A market town in Somerset has topped a list of the 10 most difficult-to-pronounce place names in the UK. Frome is the most mispronounced town in England, according to a team of linguists behind the language learning app Babbel.
Ballachulish in Scotland, Beaulieu in Hampshire and Woolfardisworthy in Devon also made the top 10. The list's makers said British English was "famous for some of the most confusing pronunciations on earth".
The name Frome is thought to come from the ancient Brythonic word "ffraw", meaning fair, fine or brisk, and describes the flow of the river that runs through the town. Paul Wynne, of Frome Town Council, said the name was most commonly mispronounced as rhyming with "home". He said: "We're not a town that toes the line. Now it seems that even the way we pronounce Frome is different too. Ours is the right way, obviously."
Another place on the list, Babergh in Suffolk, is apparently so hard to pronounce that the district council is planning to rename it at a cost of £10,000. Council leader John Ward said: "Babergh has a proud history but we know that people from further afield are often unaware of exactly where Babergh is and even struggle over its pronunciation."
One of Babbel's editors, Ted Mentele, said: "The main reason that these are difficult to pronounce is that they're not spelled phonetically - there are a lot of silent letters and letters that are pronounced differently depending on where they are in the word."
