Police issue warning over forged 'twenty poond' bank notes

[<k>]

Police issue warning over forged 'twenty poond' bank notes

Some Scots pronounce 'pound' as 'poond' when speaking in their local dialect. 

[Alan71]

It's also a Northern (perhaps specifically, Bolton) way of pronouncing "pound".  Peter Kay and his namesake Vernon Kay - no relation - would both pronounce it as "poond" though with a slight deviance (more as "poand").

[<k>]

Yes, and Geordies say it too. 'Ah'm gannin' doon the toon!' (I'm going down the town / city centre).

[FosseWay]

And the Scandinavian cognate word to "town", tun, is pronounced roughly "toon" in Swedish. Could be a Norse remnant from the Viking age.

[<k>]

Apparently in Middle English, 'town mouse' for example was pronounced as 'toon moose', but then the Great Vowel Shift came along (actually three separate minor shifts), and 'standard' English changed, but some regional dialects (like Geordie) continued as before.