# Hogfather (T. Pratchett) - Teatime's name?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 27, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318 "2005-12-27T03:58:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/1 "2005-12-27T03:58:18Z")
In between snatches of holiday festivus errand-running, I spent some quality time re-reading Terry Pratchett’s _Hogfather_.
One thing about that book continues to elude me: what is the significance of Mr. Teatime’s name? He insists on having it prounced “Teh-ah-tim-eh”; almost everyone gets it wrong, and he leaps for joy when someone finally pronounces it right.
I can’t grok the significance of this point (assuming there is one) – I suppose it could be a case of mock pretentiousness, like the folks who pronounce “Target” (the store) as “Tar-jhee”, but I think there’s more to it than that… can someone clue me in?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/2 "2005-12-27T04:16:49Z")
Here’s The Source:
[http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/apf/hogfather.html](http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/apf/hogfather.html)
but it doesn’t mention that one, sorry.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/3 "2005-12-27T05:00:38Z")
It might just be the standard frustration of anyone who has a name everyone mispronounces.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/4 "2005-12-27T12:18:31Z")
Seems a fairly standard British joke.
‘It may be spelled “SMITH” but it is pronounced “Throat-Warbler Mangrove”.’
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/5 "2005-12-27T12:36:50Z")
I think it’s a reference to the De’ath family (not related (by blood) to Edward d’Eath), whose name is pronounced dee-ath but looks a hell of a lot like “death”.
I can’t really see the Throatwobbler Mangrove connection, as a name pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh should indeed be spelled “Teatime”.
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### Author:  [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/6 "2005-12-27T21:25:05Z")
The British are famous for pronouncing names in a fashion that seems to have little relationship to how they actually spell them. There was a book, and later a movie starring George C. Scott and Kirk Douglas, by Phillip MacDonald titled _The List Of Adrian Messenger._, whose whole plot depended on this proclivity. The book and movie turned on the fact that the name Bruttenhlom was actually pronounced “broom”.
The Brits also pronounce Worcstershire as wooster and leicester as Lester. As long as they know what they’re talking about, I guess it doesn’t matter if Americans are baffled by all this. It might even be part of some conspiracy to keep the erstwhile colonials in their place.
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### Author:  [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/7 "2005-12-27T21:44:49Z")
And don’t forget “St. John” is pronounced “sin-jin” when it’s part of someone’s name.
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/8 "2005-12-28T11:17:24Z")
> [@marque elf](#):
>
> The British are famous for pronouncing names in a fashion that seems to have little relationship to how they actually spell them. There was a book, and later a movie starring George C. Scott and Kirk Douglas, by Phillip MacDonald titled _The List Of Adrian Messenger._, whose whole plot depended on this proclivity. The book and movie turned on the fact that the name Bruttenhlom was actually pronounced “broom”.
>
> The Brits also pronounce Worcstershire as wooster and leicester as Lester. As long as they know what they’re talking about, I guess it doesn’t matter if Americans are baffled by all this. It might even be part of some conspiracy to keep the erstwhile colonials in their place.
The sort of names you’re talking about are largely the product of time: either they’ve retained their original (pre-modern English) pronunciation, or become fossilized into the fashion of a particular time, or simply become worn down in the mouths of generations.
Mr Teatime is a separate phenomenon, and as **rjung** guessed, it has to do with pretentiousness – or perhaps in his case, a determination to be taken seriously. His family has, in all probability, always pronounced the name as it looks as though it should be – he’s deliberately changed the pronunciation to make it less of a joke name. People do this in real life, but the only example I can think of at the moment is fictional: Hyacinth Bucket (pron. _Bouquet_) from the sitcom _Keeping Up Appearances._
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/9 "2005-12-28T14:41:09Z")
The most famous such joke, IMHO, was the W.C. Fields character in the BANK DICK, named Egbert Sousé. He keeps reminding people that his name is “Sou-say, with an accent grave over the e.” The obvious implication is that he’s been called “souse” (meaning drunk) so often, that he automatically tells people about the “accent grave over the e” as a running joke.
I know a family IRL named Pigott who insist that it’s Pie-gott.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/10 "2005-12-28T17:32:45Z")
> [@WotNot](#):
>
> Mr Teatime is a separate phenomenon, and as **rjung** guessed, it has to do with pretentiousness – or perhaps in his case, a determination to be taken seriously. His family has, in all probability, always pronounced the name as it looks as though it should be – he’s deliberately changed the pronunciation to make it less of a joke name.
