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[Opinions] Spellings vs Prns
Recently at work, I've had alot of unusually named customers, and it's made me think about names and how they're spelt.
For example, I love the name Alice, but prefer it spelt Alyce, which several people on here have commented on.
And then I had a customer today named Johanna, not Joanna, and in my brain, I pronounce them differently
Do alternate spellings make you guys Prn names differently as well?
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It depends on the name and the person's mother tongue. I know a Joanna from Poland who answers to yo-AHN-na and jo-ANN-ah.
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It depends. I'd pronounce Alice and Alyce the same, but I don't pronounce Johanna and Joanna the same. I've been friends with a Johanna since fourth grade, and she pronounces it jo-HAN-a. Joanna is jo-AN-a. The only other pronunciation of Johanna I can see is yo-HAH-na. I don't see how Johanna and Joanna could be said the same.I can't really think of any other examples. I've heard of people spelling Haley like Halley. But I'd pronounce that HA-lee, not HAY-lee. But that isn't just me, it's how English works. A double consonant means a short vowel. So that's not my fault. :)
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I thought Johanna = 'yo-HAN-na' and Joanna = 'jo-AN-na'?Different spellings certainly make me think of the word differently and have different feelings for me.
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Being from NE [the upper eastern corner of the US] I know that I say a few things different from other people. Like:
Mary an Meri are completely different to me [Mary is MARE-ee, and Meri is MEH-ree]
Kerri/Kerry/Keri/etc and Carrie/Karrie is another one [again, KEH-ree or KARE-ee] but Kari would be said CAR-ee.
Alice and Alyce I would say the same.
Joanna and Johanna are definately different names.
Madelyn/Madeline/Madeleine is another one I say differently depending on the spelling. It realy bothers me when the name is spelled Madeline or Madeleine and the parents say mad-ah-lyn and not mad-ah-line.ETA: Ariel and Arielle are also said different to me. Ariel is AIR-ee-ell. And Arielle and ARE-ee-ell.

This message was edited 10/9/2008, 11:09 AM

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Somewhat different...Being from southern-central Canada... Mary and Merry are the same for me. Kerry/Kerry/Keri and Carrie/Karrie are the same. Kari is CAR-ee for me too. I say Alice and Alyce the same. Joanna is Jo-ANN-ah and Johanna is Jo-HAHN-ah. Madelyn is mad-ah-lyn. Madeline is mad-ah-line/mad-ah-lyn, depending on how I'm feeling (usally mad-ah-line...my mom actually didn't want to call me Madeline because she thought people would pronounce it as mad-ah-lyn). Madeleine is mad-ah-len and Madelaine is mad-ah-lain. Ariel is AIR-ee-ul and Arielle is air-REE-ell, with a rolling r.
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Ditto (mostly)I grew up in NJ, moved to MA and say these about the same as you do! The only difference, the Mad- names:
Madeline is mad-eh-line
Madelyn is mad-eh-lynn
Madeleine is mad-eh-len
and the fact that Erin & Aaron are pronounced the same in NH completely baffles me! They're EH-rin (Erin) and AH-ron (Aaron) to me.
And not only are Ariel & Arielle pronounced differently, Ariel's all make, Arielle, female (Thanks to growing up near a huge Othodox Jewish community in NJ)
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I used to live in NH, in Concord, and Erin and Aaron were prnd the same there by most people, so I'm puzzled by the difference that you've seen.
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I pronounce Alice and Alyce the same but I like Alice better.I pronounce Johanna yo-HUN-nah and Joanna jo-ANN-nah.I pronounce Emmeline EM-meh-line and I think I'm the only one who pronounces Evangeline ee-VAN-jeh-line. I like eh-VAN-je-leen, though.I pronounce Alisha ah-LEE-sha and Alicia ah-LEE-see-ah.
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My mother is actually named Alicia, and Prns it Uh Lee Sha, and only people who speak latin based languages can call her Ah Lee See Ah without making her go nuts :P
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I would pronounce Joanna and Johanna differently. Johanna I usually pronounce as "jo-HAN-uh," but I can see the more authentic German pronunciation, "yo-HAH-nuh" as well.I pronounce Alice and Alyce the same way.And there's the rub. I don't have a general rule to answer your question with. It just depends on the name and the particular spelling presented. As a side note, can I ask anyone reading this to answer me one question. I know French Jeanne is pronounced, "zhann." But there's a pretty looking medieval form of the name spelled Jehanne. Seomtimes I've seen Joan of Arc's name spelled this way. I've never known how to pronounce it though. I've been using the same "zhann" one for Jehanne, is that correct?
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I think you mean zhunn ? it is an uhn sound in Jeanne, not an ann sound as in uhm Ann :P Anne is pr. UHN in French, not Ann (behindthename has it wrong) or AHN (difficult to explain) and Jeanne is zhunn or zhuhnn with a short uh sound. really difficult to explain, sorry. yes, Jehanne should be pretty much the same as the H in French is silent unless in very rare cases where it is said softly but it doesn't sound like the English H. In Germany she is called Johanna.
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So is it closer in sound to the name Shawn?
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no, it isn't an aw sound it's a short ah sound almost like an uh. the zh just stands for the French j, a sound that doesn't exist in the English language and is impossible to explain. a zh comes close but is not exactly it. sorry i couldn't be more helpful but i think it is very hard to explain because there are sounds in it that just don't exist in the english language.
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Fair enough, theres lots of languages that don't have names that work in english.. like most welsh names. it'd be nice if they made us US kids actually take languages for more than a year to understand things :P
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I know what you mean and we are pronouncing it the same way. :-) Thanks for confirming that the "h" in Jehanne is silent.
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I love Alice too, but I like it spelled Alys (I saw it in a book). I know, I know, re-spelling classics, but I still think it's pretty.I always try to be cautious of alternate spellings, mostly because my own name gets destroyed fairly often. Mostly I just ask people how they pronounce their name, because then they have the joy of explaining it to me instead of correcting me :o) But yes, I do tend to pronounce it in my head differently, usually.
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How do you pronounce it? Cause I know two and a half and they all are different. One is STAY-sha and the other is STA-sha, and Anastasia goes by Stasia and says it STAY-zsa like the end of her name.
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Mine is Stay-sha. Most people look at it and try to call me Stay-see-ah. I don't know why :o) Tricia and Alicia and Lucrecia all have -sha endings.
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I would pronounce Alice and Alyce the same way. Johanna and Joanna are supposed to be pronounced differently. I pronounce Johanna "yo-HAHN-ah" because it is a German name. I've heard "jo-HAN-ə" too, but either way, it is different than Joanna (jo-AN-ə).
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shwaMay I ask you how you managed to use a shwa / upside-down "e" in your pronunciation guide? I'd love to know how to do that, and accent marks, umlauts, etc. I'm 44 and extremely computer illiterate, so please be gentle with me, if you can.Thanks. :-)
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I just copy and paste it because I don't know the Alt number... I don't even think there is one because I've been through a lot of numbers. But if someone knows it, I'd sure like to know!
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Just like this!& # 601 ;Without the spaces thoughə:-D
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