The Examiner's Hamish Geale and Josh Partridge walk you through the pronunciation of some of Tassie's trickiest place names.
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00:00 Northern Tasmania, there are some cracking place names and some of them can be a bit
00:11 tricky to pronounce.
00:12 I'm here today with my great friend Josh Fispardo.
00:16 Have you ever heard someone absolutely butcher a place name from Northern Tasmania?
00:22 Yeah, um, Travellum is the worst one.
00:26 I've heard it's hard to get there.
00:30 Not necessarily Northern Tasmania, but I heard a Sorrel the other day, which is really disappointing.
00:36 It shows you're not from Tasmania if you're pronouncing Sorrel as Sorrel.
00:41 It's a Sorrel sake, yeah.
00:43 But yeah, what are some of the ones that you were thinking of, Gila?
00:47 Well we've put together today the top five, I guess hardest to pronounce place names.
00:56 And coming in at number five, we haven't got a lot of like silent letters in I guess like
01:01 Northern Tasmania, but the one we do have is up near Rose Fiers, it is Grindelwald.
01:07 There's an L there, but you do not say the L. It's a no.
01:11 It's not Grindelwald or whatever you're going to go with.
01:15 Grindelwald.
01:16 You want to take us off with number four?
01:20 Number four, Rochelie.
01:22 No, it does not rhyme with broccoli.
01:26 It is not Rock-a-lee, it is Rochelie.
01:28 I can't remember where I'd heard Rochelie before, but it was just one that really rhymed
01:33 like gears, Gila.
01:34 Yeah, well it's certainly not correct.
01:36 Number three is a very important kind of one, so if you take away like nothing else from
01:42 this video, here this one.
01:44 On the East Coast, we've got Bicheno.
01:47 Now, it's very important that you pretend that the T is an S. I've heard it the opposite
01:55 kind of way and look, I mean like it's not pretty is it?
01:58 No, no, not at all.
01:59 It's not pretty.
02:00 Which takes us to number two.
02:01 Yeah, out near the airport, near Island Block and Paving, nice little place there, you've
02:09 got Bridalbain.
02:10 Bridalbain, yes.
02:11 Not Brittlebane or whatever else you're going to go with.
02:15 Brittlebane, people say.
02:16 Yeah, the roundabout place, it's Brittlebane.
02:19 Brittlebane.
02:21 Which brings us of course to number one.
02:23 There won't be any surprises here for anyone.
02:25 It is of course every mainlander's favourite, Launceston.
02:31 Now you often hear people say Launceston and I can understand why because you know, like
02:40 city parks, lovely, very lush.
02:41 We've got, you know, down the road we've got a world champion bowler in Bradbeck-upon-Ash
02:47 but it's not Launceston is it, pardon me?
02:50 No, it is Launceston or Launston like it is in the UK.
02:55 There's a few different pronunciations but Launceston is the one we're sticking with
03:00 and we are the Launceston Examiner, we should know how to say our own name.
03:05 So you've got to take it from us.
03:07 I have heard people say every other word that's got a-u-n, it's that awn like sound and I
03:14 think they've got a point to some extent.
03:17 Like we're just, you know, you've got haunches, you've got, you know, you've got sauna, launch,
03:23 laundry, staunch, gauntlet, even leprechaun.
03:26 But what people have got to understand is that it's a cultural pronunciation.
03:32 Like you wouldn't go to France and come up to a Frenchman and say, "Hey mate, I'm pretty
03:38 sure it's actually Paris, I'm not sure why you're saying Paris."
03:42 And it's the same with Launceston, we're very cultured people.
03:45 Yeah, that's one way of putting it.
03:48 But yes, it's Launceston guys, that's all you need to know.
03:53 That is all you need to know.
03:54 Which takes us to, we've hit the top five hardest to pronounce place names.
04:00 We're going to go to Quickfire Pronunciation.
04:03 Pardo, I understand that you've been on a road trip around northern Tasmania recently.
04:09 Can you tell us where you went?
04:11 You're really putting me to the test here.
04:13 But I started here in Launceston.
04:15 I've driven to the beach at Port Sorrel in the Narrantapu National Park, back in time
04:20 for someone's wedding at Quambi.
04:22 I fit in a round of golf there, finished A8 holes, 6 under.
04:25 Might be a bit of a lie.
04:27 But then went south to Laiowene, which is also known for being 6 under, 6 degrees under zero.
04:34 I've taken the pipeline through to Poitina and now I'm heading east.
04:38 I'll take the train through the middle of the highway at Canara, stop off for some cookies,
04:43 chicken in Avoca, and I'll stay the night at Bed in a Shed in Fingal.
04:48 Great accommodation.
04:49 Next morning I'm back north through Smeries Pass and Snellens to Derby, which is pronounced
04:54 Derby.
04:55 It's only a Derby when Wynnalir and Branksholm used to play in the NEFU.
04:59 I'll grab a steak sandwich at the Pub at a Paddock in Pyengarna.
05:03 I've seen the carved memorial trees on the way through to Ringarooma, visited the mountain
05:09 at Ben Lomond, which is bigger than Ben Hur but smaller than Ben Nevis.
05:12 In Scotland, yep.
05:13 I'm driving back through Bredalbun, Adelaide's the city of churches and Bredalbun's the city
05:18 of the roundabout.
05:19 It is.
05:20 And I'm back home.
05:21 There you have it.
05:22 Try that at home.
05:23 It is an excellent, probably two days' work to get through all that.
05:26 Thanks so much for joining us.
05:28 It's been a great pleasure to, I guess, like, let all of you guys in on some of the local
05:34 tips of how to pronounce place names in northern Tasmania.
05:38 Until next time.
05:40 Cheers.
05:41 Cheers.
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