8. Barnstaple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezrK2jZFiwM&feature=youtu.be Instead of thinking, "What messed up way can the British say this word?" our volunteer takes Barnstaple at face value and says it the way it's spelt. But beware, Barnstaple is another example of a name that includes a regular-seeming word. "Staple" is pronounced the same way in both countries, right? So it's Barn-staple, clearly. Well, no. Just to keep people on their toes, it's said as "Barn-stapple". And here's the correct pronunciation. By the way, "staple" derives from the Old French for "marketplace" and can also be spelled as "steeple". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgTKAKwX5Rs
Mike Morgan
Contributor
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
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