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Thanks for this, and I realise this is your specialism.
Realise English spelling is chaotically inpredictive of pronunciation.
Is there an example of 'tch' that isn't 'ch'?
Also, isn't spoken English slowly softening hard consonants?
In your examples I would suggest that Norwich & sandwich are closer to porridge.
Ipswich has retained the 'witch'.
mespilus
@fizzy.bleach
had to look it up (i say 'liken') and apparently in the UK both pronunciations are heard.
@mespilus the spelling isn't a hugely reliable indicator in this case (and rarely is in English) – cf. riches, which, norwich, beach, sandwich
there's an interesting debate here about whether it's OK to call a pronunciation 'wrong' based on the speaker only ever having seen the word written down