It's a regional thing. It depends on what part of the state you're from. The radio show A Prairie Home Companion was in St. Louis some time ago and they asked the mayor of St. Louis how the state's name was pronounced. He responded quite confidently with one pronunciation or another (I don't remember which). A little later in the show the governor of the state was on and he pronounced it the other way.

I might wonder why you, as an old Brit, would wonder about this, considering the fact that you have three towns named Hough fairly close to each other with three completely different ways of pronouncing the name.

Last edited by Faldage; 08/29/10 08:05 PM.