Bryn Mawr, PA– November – Advance Advice?

[RockyR]

The reason PA's (especially Philly area) accent is so "hard" is b/c of the Welsh. While Boston (aka "Bah' sten") and New York (aka "New Yawk") have soft r's, Philly has HARD r's (as known by abyone who has been teased for saying "wood-er" instead of WAHter).

There are actually a lot of welsh settlements around here and a heavy Welsh influence on the way we speak.

All that being said, I (and everyone I've ever heard) pronounce the town name Bryn Mawr as "brin mar"

[Larry124]

...I (and everyone I've ever heard) pronounce the town name Bryn Mawr as "brin mar"

True and more. I most often hear it as “bren mar”.

To mid-west telemarketers (May they fall on their dirks and puncture their sporrans!) my town of “Have-er-ford “is “Haev-er-ferd”.

Pity us. Every Philadelphia area child has to learn a pronunciation for the Schuylkill River*. “SKOO-kull”
And hopefully avoid picking up the accent of Gilligan's Island’s Thurston J. Howell III which is still heard at the Devon Horse Show and the Merion Cricket Club.
BTW years ago the Horse Show grounds was the site for a wonderful Highland Games.

Ah the good old days… “Katherine Hepburn …She stood out, it seemed to me at the time, as a kind of attractive freak, all because of her accent which was that of a well-schooled, upper-middle-class New England girl just out [asked to leave local rumor has it] of Bryn Mawr, a college of high academic standing, but also notable for breeding well-bred, upper-class young women.”
--BBC “Letter From Ameriica”, Alistair Cooke.

*The Delaware Indians were the original permanent settlers of the area around this river, which they called Ganshohawanee, meaning "rushing and roaring waters." The river was later named Schuylkill by its European discoverer, Arendt Corssen of the Dutch West India Company. One explanation given for this name is that it translates to "hidden river" and refers to the river's confluence with the Delaware River at League Island, which was nearly hidden by dense vegetation. Another explanation is that the name properly translates to "hideout creek", with the corresponding form in modern Dutch being Schuilkil.
An early restoration of the river was funded by money left for that purpose in Benjamin Franklin's last will.
--Wikipedia

[Ian.MacAllan]

. . . To mid-west telemarketers (May they fall on their dirks and puncture their sporrans!) . . .

May all objectionable telemarkers suffer that fate at least.

The deaths of both Hepburn and Cooke are grievous losses to Western arts.

But the mispronunciation of place names is ubiquitous. I still smile at the memory of the very proper Bostonian assuring me that in "Bahs'n", "Iowa" is pronounced "Ohio". and of the actor in that movie about the Tuskegee Airmen who said he was from "Iowa, OTT-umwa".

.

[steward75]

One of my relative's estate is in Villanova, just up the road from Bryn Mawr. It was sold about 1920's out of the family (shame, I'd love to buy it back), but the house still stands today in the middle of a development on top of a hill. It was built by the same firm that built the Reading Terminal in downtown Philadelphia.

Just thought I'd add my two cents. hahaha