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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-
Is there an example of 'tch' that isn't 'ch'?
not that i can think of
In your examples I would suggest that Norwich & sandwich are closer to porridge.
I think some people pronounce Norwich that way, and yes, I pronounce sandwich that way sometimes now you mention it.
Also, isn't spoken English slowly softening hard consonants?
Do you mean as in the examples above? What's happening there is that the unvoiced final affricate (the 'ch' sound) becomes voiced (as in porridge or bridge). What that means is that your vocal cords (technically called vocal folds) are vibrating at the same time as your mouth is forming the consontant. With unvoiced consontants (p, t, k, s, ch, and many more), your vocal folds don't move.
I don't know if there's a trend towards this in English. Do you have other examples?
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Ipswich
Oh hai!
I think the difference between how Norwich and Ipswich are pronounced may be down to accents.
Norfolk is more drawn-out than Suffolk, so Naar-wich is more cumbersome to mouth, than Naar-ridge.
Whereas in the clipped Suffolk, Ups-wutch is more natural.
In a similar vein, Felixstowe becomes Fulix-stoow.
fizzy.bleach
Scilly.Suffolk
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