On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 10:53:40 -0800, Peter Kirk wrote: > > There are minimal pairs at the > syllable level between the British pronounciation of Birmingham (silent > h, stress on first syllable only) and many similar -ingham names, and > (rarer) place names like Odiham (Hampshire) - although I suspect the h > tends to be silent in the latter.
Pronounced "odium" locally. Offhand I can't think of any English placenames with a -ham suffix that don't have a silent "h" (Farnham, Fareham, Wokingham ...), although "h" is generaly pronounced in other common placename suffixes such as -hampton and -hurst. Andrew
