It's "sodder", not "soLder", damnit! (for us USAians)

[SteveThackery]

When I (jokingly) affect a non-American accent , I pronounce these like "bowda" and "showda"

What do you mean by a "non-American" accent? There are dozens, probably hundreds, of identifiable non-American accents, and not all of them say "bowda".

You might be interested to know that you have actually nailed the London* accent! I'll explain. In the traditional London accent, "oh" sounds, as in "boulder", tend to get wider, so they get closer to the vowel sound in "how now brown cow". Closer, but not all the way. The next bit is the 'l', which tends toward a tight "ooo" or elongated "w" sound.

Finally, the last vowel. In most of England we would pronounce "boulder" with a "duh" at the end. In London, it tends towards a "dah" sound.

So, in most of England, boulder is pronounced bow₁-l₂-duh₃.

1: "bow" to rhyme with bread dough
2: a dark (but not silent) 'l'
3: a short and fairly light "uh" sound

In London, it's more like:

1: "bow" gets wider - let's say half-way between "cow" and "dough"
2: the 'l' becomes "ooo"
3: a short "ah" sound

*I refer to a London accent, but sadly two-thirds of the population of London are not white British, which means the traditional London accent is in retreat. Also, there is the old Cockney accent. It sounds to most people like an exaggerated version of the traditional London accent, although I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[Zero999]

What do you mean by the soul and hot vowel sounds? I pronounce the o the same in hot and soul. Do you pronounce soul as so-well and solder as so -lder? I've heard those variations before but I believe they're not widespread.

For me, hot rhymes with what and bot.

Soul rhymes with coal and hole.

That's interesting. At first I thought the O sounds similar to cot and coal, but then my pronunciation of the word col is subtly different to col.

[tooki]

How do you say: buoyant and buoyancy? Is it boo-ee ant and boo ee n see?

Nope, doesn't follow: it's "boy-ent" and "boy-en-see".

No it isn’t! It’s “bwoy-ent” and “bwoy-en-see”.

[tooki]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

In all cases shown (and English) the unmodified name is the umbrella term for all dialects, not specifically those of the “mother country”.

So none of the examples you enumerated is actually weird (though they aren’t the terms used by linguists and language teachers).

[tooki]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

Well, there is Castillian Spanish as distinct from what's spoken in Latin America, so apparently we already have those.

And that's simply called Spanish, unless you're specifically differentiating between local dialects in Spain.

When referring to the Spanish dialects spoken in Spain specifically, it’s “Iberian Spanish”.

“Spanish” without a modifier means all Spanishes, including those of Spain and Latin America.

[negativ3]

Edinbara is much closer to correct, phonetically.

So how does "burgh" transmogrify into "bara"? Seems like there's an intrusive syllable there.

Its not Pittsburgh. It seems language does indeed change over time, in different parts of the world, with a seemingly common language.

[TimFox]

Spelling (orthography) is not a perfect guide to pronunciation.
The Roman alphabet works well for Latin, but is less reliable the farther from Rome it is used.
The reason for the spelling and pronunciation of the English noun “colonel” is historical, not acoustical.

[Zero999]

As it is for the language spoken here in the U.S.

Unless you have some problem with that.

Obviously, I do. Clearly there are distinct differences, and in order to clarify the distinction, the form not from England requires an additional descriptor. Again, unless you want to have French French, German German, and Spanish Spanish, there's no need to further clarify where English comes from.

Well, there is Castillian Spanish as distinct from what's spoken in Latin America, so apparently we already have those.

And that's simply called Spanish, unless you're specifically differentiating between local dialects in Spain.

When referring to the Spanish dialects spoken in Spain specifically, it’s “Iberian Spanish”.

“Spanish” without a modifier means all Spanishes, including those of Spain and Latin America.

It depends on who you're talking to. As an European, I normally think of the Spanish spoken in Iberia, but I suppose Americans are more likely to think of Latin America, since it borders them.

I largely agree that a language normally refers to something which a group of people can all understand, so English, without any prefix refers to America, Australian, along with all of the various dialects spoken in the UK.

[TimFox]

Even within the English kingdom section of the United Kingdom, there are strong regional variations in usage and pronunciation.
This is normal for a mutually-understandable language distribution spoken over a wide geographic area.

[Analog Kid]

How do you say: buoyant and buoyancy? Is it boo-ee ant and boo ee n see?

Nope, doesn't follow: it's "boy-ent" and "boy-en-see".

No it isn’t! It’s “bwoy-ent” and “bwoy-en-see”.

Nope, wrong! It's not pronounced like that here (U.S.).

I'm talking about how people actually say it, not what the prescribed pronunciation might be.
Like in movies and TV, which are pretty representative of what how the general pop. talks.

Where do you suppose it's spoken like that? Not here it ain't.

