h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just letting you know there's only one 'h' in 'Southampton'. Americans do tend to pronounce/spell the city 'South Hampton' and assume it is posh, but it is locally pronounced 'Zou-tham-tun' by Sotonians.

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Thanks, I corrected the typo. I *think* I knew that - but the 'flu followed by pollen season hath scrambled my internal spellchecker.

We do tend to pronounce any 'Hampton' names in full over here...it may have something to do with an area on Long Island (very posh) called 'the Hamptons'.

Here's a freebie joke: Do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky 'Lou-ee-ville' or 'Lou-is-ville'?

Scroll down for answer.






























Answer: Although the city of Louisville is correctly pronounced 'Luh-uh-vul' by natives, the capital of Kentucky is pronounced 'Frankfort'.

I used to work in the closest bank to the cruise terminals in Southampton and we'd often get Americans in asking to change US Dollars (we didn't accept them) and there'd always be a pause between 'South' and 'Hampton'. But I must admit to be ignorant too - I'd never heard of either Louisville or Frankfort so would have guessed that the capital of Kentucky was 'Fried Chicken'.

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