower. Instead of constitutions guaranteeing rights, we use charters to establish the "government" and then a series of codified laws to govern actions and activities. Counties and cities are not responsible for giving you "rights" but they do govern how you do things. Parking is a good example here. Many places do not care how you park a vehicle so long as you leave enough room for others to get by you. Some places are so strict, they not only govern how you park, but even the exact number of vehicles allowed to be parked on your property at any given time. They don't give you the right to park, but they govern how you do it. Of course, there are many shades of gray in between.

[@rogink]

@@Stant123 Yes, the constitution that was so perfect they had to keep amending it :)

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@Stant123 No one read that. You ever heard of the territories, DC area, treaty organizations, extraterritoriality agreements, annexed Indian nations, and banana republics?

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@rogink It was well written enough that the essentials still apply even though the Federals have expanded exponentially. Their jurisdiction is over matters in multiple states, and that expands automatically with as states become more densely populated and interconnected.

[@RichardMontgomeryYT]

As an Englishman this is such a cool video!

[@rogink]

Derby? Of course the name is designed to confuse. The shire is pronounced like the city - Derby. And the contest between local teams. But I thought it originated with two teams around Ashbourne. I think his pronunciation of olde English names sounds pretty good - it's the modern names that he struggles with :) As for the counties - literally no one thinks of Bristol as a county. It's a city. A bit like saying Bremen is a state not a city.

[@CaseyJonesNumber1]

Most proud Bristolians know that Bristol is a county as well as a city! 😉

[@Ullumma]

Shopshire although containing Shrewsbury, is denoted by Romans as Salopia, "a muddy place."

[@mattpotter8725]

Shropshire not Shopshire!!! I think we all have shops on our minds at the moment!!!

[@Miagrellum]

Great video! Its clear that it was a lot of work to make, but the quality is perfection as always 🎉

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks!

[@kwhite749]

My mum was born in Oxfordshire ❤

[@brittakriep2938]

In Germany a town Ochsenfurt exists. Guess, how to translate this name into english :-))

[@MaximeLoze]

For Cornwall, an interesting fact is that it's called "Cornouailles" in French. The point is that the French word for horn is 'corne', which can be found in the word ">Corn

[@cass2239]

It's a cognate because of the heavy Cornish influence on Brittany!

[@D.B-s9x]

Yes there was also a traditional Breton district of ‘Corniuaille’

[@General.Knowledge]

Thanks! And yes, that's a good idea with the French ones :)

[@MaximeLoze]

@@General.Knowledge you're welcome :)

[@lindakay9552]

WOW! My maiden name is Edgerton, directly descended from the Egerton nobility of Cheshire. My 10th great grandfather was a Knight of Ridley, Cheshire. His brother was Sir Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley. My 9th great grandfather fought in the Pequot war. (William Bradford was also my 10th great grandfather. Myles Standish was my 9th great grandfather . Major Joshua Ripley was my 8th great grandfather. ) All had female descendants married into my paternal line. ) My 8th paternal great grandfather fought in King Phillip's War. My 7th great grandfather fought in the American Revolution . At least 2 of my great grandfathers on my paternal side fought in the Civil War. And paternal grandfather fought in WWII. I would say Cheshire is a military mill! P.S. I wonder if Castro derives from Castrá. I also have a 10th great grandfather Robert Abell , who was from Hemington, East Northamptonshire Borough, Northamptonshire.

[@mr.coolmug3181]

Please do Scottish and Welsh counties 👍

[@Pyeknu]

By the way, I wonder if you realize that the map you show at around 18:01 shows the Humber River and Humber Bay in TORONTO, Ontario.

[@neuralwarp]

The -ce- in cester, the -re- in shire, and the -w- in wick are all silent. -er- is pronounced -aa-. Good effort!

[@Ciech_mate]

Gr8 job m8

[@outerheaven8797]

The shire part at the end of multiple county names can be pronounced as "sheer" or "shuh". I've listed the main ones where there was some confusion and the correct pronunciation in brackets- 1. Berkshire (Barksheer or shuh), 2. Derbyshire (Darbysheer or shuh), 3. Gloucester (Gloster), 4. Herefordshire (Hair-ruh-ford-sheer or shuh), 5. Hertfordshire (Hartford-sheer or shuh), 6. Leicestershire (Lestersheer or shuh), 7. Warwick, second W is silent, (War-ick) 8. Worcester (Wuh-ster). Asking the community may be a good way to master pronunciations like this in the future!

[@chipremel8594]

Cambridgeshire has shire pronounced as sheer.

[@daveh893]

How about doing a video on the regions in Portugal?

[@davesventurestudios]

Gloucester/shire pronunciation -- Gloster/shire. The 'uce' is silent.