[Analog Kid]

Regarding the business of how certain names are pronounced in different areas, apropos the "Edinburgh" case essayed here:

The issue is how local folks pronounce a name, "local" meaning some area around the place, perhaps a country-wide area, versus how "outsiders" pronounce it.

Case in point: Paris, France.

I'm going to venture that most of the world, at least most of the English-speaking world, pronounces it as "pare-iss". Not "par-ee" as the French do. So the outsider pronunciation is "wrong".

To generalize here, it seems that the chances of the Rest of the World pronouncing a place name as the local inhabitants prefer to pronounce it are slim to none. It's just not going to happen in many cases. Outsiders will say the name as they will, the "proper" pronunciation be damned.

Another case: Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A.

Most everyone over here says "de-moyn", or perhaps "duh-moyn". Which is clearly wrong if you consider it to be a French name, which it is. I'd hazard a guess that even French emigrants who move there eventually use the bastardized American pronunciation instead of the "proper" French one.
Same goes for orthography:
Most people write Turkey, not Türkiye.

[Aldo22]

There are many such examples, and the reasons vary widely.
In German or English, for example, many Italian city names derived from Latin or Greek have evolved differently than in Italian itself.

Mediolanum - Milano - Mailand - Milan
Florentia - Firenze - Florenz - Florence
Neápolis - Napoli (Napule) - Neapel - Naples
Venetia - Venezia - Venedig - Venise
...

There are plenty of such examples.

[IanB]

A "dark" 'l' is definitely not an inaudible 'l'. These words - all, fall and cool - all have a dark 'l', and in all of them the 'l' is entirely obvious and clearly audible.

The word "local" begins with a light 'l' and finishes with a dark 'l'. Both are clearly audible as an 'l'.

This I completely understand and agree with.

What I have been trying to say, is that when the L comes before a D in words like shoulder, then the D tends to swallow the L. Especially in fast, everyday speech.

You are saying that this may be more common in a London accent, and I did indeed grow up in the London suburbs, so maybe I have a London accent.

But in broad terms, I don't really hear a gross difference between a London accent and a general southern British accent. I do hear a broad difference between southern accents and northern accents. However, it is been a while since I was immersed in British accents, so I can't say I have heard hundreds of British people speaking recently.

[IanB]

On that train... for well over 10 years travelling to work every morning and home in the evenings and I had to listen to the recorded English southern voice say my town name wrong, twice for every stop.  "Bang Gor". Its the better version against "Banger".  or "Bang - Or"  or "Ban gor".  The G is pronounced twice - in both syllables and it's then rolled into two short syllables.  Bang'gor.  Just two short, tightly packed syllables.  Most people over pronounce it.  No accent on the "O" so its almost like an e.  Like if you said "Banger" but pronounced the G again in the 'er' sylluble.  Bang'ger.

But didn't we have a lovely time the day we went there?

[Analog Kid]

@IanB, just curious: are you a British expat living in the U.S.?

[TimFox]

Same goes for orthography:
Most people write Turkey, not Türkiye.

The Turkish government has decreed that "Türkiye" is the correct spelling.
Does that only matter to the Turks?

By the way, "Istanbul" is a corruption (in the linguistic sense of the word) of "Constantinople".

[Analog Kid]

Same goes for orthography:
Most people write Turkey, not Türkiye.

The Turkish government has decreed that "Türkiye" is the correct spelling.
Does that only matter to the Turks?

Yes, apparently it does. How many times do you see "Türkiye" written that way?
I've seen it used on exactly one site I read, a fringe political site where people go out of their way to use the "correct" names.
Otherwise it's "Turkey" everywhere I look.
Perhaps that will change someday, but for now the Turkish ("Türkiye"-ish?) gov't. is fighting a losing battle.

[Monkeh]

By the way, "Istanbul" is a corruption (in the linguistic sense of the word) of "Constantinople".

You can't go back to Constantinople.

[Aldo22]

By the way, "Istanbul" is a corruption (in the linguistic sense of the word) of "Constantinople".

You can't go back to Constantinople.

[Analog Kid]

Goddamnit.

If there's no other fucking reason than those god-damned motherfucking shit-faced WRONG AUTO-CAPTIONS for just outright banning fucking "AI", well, we don't need another good fucking reason.

Fuck! They're fucking everywhere these days.

[Xena E]

OK Cartman, calm down 😁

[Analog Kid]

OK Cartman, calm down 😁

Oh shit. Now I gotta go watch South Park.

[Xena E]

For UK place names if you want to make rules about pronunciation, try these:-

Costessey...

Wymondham...

Happisburgh...

And how many silent L's in:-

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

OK, it's Welsh, but it's a place in the UK, just as Bangor, are.

[Sorama]

OK Cartman, calm down 😁

Oh shit. Now I gotta go watch South Park.

Well, you sound like South Park 

[paul cotter]

A small town in Ireland with the name Drogheda often causes problems with international reporters. The correct pronunciation is like "Drawhedda". This is often thoroughly mangled in reports.