So how do you say 'Gingera' anyway?

EvanJames said :

desertdreaming said :

And what about Coree as in Mt Coree? I pronounced it corry, as in curry, but I was assured that it is pronounced “coh-REE” by someone who drove a 4wd (and therefore knows about such things)

It’s Mount Core-REE. And bugger the 4WDs, if you can find the walk to Coree Creek Falls, you will discover something quite magical.

Will you tell us where it is?

JimCharles said :

I also can’t get why people pronounce Northbourne and Melbourne with a burn instead of born.
But Goulburn seems to have born at the end. I was wondering if it’s Scottish influenced.

Never heard a Northburn pronounciation before, but many say Melbin & Goulbin. I had to adopt it myself for fear of being laughed at!

My worst attempt was for Gungahlin. When I first moved to Canberra I thought it was Gunga-lynn. Oh the shame.

Oh, and of course. Queen-bean for Queanbeyan.

desertdreaming said :

And what about Coree as in Mt Coree? I pronounced it corry, as in curry, but I was assured that it is pronounced “coh-REE” by someone who drove a 4wd (and therefore knows about such things)

It’s Mount Core-REE. And bugger the 4WDs, if you can find the walk to Coree Creek Falls, you will discover something quite magical.

Autistic gremilin creeping out…

Gaah. My street name, after doing some research, turned out to be a family name whose origin is the UK. Turns out that depending on where that family member came from in UK it has three different ways of pronouncing.
Since my suburb was created around the 70s I don’t think there’s any record I can track down to find out how it was supposed to be pronounced (only written records).

So what about Gingera? I climbed it on the weekend, and it was beautiful. But is it GIN-ger-a, JIN-jer-a, gin-GAIR-a, jin-JAIR-a, or some hybrid, like gin-JAIR-a or JIN-ger-a?

Put it up for a poll I say.
Since Mt. Ginnia is GIN-near, Mt. Gingera should be GIN-ger-a.

poetix said :

Gingerly, after this thread.

/me slow pokes poetix.

I don’t trust anyone in Canberra to pronounce anything correctly, after hearing the terrible thing you’ve done to the word “Manuka”!

And what about Coree as in Mt Coree? I pronounced it corry, as in curry, but I was assured that it is pronounced “coh-REE” by someone who drove a 4wd (and therefore knows about such things)

So, how do you say ‘Gingera’ anyway?

Gingerly, after this thread.

Deref said :

M0les said :

PoQ said :

Don’t ask about Kaleen, spelt with an invisible “y”, either.

Kaleeny?!

My 2c worth…

It’s a word, in an Aboriginal tongue, for water. There used to be a ferry on Sydney harbour called “Kooleen”, and I reckon it was the same word. Spelling it’s just an attempt to represent the sound of the word using our alphabet, so neither of those really give you any idea of how it was pronounced. But “ka” or “koo” as the first syllable makes me think it must have been unstressed, so that both spellings might have been trying to represent a “k?” sound, so the stress was probably on the second syllable – k?LEEN.

I’m no linguist, cunning or otherwise, but there must be at least one here.

Tried that, without a Y it’s k-leen, similar to potcheen = p-cheen
But no, here it’s kayleen.

Don’t get me started on Weetangera. I was saying it weet-an-geera. But no, it’s wee-TAN-gurra.

I also can’t get why people pronounce Northbourne and Melbourne with a burn instead of born.
But Goulburn seems to have born at the end. I was wondering if it’s Scottish influenced.
Like most of English you can’t work it out by rules and get it right every time, you just have to learn the peculiarities and memorise them.

PoQ said :

Don’t ask about Kaleen, spelt with an invisible “y”, either.

Kaleen is easy, they wrote a songabout it.

Do you remember, chalk hearts melting on a playground wall?
Do you remember, dawn escaped from moonwashed college halls?
Do you remember, the cherry blossom in the market square?
Do you remember, I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn’t I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart.
So sorry I never meant to break your heart.
But you broke mine.

Kaleen is it too late to say I’m sorry.
Kaleen could we get it together again.
I can’t go on pretending that it came to a natural end.
Kaleen I never thought I’d miss you,
And Kaleen I’d hoped that we’d always be friends.
We said our love would last forever,
So how did it come to this bitter end.

Do you remember, barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember, loving on the floor in Belsize Park
Do you remember, dancing in stilletos in the snow
Do you remember, you never understood I had to go.
By the way, didn’t I break your heart ?
Please excuse me I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart,
But you broke mine.

Kaleen, I just want to say I’m sorry,
But Kaleen I’m too scared to pick up the phone.
To find you’ve found another lover to patch up our broken home.
Kaleen, I’m still trying to write that love song,
Kaleen it’s more important to me now you’re gone.
Maybe it’ll prove that we were right
Or it will prove that I was wrong.

I have no knowledge of Aboriginal pronunciation.

Based on its English orthography I would suggest Kaleen rhymes with baleen. It has an invisible macron not an invisible y.