[@CaseyJonesNumber1]

The reason the Gloster Aircraft Company chose to spell its name that way was so foreign customers could pronounce it without difficulty!

[@davelucas7337]

​@@CaseyJonesNumber1Makes sense. We say things based on how we read.

[@davesventurestudios]

@@CaseyJonesNumber1 easy to spell for companies not local to the area or country.

[@conclaveofthelost513]

Alcester and Bicester have always been a problem for me. Logic says Al sester, Bi sester. Locals say Alster Bister. I'm Worcs. born and bred and like to call it War sester. Annoys the hell out of everyone.

[@davesventurestudios]

@conclaveofthelost513 I guess how we say things is based on where we are from and how we hear others say words. Worcester for me I say Wuster, again from only down the road it's how I hear others say the word.

[@OscarPlymouth]

Super interesting. That was a difficult subject and a challenge for you with those pronunciations. 😆 It was funny for any UK people to listen to. But you did your best. Don't ever try with the counties in Wales. Even I can't pronounce most of them. :)

[@NotUmais_10]

Leicestershire is pronounced: Lester+Shire (Shir) and Leicester City is pronounced 'Lester'.

[@rankdHQ]

Loved it! Do one for countries next!

[@General.Knowledge]

I did one a looooong time ago for European countries. I might re do it!

[@HarveyJennings-zn2pl]

First mispronunciation was shire as it is pronounced shear of sher not shire

[@HarveyJennings-zn2pl]

Also is there is a e before an r it is normally pronounced as a a

[@Hydraas]

1:32 May I ask what the third type of county was meant to be labelled as?

[@General.Knowledge]

The three types are Historical, Ceremonial, and Local Government!

[@footshotstube]

well done mate

[@runtd7795]

If you ever do this with France, please do so with the historical provinces

[@notmuch8078]

I'm from the city of deer, an interesting area on Derby is Chester green where there's Roman settlement remains, also English is weird. Derbyshire is pronounced the same as Derby. Berkshire is pronounced like Bark-sher

[@noquochoke]

And in Massachusetts, Berkshire County is pronounced Berk-shah.

[@rogink]

Don't some locals call it 'Durr-bee', like he did?

[@notmuch8078]

@@rogink I've never heard it be called durby, maybe some people do but, and it originally was supposed to be pronounced that way, but those from Derby pronounce it with a strongish 'ar' sound

[@bearcraig]

That Humber River map in the Northumberland section isn't the one in England, it's the one in Canada (Toronto).

[@adamaalto-mccarthy6984]

Derby has other sport connections. The Earl of Derby raced horses on his land (Oaks Park in Sutton). The Derby & The Oaks both get their names from this.

[@alexpotts6520]

I think Kent is my favourite one of these. I'm just imagining this Greek guy slogging his way across the Mediterranean, through the Gibraltar strait, going all the way round Iberia and the west coast of France, and finally happening upon a desolate, uncivilised pile of rocks. "Erm, what should I call this barren, featureless wasteland? Well, it's on the corner - that'll do."

[@sydhenderson6753]

He eventually made it to Ultima Thule. Still debating whether that was Scandinavia, the Shetlands, the Faroes or even Iceland.

[@pirukiddingme1908]

I’ve always heard that the Derby in any sport is from Wigan vs St Helens in rugby league, the name being given by the Earl of Derby, whose holdings included the land of west Derby, a subdivision of Lancashire around Liverpool and south west Lancashire. Not sure why they would use it for two churches in one particular town when there will have been loads of instances of that in various sports throughout the 19th century

[@Kurogane-san]

Chinese Provincies Next, please

[@General.Knowledge]

Great idea!

[@ferretyluv]

But Chinese provinces are all literal.

[@Kurogane-san]

@@ferretyluv but has meaning behind. And I don't speak Chinese.

[@archstanton6102]

Thanks for this. Northumbrian here.

[@stephenreardon2698]

Great video. Thank you for apologising for the mispronunciation of Worcestershire before you attempted to pronounce it. As for how you pronounce shire at the end of each county, that is very much a North/South, East/West, Urban/Rural debate here in the UK. However, other commentators have missed something, the Humber you refer to in this video, is not a river, it's an estuary. Formed at the confluence of several major and minor rivers (such as the Trent, Aire & Hull), it is entirely tidal and salt watered. That said its name is believed to derive from one of the many names given by the ancient Brits for river, though this is disputed.

[@mariajoaoferrazdeabreu150]

Very interesting video.

[@isychi7314]

Very good video. Loads of info and etymology I didn't know about. I wouldn't fault you on the pronunciations though they weren't all correct but I see the effort. Also since leicester is my home I'll tell you how it's said. Leicestershire is just 'lestershur' and Leicester is just 'Lester'. And for our iconic town which foreigners never get right Loughborough is just "lof'brah" 😂😂

[@evanp695]

lowkey need a video on the counties of wisconsin next

[@ps5user155]

Tbh, when most people talk about counties in England today they are referring to the ceremonial counties

[@SirFrankieCrisp94]

You should do the counties of Ireland.

