UK news organisations have reported the outcome of a centuries-long dispute about how to pronounce the name of the river 10th longest river in the UK. People in Northampton pronounce the name Nene as Nen. People in Peterborough pronounce the same written form Neen.
The croquet teams in the two towns decided to use their next match to settle the matter: in the future, everyone would have to use the winning team’s pronunciation. The Peterborough team won the match, played on 16 May 2021.
There were, nevertheless, dark mutterings that the return match next year would reopen this naming right. And in any case, if someone has used a pronunciation automatically all their life, it is hard to see why they would change suddenly because of the result between two teams playing an obscure sport.
Is the name of the Suffolk town of Hoxne pronounced “hoxen” or “hone”? That’s always good for an argument in any pub in Suffolk.