Message: "Dante" - Behind the Name

[Opinions] Dante

by overtheclouds

2/5/2013, 11:03 AM

What are your thoughts on Dante?

It's pronounced like DAN-tay. (Listen here: http://www.forvo.com/word/dante_alighieri/#it)

#Dante

Replies

- Millie (ImSorryIfILoveYou96)

2/6/2013, 2:38 AM

It grew on me ever since I met a little boy with the name a couple of years ago. I go between DAN-tay and DON-tay for how I pronounce it, leaning more towards the latter nowadays. I think I could definitely be persuaded to use it in the mn spot but it isn't close to making my list yet

- Violet (dlilly)

2/5/2013, 8:04 PM

It's grown on me, after meeting one. I say it "DAHN-tay" and that's the only way I've heard it pronounced. It's probably not a name I'd use myself, but I like seeing it.

- mirfak

2/5/2013, 6:52 PM

It's so cool. And it's kind of like Frankie and Vinnie to me. Vintage Italian-Americanish? KWIM? It's so cool ... but I would not use it myself because it doesn't seem to suit us. I've thought about it, though. I would think it was nifty if I met a kid named Dante (as long as it wasn't a GIRL ffs)

In my accent, DAN-tay would be DAN to rhyme the sound in dance. Dante is DAHN-tay with AH like the sound in want.

My accent doesn't distinguish a lot between AW and AH either, but it feels like it does. AW is longer. Hawk is slightly different from hock. Caught from cot. But I'm not sure anyone could distinguish which of those words I am saying. ??

- Calla (guest) +19

2/5/2013, 12:26 PM

I've never heard it pronounced DAN-tay. Everyone I know pronounces it DAHN-tay.

It's okay. I thought it was really cool for an evil character when I was younger but now all I really think about is Dante's Inferno.

- overtheclouds +18

2/5/2013, 12:31 PM

Is DAHN pronouced like dawn or like the name Dan? To me, the first syllable sounds like Dan (when the Italian speakers pronounce it).

The pronunciation guide on this site confuses me sometimes. AH and AW are pronounced exactly the same in my accent.

- Calla (guest) +7

2/5/2013, 6:02 PM

Dawn sounds just like it looks. Like lawn and fawn.

DAHN is not like Dan. DAHN is longer sounding. I don't know how else to say it other than DAHN. Okay, you know the word entourage? The sound the 'en' makes at the beginning? That's what the 'ahn' sounds like in DAHN.

Best way to put it... heh.

AH and AW sound nothing alike in my accent.

- Tiggs +4

2/6/2013, 1:53 PM

This is the key here on BTN...

AH pot, con
AW bought, sawn

Where I live, each of these vowel sound examples are identical, and each are also identical to Dawn, lawn, fawn and the beginning "en" in "entourage" and the "Dan" of Dante.

The name Dan itself rhymes with can, pan, man, etc.

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 3:17 PM

The key sounds right in my head. AH is pot, cot. AW is bought, sawn. But Dawn, Dan, and Dante all have 3 distinct sounds.

Dante sounds line don-tay. Dan sounds like pan.

- Flute (meganmichele) +2

2/6/2013, 2:11 PM

It's called the cot-caught merger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Cot.E2.80.93caught_merger

They sound identical to me, too, which makes sense since I'm from the western US.

- Tiggs

2/6/2013, 9:28 PM

Interesting...

...thanks for that. We don't have the father-brother merger but we do have a fairly recent trend among young people to use "bra" rather than "bro" as short for brother.

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 3:27 PM

Exactly. It depends on where you live. I spent a portion of my life in north eastern US and that explains why I think they sound so different. Some people just crazy uppity over it.

- M'Quve's Vase (arwentroi) +1

2/6/2013, 1:28 PM

Same here. I crack up when people spell names with "aw" to try to ensure it's pronounced with an "ah" sound, because in my accent it's very much "AWWWWWWWW."

Short A in my accent is very nasally, so there's a noticeable difference between how I'd say Dan and how the first syllable in Dante is pronounced in Italian.

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 3:15 PM

Exactly.

It's like the Shawn/Sean debacle!

- lovewn (guest) +9

2/5/2013, 12:51 PM

Yes DAHN is like dawn and that is the only way I have ever heard Dante pronounced. I like Dante alright. I would think it very strange to heard someone pronounce it DAN-tey (not to say I don't believe that it is a valid pronunciation, just very unfamiliar) but probably wouldn't think too much about meeting a Dante pronounced DAHN-tey

- Calla (guest) +8

2/5/2013, 6:04 PM

No, it isn't

DAHN sounds nothing like Dawn. I think this is all about accents.

Dawn has that "aw" sound. Like the word "awe" or when someone thinks something is cute and they say "aw". That'd Dawn.

DAHN is nothing like that.

Again, accents...

- Ludwig (blaaarg) +5

2/6/2013, 2:09 PM

Dude, you can't just say "No it isn't, Dahn sounds nothing like Dawn." For someone like me, Dahn and Dawn do sound exactly alike. Yeah, it's an accent difference, - not an objective one. To me, Dahn and Dawn are literally the same.

- Calla (guest) +2

2/6/2013, 3:13 PM

Ha, I can say that. I said it sounds like that in my accent. It's fine if it sounds the same to you, but I'm saying they don't to me and the people I'm around.

- Ludwig (blaaarg) +1

2/6/2013, 4:13 PM

I guess my issue was that you didn't qualify it by saying "in my accent." You presented it like it was a universal truth. Even though the implication was there, it still bothers me to no end. I don't know why this kind of stuff bothers me so much... I think I'm getting better about it. In high school I refused to join the facebook fan club of my spanish teacher, called "Sr. Lastname is the greatest thing to happen to the spanish language," because I simply didn't agree with the title even though I really liked him.

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 8:19 PM

I get it. But I had written "in my accent" in all my other postings so it must have just slipped my mind/sounded too repetitive in my mind. I must confess I don't spend a large amount of time or brain power on my posts and sometimes things get left out. :)

- Phoebe (Kate) +1

2/6/2013, 2:53 PM

I totally agree

I was just coming on here to say this, but Ludwig beat me to it.

Dahn, Dawn, and Don sound exactly the same in my accent. I couldn't pronounce them differently even if I wanted to.

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 3:14 PM

I noticed on a show where I thought a girl was named Don for the longest time (I assumed it was short for Donielle or something equally horrible) but it turned out the actors were saying Dawn. But it sounded nothing like how I say Dawn. A lot of viewers didn't know, either. Accents are funny things.

- Ismene (Madyson) +1

2/6/2013, 7:54 AM

Well since overtheclouds already mentioned that 'AW' and 'AH' are exactly the same in her accent, "dahn" and "dawn" WOULD sound alike (as they do in my accent as well, unless I make a conscious effort to differentiate).

- Calla (guest)

2/6/2013, 3:11 PM

Really? DAHN and Dawn sound nothing alike in mine.

- Mar (X-Mar)

2/5/2013, 11:29 AM

I like it, I say it like DAHN-teh though. All in all I think it's a good name with a good meaning.

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