Pronunciation of Argyll

[OC Richard]

Yes the spelling of place-names often doesn't give much clue as to the way locals pronounce things.

Glendaruel is one of many... I heard a Scot say glen-duh-ROOL which I assume is correct. Hawick has got to be one of the oddest... Hoik? And Cheviot for that matter... is it really CHEEV-ee-ut?

EM-brah isn't suggested by the spelling either.

But we have the same here! Strangers here rarely pronounce Los Angeles the way we do (rhymes with bliss, not with cheese) much less Glamis (not the way Scots do!) and especially our Native American place-names such as Hueneme, Cahuenga, Tujunga, Ojai, Yosemite, and so on, and our Spanish place-names such as La Jolla, La Tijera, and so on.

Yes things from the Gaelic often have the stress later on in the word... counterintuitive, because the stress in Gaelic words, like English words, is usually on the first syllable. But these place-names aren't single Gaelic words but compound names.

Same often true in place-names from other Celtic languages such as Portmadog and Tywardreath (Welsh and Cornish respectively).

Which brings up an offtopic but very interesting Scottish place-name fact: The fascinating pit- names in Eastern Scotland, where the first element is P-Celtic (pit, a piece of land, cf Welsh peth and Breton pez, Gaelic cuid) but the second element is Q-Celtic (Gaelic) such as Pitcaple (Gaelic capull horse) Pitcorthy (Gaelic coirthe pillar or stone).