Gregory's Server@simon_lucy The information I found in dictionaries and on pronunciation websites such as Forvo suggests 'Wooster' is the most prevalent pronunciation in both Britain and America:
https://nl.forvo.com/word/worcester/
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 The must common American pronunciation I've heard for those that aren't familiar with the word try and say "WAHrcester" or something similar, and Worcestershire defeats them utterly. That's "Wustershuh", naturally :-) @simon_lucy I see. I think the confusion arose because OO can have multiple pronunciations: the one of 'foot', 'wool' etc. and the one of 'goose', 'doom' etc. I used the 'Wooster' spelling, the way the surname that's derived from 'Worcester' is spelled. The vowel sound in English might seem detached from the spelling but it isn't. The pronunciation tends to be consistent for the same word, wool is generally wuhl within the range of the accent but wooly, to have the nature of wool is more extended it kind of falls between uh and oo. But someone from Liverpool would likely pronounce book and cook as BOOk and COOk, though personally I never did. The phoneme 'ʊ' is that short uh and it's unfortunate that the description for English uses words with 'oo' rather than unambiguous words like 'lug', 'but' and 'multiply'. English is hard enough to explain as it is. And it remains that Worcester is a weird word. As it happens I think the Etymology is wrong as well. I think Vertis and ceastre evolved into Wercester. We still have an existing Roman Wall.  Buhk because my Mother was intent on me speaking properly, my younger brother got away with a broader Scouse. File under the tortures that the eldest child undergoes.  @simon_lucy @yvanspijk the “correct” pronunciation is moot because it actually rings out like “war chest ahhh” |
@yvanspijk
Trust me, I live 9 miles away from Worcester in Worcestershire, no one says wOOster, that would be Bertie Wooster. (though southern English accents would likely use Wuster for that too).
The sound on the site is right, but that is Wuster.
It's like the difference between BOOster and BUster.