English Pronunciation Tip of the Day

Tip 2

Category: Names
Author: JAM

The suffix -ham

The suffix -ham is very common in English placenames and personal names. In the UK the usual pronunciation is /@m/. In the US the pronunciation is /h@m/ or /h{m/. So in British English:

Birmingham	b3:mIN@m	Your browser cannot play the sound!
Rotherham	rQD@r@m	Your browser cannot play the sound!

Be careful of names where the element before the suffix ends in <p> or <t>. In these cases the combinations <th> and <ph> often do not represent the usual /f/ and /T/. So Clapham is pronounced /kl{p@m/ not /kl{f@m/ and Streatham is /stret@m/ not /streT@m/.Unfortunately, there are some exceptions. For example, Botham is pronounced /b@UT@m/.