Southern accents are tricky enough when working their magic on common words, such as "oil" and "aunt."

But it gets even trickier when faced with the many different kinds of names given to Georgia's towns, as AL.com recently demonstrated in Alabama. For example, Cairo is commonly pronounced "Kay-row."

Here are nine more hard-to-pronounce town names around the state, judging by apparent phonetic difficulty or trickery.

1. Albany: Commonly pronounced "AlL-binny"

2. Buena Vista: Commonly pronounced "BYOO-na VISS-ta"

3. Dacula: Commonly pronounced "Duh-CUE-la"

4. Dahlonega: Commonly pronounced "Duh-LAW-na-ga"

5. Hahira: Commonly pronounced "Hay-HI-ra"

6. Hoschton: Commonly pronounced "HOOSH (like push)-tun"

7. McDonough: Commonly pronounced "Mick-DONE-a" or "Mac-DONNA"

8. Smyrna: Commonly pronounced "SMUR-na"

9. Walthourville: Commonly pronounced "Walt-hour-ville" (like it's three separate words)

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John Raulet, a partner in Raulet Property Partners, stands in the soundstage at Mailing Street Stageworks, Tuesday, August 26, 2025, in Atlanta. Raulet’s company has either converted or sold off all but one of its soundstages amid a downturn in film production in the U.S. (Jason Getz / AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com