Bo-lee-oh? New Forest village named one of UK's hardest to pronounce

THE New Forest village of Beaulieu has been named in the top 10 most difficult to pronounce place names in the UK.

The list, which was compiled by the creators of language app Babbel, put Beaulieu in sixth place. Top spot went to Frome in Somerset.

A Beaulieu Estate spokesperson told the A&T: “We have heard some funny pronunciations over the years, including Bo-lee-oh which some visitors say.

“As we have just named our new adventure play area Little Beaulieu, it will be interesting to see how the children who come to play on it say its name.”

As locals know, the village's name is pronounced "Bew-lee". It stems from the French for "lovely place".

It is not the first time the pronunciation of Beaulieu has caused a stir. The village was a banana skin for TV presenter Jeremy Vine when he asked on BBC quiz show Eggheads: “Which river flows into the Solent?”

Despite the quizzer correctly selecting Beaulieu River from a multiple choice selection, Mr Vine then wrongly corrected their pronunciation.

After some debate among the Eggheads, Kevin Ashman, who lives in Winchester and has previously hosted quiz nights at Beaulieu National Motor Museum, settled the matter - prompting an apology from Mr Vine who said he had been told how to say it via his earpiece.

Other difficult place names on Babbel's list included Ballachulish in Scotland, Woolfardisworthy in Devon and Omagh in Northern Ireland.

A Babbel spokesperson said: “British English is famous for some of the most confusing pronunciations on Earth.

“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.

"Many people in the UK, particularly locals to these areas, have grown up hearing these names and naturally don't find them so hard to get their tongues around.”