Speaking of pronunciation

[Trickstat]

Of course, some cities with identical names are pronounced differently in different places. Albany, NY and Albany, OR are pronounced differently by the locals. Vienna, VA and Vienna, GA pronounce it differently (and in Vienna, Austria, that's not the name of the city at all).

There's an example of that here in England. Gillingham in Kent to the south-east of London starts with a soft 'G' sound as in "giant" while Gillingham in Dorset starts with a hard 'G' sound as in "grass".

[Conor Dary]

Yes but even guessing that part you might still pronounce the first one to rhyme with "how". To be fair if it didn't have a horse racing course there would probably be a lot more English people who would also get it wrong.

English place names can be challenge....Southwell near Nottingham is pronounced Suttle...

Worcester in England is Wors-ter...the one in Massachusetts is Wooster...

[tandfman]

And then there's BAH-ston.

[gh]

Don't forget Tranna

[tandfman]

I had to Google that to figure out what place you were talking about. It happens that I've been there many times, and I don't recall ever hearing it pronounced that way. (But that could be my faulty ears or my faulty memory.)

[gh]

...(But that could be my faulty ears or my faulty memory.)

don't ignore the possibility of "d, all the above" :-)

[NotDutra5]

Peking to Peiping to Beijing

It never dawned on me that it's the same city. Dumb me. Never too old to learn.

[bambam1729]

and we use the National Geographic spelling: Kyyiv

(but no matter what, it'll always be Chicken Kiev :-)

Did you mean Kyiv? Because there's a Nat Geo article on the city that spells it way, which is pretty common

[gh]

No I mean Kyyiv, which is what the National Geographic Atlas uses

[DrJay]

Ever been to Versales, KY? I think there's also one near Paris, France, where there's some big house or castle or something.