Some say Londis whilst others say Lundis. I have asked in store and I have received both answers. What’s going on here? Give me the slightly disappointing truth.
Give us some context. From your use of the word “store”, I’m guessing that it’s not a family name or a place name, but could be a brand name, technical term, or some other kind of word.
It’s a UK based chain of local shops. A franchise, I imagine but anyway…I am wondering how it is pronounced because nobody seems to be able to give me the definitive answer.
It never occurred to me to pronounce the first syllable as in “London”, but now I see it, that totally makes sense. I’ll continue to pronounce it “Lonn-diss” (short o, short i) though. Don’t know what the ‘official’ pronunciation is but that how I’ve always heard it.
Same for me too.
I see Wikipedia says the name was originally meant as a contraction from “London District Stores”, but that was long ago and several takeovers ago. AFAIK general usage went with Lonn-diss quite some time ago, not that they’re that frequently a subject of conversation.
It sort of doesn’t really matter but I just needed a bit of clarity on this subject. I called it LUNdiss for ages and then I heard the other version and…I just don’t know anymore!
I would suggest calling their corporate offices and ask, but I won’t suggest it because it wouldn’t be conclusive: I’ve seen some Toyota commercial where it is pronounced “toy-ota” and other that say “toe-yota”.
Ditto for Santander Bank, which once handled my auto loan. Sometimes I would call them and they would use an American- style pronunciation (similar to “sand-tinder”, but “a” instead of “i”), and other times it was more foreign (“sahn-tahn-dare”). And I’m not talking about the random humans who happened to be doing customer service when I called; I’m referring to somewhat-official recordings of the “Press 1 for whatever” genre.
Well, having seen the derivation helpfully found by PatrickLondon above, I’ve gone the other way! I think I’ll stick with how I’ve always said it though.
I’ve just remembered there is/was a mining operation called Lonmin (I had an unhappy investment in their shares for a while) which I always heard in my head as lonn-minn despite its origin being “London Mining” - don’t think I’ve ever heard it said out loud though.
Over here it’s always Sant-an-dare because it derives from the Spanish city (=Saint Andrew).