A BIZARRE message at a railway station has sparked a fierce online debate about how to pronounce “Glasgow”.
The hand-written sign at Helensburgh Central, Argyll and Bute, gives ticket prices to Scotland’s biggest city and underneath suggests the pronunciation “Glass-go”.
Reddit user calicotrinket uploaded the image online with the caption: “Seen at Helensburgh Central. Do people really not know how to pronounce Glasgow?”
Social media users have since piled in by the dozen to debate how the city’s name is pronounced and how to represent that phonetically.
Scottmaclellan wrote: “Wait, I pronounce it Glaz-go. Have I been doing it wrong all these years?”
Ferociousgeorge responded: “Nae glesga?”
Fofusion wrote: “East Coasters and snooty types seem to think Glass-go is appropriate…it is not”
Elizabethunseelie commented: “Glass-cow is the one that confuses me. Where are people getting a C from?”
And ShetlandJames pitched in: “West Coast accents? My old boss was from Kilwinning and basically said ‘class-coe'”
Other commenters suggested it could be for workers and foreigners at the nearby ferry ports and naval base – Faslane.
COMRADEPUTIN said: “Faslane has a lot of foreign nationals passing through on a regular basis, might be for our cross-Atlantic cousins.”
Mylittlesafari commented: “Helensburgh has had a lot of sailors in recently from Faslane. Lots of Americans in particular.”
Whoever wrote the sign also wanted to help customers understand the basics of travel vocabulary.
Underneath the words “round trip”, the explanation “there and back” has been added in brackets.
