The Heart of the Commonwealth

When I’m in a different part of the country, and tell someone I’m from Boston, as often as not, they’ll boom out “BAH-stin”. Really? I can pretty much guarantee that no one in the history of the city of Boston has ever said they were from “BAH-stin”. It’s “BAW-stin.”

I wouldn’t think that correctly pronouncing Boston would be so hard. And then I think of all those bad Boston accents in movies about the city. (Shudder, shudder…)

But Boston, pronunciation-wise is easy-peasy compared to my hometown, the glorious Heart of the Commonwealth: Worcester, Massachusetts.

Worcester has been getting a fair amount of play recently. There was an article on NPR on how this old industrial city was reinventing itself with biotech and foodie eateries. The Red Sox announced that they’re moving their primo minor league team from Pawtucket RI to our fair city. The Boston Globe, which only acknowledges Worcester when something bad and/or tragic occurs there (admittedly, this translates into some frequency), had a recent story on how young folks are (sort of) flocking there to take advantage of more affordable housing.

But there’s still the irksome problem of how to pronounce the city’s name.

Even the Wall Street Journal noticed, and devoted some prime real estate to the issue the other day. Why, Worcester even got one of the famous WSJ b&w pointillist illustrations!

And then they wrote:

From government to newspapers to visitors, people won’t stop calling New England’s second-largest city “Worchester.”

And it’s not just a misspelling. Those who somehow manage to insert an “h” into the city’s name invariably end up calling it “Wor-chester”, as in Westchester.

I really do not understand someone misspelling Worcester as Worchester. The only reason I can think of is that they’ve heard someone mispronounce it.

And where does that mispronunciation come from to begin with?

After all, it looks like it should be Wor-ces-ter, not Wor-chester. So Wor-ces-ter I can udnerstand.

But in real life, it’s Wu-sta (“wu” as in “woof”, not “wu” as in “woo”, although Worcester is sometimes call The Woo…).

So how does someone decide to put an “h” in there?

What the h?

According to the WSJ, that pesky “h” shows up in a number of places on the Mass Andstate gov website. And they should certainly know better. Worchester, sorry, I meant Worcester, is the second largest city in Massachusetts. In New England, in fact.

But even the federal government keeps adding an H, including on a September press release describing charges against a “Worchester Man” due to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives error…

Not to mention The Globe, where they’ve been putting an “h” in there off and on for a good long time.

“Wanted in Worchester for Taking Ex Mayor Pratt’s Fine Mares,” the Globe wrote in 1896, covering a notorious horse thief.

For the record, Worcester inherited its pronunciation from Worcester in England, so blame the Brits if you’re wondering why there’s no “ces” in Worcester. (You know the Brits. They’re the ones who pronounce Magdalene College Maudlin College…)

As for Worcester, no “h”, please. The only “he” in Worcester is the one in Heart!