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[Opinions] Re: Mispronunciations on real people...
in reply to a message by Siân
I did a recent post about this and got some good responses. http://www.behindthename.com/bb/baby/4035331I've known plenty of Madeline's that pronounced the end -lynn instead of -line or -leen. It's not a horrible mispronunciation but I know it annoys many name nerds. Same with Tara being pronounced TER-uh instead of TAHR-ah.
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Oh, I missed that one.
I've been away more than I would like to have been lately.
Thanks for the link.And I used to have a friend named Madeline (with a -leen sound) who had to deal with mispronunciations all the time. She hated it.But I've never met a TAHR-ah. I have a neighbor who says her name like TER-ah. Where is TAHR-ah popular?
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Every Madeline I've ever known pronounces it that way. In English I think that's an acceptable pronunciation.And Tara I've never ever heard pronounced TAHR-ah, and Tara is a common name. I've only ever heard TER-uh. I think TAHR-ah is a British thing. Like Sara not being the same as Sarah.

This message was edited 3/31/2011, 3:49 PM

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Tahr-ah is the way it's said here too. TER-ah sounds odd to me when I hear it.
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The difference between Sara/Sarah is British? I'm American and I always assume that Sarah is SAYR-uh and Sara is SAH-ra (but then again, I haven't actually met any American Saras.)
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That's really weird for me to think about. Where I'm from they're both pronounced the same (SAYR-uh).
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That's what the general consensus seemed to be when it came up on this board once before. I say Sara as SAH-ra in my head because I really like that pronunciation (makes me think of A Little Princess), but I've known plenty of Saras and they all said it like Sarah. (I'm really surprised you've never met a Sara! It ranked in the 20s-30s for most of the 70s and 80s, and hasn't been out of the top 100 until 2009.)

This message was edited 4/1/2011, 3:44 AM

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Madeline & TaraI think MAD-ə-lin is a valid pronunciation of Madeline. I wonder if that pronunciation is more common in the UK; I've seen at least one English film with a character named Madeline, pronounced MAD-ə-lin.About Tara, I think TER-ə is so common because of "Gone with the Wind" (it is pronounced that way in the movie).
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Ditto. I have heard it pronounced Mad-a-lin in the UK too.
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Madeleine "Madelyn" bugs me too! Tara not so much, because I see both ways as equally legitimate and the only ones I've actually met have been "TER-uh"s, but I definitely prefer TAHR-uh for Tara and Terra for TER-uh.
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