How do you say Leicestershire?
It’s the birthplace of George Fox, and I need to know how to say it “correctly” for a speech I’m giving, so I don’t get funny looks… 
Just cough and say “…shire”
Merriam-Webster entry for Leicestershire
There’s a sound link in the definition.
Main Entry: Leices·ter·shire
Pronunciation: 'les-t&r-"shir, -sh&r
Variant(s): or Leicester /'les-t&r/
Usage: geographical name
county central England capital Leicester area 1021 square miles (2644 square kilometers), population 860,500
There’s more syllables in that word than they give it.
I was up in Leicester, the city, just yesterday. Well, Tuesday, really.
Pronounce the city “Lester”.
Prounce the county: “Lester sher”.
Quite a nice place, bits of city wall dating from 1400 littering the place. City centre is loathsome, like all city centres these days.
Leicestershire is Midlands, which means mostly industrial, but there is a lot of lovely “Robin Hood” countryside.
- Will he stick and disappear for a couple of months, or keep going for the big 8000 and then disappear again for a couple of months? What say you?
Three syllables, less-ter-sher.
The first one is the word “less”, and this is the one that is emphasised the most.
The second one is like the second one in “sister” - make sure you pronounce the T as a T and not as a D.
The third one is like the first one in the word “sherbert”.
Many letters in English placenames are not pronounced, which always amuses Martin when I am trying to say them for the first or second time.
Most likely, no one in your audience will know how it’s pronounced anyway, so just sound confident with whatever you say and you’ll be fine 
Like the city of Bubblebathwithaloofahandaniceginandtonic
which is usually shortened to Bath.
Or Phtang.
I can’t even say the regular word “bath” correctly. Darn American accent. On Tuesday the fish and chips guy pegged me as American because I ordered “cod”. It was both interesting and embarassing to get elocution lessons from a British guy with a strong Indian accent.
Should have asked for small cotton chips.
After the war a lot of Italian families settled in Dublin where they made a good living selling fish and chips. The Italians did not speak a lot of English and the Dubs even less Italian. The Dubs would point at the fish, then the chips and say “One o’ dem and one o’ dem please”. In time the Italians began to say " A one an’ one?". To this day a portion of fish and chips is known as a “One and One” in Dublin.
Now why an Island race with a well known fondness for the potato never came up with the idea of fish and chips is another thing altogether…
Slan,
D. 
The English may have hit on fits ‘n’ shits earlier than the Irish simply because the potato made its way to Ireland via England. However, no-one else has come up with anything near so brilliant as curried chips, which I love when the curry sauce is a thick, hot, scummy yellow!
djm
How about Worcester ?(like Jeeves’ employer.)
Or Gloucestershire (“Gloster-sher”).
When I was in Kentucky I couldn’t get the natives to believe that in the UK “Derbyshire” is pronounced “DARBYsher” and a “derby” is a “DARBY”.
Berkshire (“BARKsher”) is similar.
And Coventry is “CUVentree”.
The woman in the greasy spoon in Louisville used to go dreamy-eyed with delight every time she heard me ask for a “Dotty”. A “Dotty” was (in my terms) a scone (pronounced “skonn”).
And an american chap I used to work with in Maidenhead had trouble with people misunderstanding his accent on the telephone. He used to say
“My name is Bawb: ‘B’, ‘O’, ‘B’, Bawb!”
The potato was too slow to get across before the prehistoric land bridge collapsed into the sea, probably. Or maybe all the snakes ate them, and then St Patrick told them all to cod off.
I know History me.
Or Grosvenor Square…I went there yesterday, and when I was telling Martin about my trip I spotted “The Look” and knew I had horribly mispronounced something.
<<<<<<<<<< The Look
Ok, thanks everybody. 
My home city of Edinburgh is usually mispronounced by non-Scots -
most often as ‘Edinborough’. It should rhyme with kookaburra (the
Australian bird), as in Edin-burra.
Also, Glasgow should be pronounced ‘Glaz-go’.
Colin
Come to Cornwall and try Widemouth Bay, Polzeath, Launceston, Fowey, Rough Tor, Treknow, Perranzabuloe, Yeolmbridge, Chysauster, Mousehole, Tintagel. Your efforts will raise the odd titter but you’ll love the place anyway!
Steve