Another town that bemuses is Taunton -- near New Bedford, Massachusetts -- which locals pronounce TAN'n with the n sort of half-swallowed !

I'm thinking of doing some proper research into this. It will mean, several years of travelling/traveling around with a microphone. All I need is some research funding or to persuade the taxman that all my travels are tax deductable.

I think that if I interviewed a real denizen of Taunton in Sommerset they would say Tauu-n. With an elongated first vowel, a common feature of the dialect of the South West. I was wondering if "TAN'n" has a long or a short "a"? If it is a long "a" then it is not so different.