Or to make it sound more hoity-toity. I’ve never seen any support for this, but from seeing/reading this kind of thing occasionally, I’ve drawn an inference that in the UK, sometimes people will insist on a pronunciation that makes their name sound more Norman-French (i.e., aristocratic) than Anglo-Saxon (not).
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/11 "2005-12-28T21:41:18Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> The most famous such joke, IMHO, was the W.C. Fields character in the BANK DICK, named Egbert Sousé. He keeps reminding people that his name is “Sou-say, with an accent grave over the e.” The obvious implication is that he’s been called “souse” (meaning drunk) so often, that he automatically tells people about the “accent grave over the e” as a running joke.
There is also the apocryphal tale, usually concerning an exchange between Jean Harlow and Greta Garbot but sometimes between other people with similar names. According to the story Harlow insisted on mispronouncing Garbot’s name with a hard "T’. At some function or other she introduced Garbot in that fashion, to which Garbot responded "Dear you have been mispronouncing my name. The “T” on the end is silent, just like in “Harlow”.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/12 "2005-12-28T21:57:08Z")
There is no “T,” silent or otherwise, in Greta Garbo’s last name.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/13 "2005-12-28T22:35:35Z")
So, probably apocryphal, then.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/14 "2005-12-28T23:15:56Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> So, probably apocryphal, then.
Oops, I dropped the link I was going to put in there:
> **[Margot Asquith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Asquith)**
>
> Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith (née Tennant; 2 February 1864 – 28 July 1945), known as Margot Asquith, was a British socialite, author, and wit. She was married to H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1894 until his death in 1928.
> Emma Margaret Tennant was born in Peeblesshire, of Scottish and English descent, the sixth daughter and eleventh child of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, an industrialist and politician, and Emma Winsloe. Known always as...
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/15 "2005-12-28T23:48:33Z")
> [@marque elf](#):
>
> The Brits also pronounce Worcstershire as wooster and leicester as Lester.
Worcester **shire** is pronounced _Wooster **sher** _.
Worcester is pronounced _Wooster_.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/16 "2005-12-29T00:48:05Z")
There’s a GQ thread on this subject, but quite aside from whether it actually exists in the real world (which I think it does, but I won’t go to any great lengths trying to prove), the idea of a name that is pronounced in a way other than that naturally parsed from its spelling is a popular comedy meme; often it’s because the name pronounced normally would be embarrasing, common-sounding or just mundane.
The most well-known example (in British comedy, at least) would be Hyacinth Bucket (‘it’s pronounced boo-kay’), but [url=“[http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0012.htm](http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0012.htm)”]here’s an example by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and I do actually think the Pythons’s _Throat Warbler Mangrove_ is a valid example.
IRL: A mate of mine used to work at the DHSS - one of the people signing on had the surname _Hogsflesh_, but insisted it was pronounced ‘ho-flay’ (to which my mate answered “I’m sorry sir, someone’s written ‘hogsflesh’ here, how did you say it should be spelt?”
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/17 "2005-12-29T02:42:18Z")
> [@marque elf](#):
>
> The Brits also pronounce Worcstershire as wooster and leicester as Lester.
Well, that’s because they’re stupid, isn’t it?
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### Author:  [@davmilasav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davmilasav)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/18 "2005-12-29T04:20:53Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> The most famous such joke, IMHO, was the W.C. Fields character in the BANK DICK, named Egbert Sousé. He keeps reminding people that his name is “Sou-say, with an accent grave over the e.”
Shouldn’t that be accent aigu? Accent grave goes the other way.
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/19 "2005-12-29T08:30:07Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Well, that’s because they’re stupid, isn’t it?
As this is Cafe Society, I’ll merely ask if you’ve ever considered featuring in a self-made documentary about swimming across Boston Harbour wrapped in ten fathoms of anchor chain. :dubious:
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> I know a family IRL named Pigott who insist that it’s Pie-gott.
Tony Pigott, the cricketer, pronounced it as “Pie-got”, but Lester Pigott, the tax-fiddling jockey, pronounced it as “Pig-ott”.
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hogfather-t-pratchett-teatimes-name/337318/20 "2005-12-29T11:29:39Z")
> [@cher3](#):
>
> There is no “T,” silent or otherwise, in Greta Garbo’s last name.
I think **Blake** had her mixed up with Brigitte Bardot.
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