[@nestoreleuteriopaivabendo5415]

19:15 Wait until he find about Torpenhow Hill.

[@_AstaLily]

Great video! Although Berkshire is pronounced “Bark-sheer” or “Bark-sher” lol 😅 English pronunciation is so confusing that even I don’t get it right all the time and I live here!

[@outerheaven8797]

The Welsh word for Wales, Cymru is pronounced Kum-ree, which explains why the Cymry ended up becoming Cumbria.

[@hotdatedave]

This is a bit hard to listen to: when 'shire' is part of a county name it is pronounced sher not shire! Bedfordshire is pronounced Bed'-fud-sher; Berkshire is pronounced Bark'-sher, etc. I gave up on this one!

[@leehaseley2164]

Almost no English people pronounce shire as shire when it is a suffix. We pronounce it as shur/shire. The Hert in Hertfordshire is pronounced as Hart.

[@MC_aigorithm]

the map at 17:55 is definitely a map of Toronto which has a Humber Bay 😂

[@rinotilde2699]

8:43 Cymru is pronounced "ˈkəmrɨ"

[@aodhanmonaghan4664]

Unfortunately you might be making the mistake that a lot of Americans make. The word shire by itself does rhyme with sire and hire yes. For instance, the southern shire counties. However when it's used as a prefix or suffix its pronounced and spelled differently. When it's a suffix you pronounce it JUST LIKE how Americans pronounce New Hampshire, nyuu hampshurr, rhymes with whirr. In many dialects it'll be pronounced hampshuh, rhyming with unstressed The. When used as a prefix, it's pronounced similarly to share, for example sheriff, from shirereeve As for old English phonology? It's pretty consistent, far more than modern English, and EVERY letter is pronounced, no silent E at the end of words etc

[@issuepunkzine]

I am not 100% sure, but I believe that "Surrey" was derived from, "South Ridge" a reference to the, "North Downs" which are located just South of London and the Thames valley.

[@NickCC23]

Many of these names were later used for places in the United States usually in the territories settled by the UK in the 1600's-170ss that became the original 13 states.

[@kidcreole9421]

A lot of the counties in the last few hundred years have either reduced or their boundaries and towns and cities have merged into other counties. Less than a 60 years ago the county of Lancashire was much bigger which incorporated the cities and towns such as Southport, Liverpool which are now part of Merseyside and Manchester, Bolton which are now Great Manchester. All these were historically part of Lancashire less than 60 years ago.

[@pampoovey6722]

I love that you now know more about counties than I do. Growing up in London, we don’t really think about counties. Because we’re better.

[@afuckingblackhawkhelicopte5203]

Yeah but you’re not better. You still worship a fake monarch.

[@jamespusey7186]

felt that (as a fellow londoner)

[@stuiec]

Parabéns, um vídeo muito informativo e tb divertido. Sendo nativo de Northumberland nunca tinha reparado que vem do nome do Rio Humber. Nota 10 para fazer esforço de falar os nome tb sendo que nomes de lugares são entre as palavras da língua inglesa mais complicadas de pronunciar.

[@pepintheshort7913]

I find something to help me remember the pronunciation of a lot of the cester places is the -ce goes with the previous letters. Leicester is not Lei-ces-ter, it’s Leice-ster. Worcester? Not Wor-ces-ter, it’s Worce-ster. Cirencester screws that up though.

[@claudgurr431]

In 1974 Sussex was divided into east and west, The Isle of Wight was separated from Hampshire, Cleveland was created from North Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear was created from mostly Northumberland, West Midlands was formed from Warwickshire, and Rutland ceased to exist, as did Middlesex, all in a revision of English county borders.

[@billps34]

First mistake: the Berk in Berkshire is pronounced like "Bark". The Leicester in Leicestershire is pronounced like "Lester", and the Derby in Derbyshire is like "Darby".

[@pedromenchik1961]

I thought lieutenant was pronounced as "leftenant"

[@NocturnalPlatypus]

In a number of British English accents (including Received Pronunciation, 'RP'), as well as many varieties of Commonwealth English, it is! 🙂

[@noahbrock349]

It is.

[@General.Knowledge]

I think both are correct depending on which pronunciation you choose? I might be wrong though

[@gurrrn1102]

Please don’t pronounce it like that.

[@C_B_Hubbs]

What is the outro music at the end during the credits scrolling but before he talks about redoing the video 3 times?

[@sydhenderson6753]

Worcester, Massachusetts preserved the British pronunciation. At least Connecticut had the sense to change the spelling of Hertford to Hartford.