A question for British and Scandinavian berries

The reason why I love the name [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] so much is because it is my late grandma’s name.
I remember that she and my grandpa used to pronounce her name with almost a “t” in it.
Sort of like [name_f]Elts[/name_f]-see. But the t sound was very light. But I think most people pronounce it as [name_f]Else[/name_f]-see, with a soft S sound.
Now my grandma [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] had two immigrant parents, one from Norway and one from [name_f]England[/name_f]. (I’m in the U.S.) So I’m wondering if [name_f]Elts[/name_f]-see is more of the British or Scandinavian pronunciation. Or if my grandparents just did that on their own.
So to any British or Scandinavian berries, how would you pronounce [name_f]Elsie[/name_f]?

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Hello British [name_u]Berry[/name_u] here!! Funnily enough my grandma also always says [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] with the little ‘t’ sound (we have a relative with this name) and so does my mum slightly, it’s very subtle (they’re both from northern england) I don’t really pronounce the ‘t’ and say it more like [name_f]Els[/name_f]-ee. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] this helps!

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Conveniently, I’m both [name_f]English[/name_f] and speak Norwegian! In Norwegian, [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] would be three syllables - ehl-shee-uh or ehl-see-uh (no t), and in [name_f]England[/name_f], there’s never really a t either, but there might be in the original Scottish.

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That is fascinating! [name_f]My[/name_f] grandma’s father was from Lincolnshire, so I don’t know if that would be considered Northern [name_f]England[/name_f].
Maybe it’s more an old-fashioned way to say [name_f]Elsie[/name_f], and it’s now pronounced the other way?

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no way!! that’s where my grandma is from!

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Whoa! That is so cool!!! :smiley:
[name_f]Do[/name_f] you mind if I private message you to ask you about Lincolnshire? I am always excited to learn about where my family came from.

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of course!! no problem :))

@rosepip @anon68906791
Are you by chance from the [name_u]North[/name_u] or [name_u]South[/name_u] part of [name_f]England[/name_f]? Another berry mentioned that [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] with a slight t sound may be the Northern [name_f]England[/name_f] pronounciation.

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I’m from the southeast! I have an accent that sounds far more fancy than I actually am.

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I’m from the southeast of [name_f]England[/name_f] and I’d say it [name_f]Else[/name_f]-ee

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English here! I would say else-see with no T sound :slight_smile:

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Els-ee is 100% [name_f]English[/name_f] version. The people saying there’s no ‘t’ sound the [name_f]English[/name_f] way are correct.

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It seems like it may differ by region! :blush:

I’m Norwegian, and here it’s more common to use [name_f]Else[/name_f] (el- seh) than [name_f]Elsie[/name_f], but if I met an [name_f]Elsie[/name_f], I’d pronounce the way I would in [name_f]English[/name_f], two syllables, without a t- sound. I’d like to add that there is no problem for Norwegian speakers to pronounce it, so in that regard it works well here too, which is kind of an accomplishment. It’s a pain having to find names that I like that works in Norwegian, Danish and internationally :sweat_smile:

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That is so interesting!! Thank you! :blush:

well my family is [name_f]English[/name_f] and some of them do say the ‘t’ sound as i mentioned previously. I think it may differ by region.

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I’m British and I say EL-see (no T sound). I’ve never heard [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] pronounced with a T sound, however slight.

HOWEVER…

I am from the Midlands and there is a definite tendency around here to pronounce the word “else” (as in “or else”) as ELTS.

Not everyone pronounces it this way, but some of those with a clear local accent ([name_m]Leicester[/name_m]/Derby area) definitely do use this T sound in the word “else”. So I can well imagine that there might be some who carry that over to the name [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] too, although I’ve never heard it myself.


ETA a couple of Reddit threads I’ve just found about this phenomenon (I was curious!)

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I can’t give a particularly detailed answer. I’ve never actually heard [name_f]Elsie[/name_f] irl, but I’m from middle [name_m]Britain[/name_m] and just say [name_f]Els[/name_f]-ee.

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That is fascinating! Thank you @katinka!

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