Welcome to Bawstin (Boston)

[H]

[color=#003300][b]For those of you who have never been to "Beantown," whether or not you will consider visiting

[Ang2dogs]

Being that I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York,
all I gotta say is "Fegidaboutit" 

[H]

[quote]Being that I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York Brook-lun, Noo Yawk,
all I gotta say is "Fegidaboutit"

[Hagar]

[quote][b]How to pronounce these Massachusetts city names correctly

[H]

Very similar to the way the original place names are pronounced in England.

The general New Hampshire equivelents (realizing that there may be a greater compliance towards our New Hampshire / Massachusetts border):
Worcester:    Wuhstur
Gloucester:   Glow (as iin how) - stur
Leicester:      Lestur
Woburn:        Woe-burn
Dedham :      Dead-um (NH's is spelled and pronounced nigh the same)
Tewksbury:   Tuwks bury
Leominster:   Lem-stur
Waltham:      Walth-ham (or Wall-tham/Wall-thum)
Chatham:      Chath um

8-)

[Hagar]

Very similar to the way the original place names are pronounced in England.

[color=#003300]The general New Hampshire equivelents (realizing that there may be a greater compliance towards our New Hampshire / Massachusetts border):
Worcester:

[Fozzer]

...nothing else comes anywhere close to this, for utter incomprehension!...>>>>

Rab C. Nesbitt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k7VoFiagfs

....all the way from Glasgow in Scotland!... ...!

Paul....We aye tha noo!.... 8-)...!

[a1]

So true.

[H]

Newcastle. I would pronounce it something like New-car-sol while the locals would say Noo-cassel. Geordie is almost like a foreign language. http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/sounds/geordsound.html

Our Newcastle is the smallest geographical township in the state -- wholly on the largest islend in the mouth of the river, the name pronounced much as do your Newcastle's locals. On that I should clarify, perchance the need, that the Bostonian rendering of the 'ook' in "Tewksbury: Tooks berry" is as the word took, rhyming with look or book.
In my own personal alphabet from many moons ago, of the character renderings (letters) were one for the long u sound (as in book, look or took) and its modified character for the old Brythonic w (from whence 'double-u') sound (as in boo, new, too -- you might say that usage has gone down the loo). The problem is that the "as in" words may not be pronounced the same either, say nothing of the local nuances of speech.
Should the legendary West Saxon, king Alfred (the Great), arise for a chat, I wonder with whom he would have a successful verbal exchange? We won't try to answer that question with king (chieftain or whatever) Arthur -- he wasn't even English (your attempted conversation might end fast should he realize you were deeming him anything related to the Angles or Saxons).

8-)

[Hagar]

On that I should clarify, perchance the need, that the Bostonian rendering of the 'ook' in "Tewksbury: Tooks berry" is as the word took, rhyming with look or book.

This is a perfect example of the problem I have with phonetic spelling.  The oo sound in words like look & book is pronounced completely differently in various parts of this country. I have no idea how to demonstrate this in writing.

PS. Click the speaker icon here to hear how I pronounce book. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/book

[H]

[quote]This is a perfect example of the problem I have with phonetic spelling.

[Hagar]

[quote][quote]This is a perfect example of the problem I have with phonetic spelling.

[H]

[quote]If I tell you that the Tew in Tewksbury is pronounced like new in this country it won't help at all.

[Hagar]

[quote][quote]If I tell you that the Tew in Tewksbury is pronounced like new in this country it won't help at all.

[H]

The only example I can think of to show what I mean is the name Houston. Americans pronounce the first syllable Hou as I would pronounce new; "Houston, we have a problem!"
Conversely most Brits would pronounce it like you would pronounce the tew in Tewksbury. Hooston. Fascinating isn't it?

I can see that we might be relating ou to you. Although I, too (tw), rhyme new with too, I rhyme hew with your new... but I don't rhyme with any of them when I sew.

I think a certain Noah Webster is responsible for the American English in use today. I'm not convinced it made things easier as by simplifying the spelling the derivation of many words is lost.

Not so much to his credit/discredit with the pronunciation and not entirely with the spellings, either. We also differ on words that weren't in use in his day.

8-)