Where? Say what?

In Lawrence County, Tennessee there's a town called Loretto. OK, that doesn't look hard - sound it out. LOW-ReT-OH (almost like Low-RENT-oh, which would be appropriate). But that's not the way you say it. It's LOW-rett-uh. I know it's a small distinction - but an important one. To locals, anyway.

The British are very proud of their practically unpronounceable place names. The Welsh have that especially locked up, for example - Llanelli - is pronounced as far as I can tell
ccchuchhAN- echhhhchh-LEE. I was once on a train that passed through the tiny town of Llanelli and the whole carriage sounded like it was clearing its throat of a small, but very sticky lurgy. But for all the throat clearing and bizarre pronunciation rules of Wales - at least they seem to follow some rules.

Parts of London near me are Streatham, Balham and Clapham. That's stret-'m, bal-'m and clap-'m. How would you pronounce Loughborough - a town located somewhere in the Midlands.? Low-burr-OH? Lau-bor-uh? A co-worker of mine once heard an American asking a platform attendant where he might catch the train to Luga-buruga (I still maintain that they guy was trying to read from some badly hand written note where the Hs looked like As.) But anyway, it's Luffburow.

There are quite a few other examples of place names which foreigners invariably get wrong causing no end of sneering and jeering from the Brits. Though of course, 9 out of 10 BBC presenters can't say Michigan, Maryland, or Houston properly. And St Louis - is almost always St Louie, but I could forgive anyone for not knowing the right way say Louisville.

But one town looks like it's solved the conundrum of pronouncing place names. Via the Lynnster Zone - the town of Guin, Alabama tells you exactly how to say their town's name on their highway sign.