New Post
Search
Help[Opinions] Jeanne
Which pronunciation of Jeanne do you prefer? The French way is ZHAHN and the English is JEEN. On one forum, people said they'd heard it pronounced JEE-nee. Which middle names would you use with Jeanne?
"Night fell, lots of large stars came out, and the Hemulen loved his park all the better. It was wide and mysterious; one could lose one's way in it and still be at home."
-Tove Jansson
"Night fell, lots of large stars came out, and the Hemulen loved his park all the better. It was wide and mysterious; one could lose one's way in it and still be at home."
-Tove Jansson
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
Interesting example for this question!
Given the French & English spelling/pronunciation guide you provided - together with the one variation, I would pronounce Jeanne (Zhahn) i.e Jeanne Claude for a male or female--or even pronounce Jeanne-Marie (Zhahn) Marie more probably for a female than for a male, but this would work nicely for a male as well, for a boy to retain a female relative amidst his name. I would be more likely to pronounce Jeanne as (JEE-nee) if I knew the person referenced were that of a female.
It is common among French to omit annunciation (pronunciation) of the final letters of a word or name, as the speakers of English have omitted pronunciation of silent letter "e", which almost seems now to be a useless suffix, for approximately six-hundred years. The frequent obscurity of these sounds amidst these universally common spelling and pronunciation variations may be partial reason why so many folks guard the gender designations amidst particular minor spelling variations with such ferocity. As Jean is commonly acceptable for males or females, but Jeannie, at least in the US, is more reserved for females; as Julian is perfectly acceptable for a male--who would more rarely use Julie as a nickname, or vary the spelling of Julian as Julianne--using the same pronunciation for each spelling.
Given the French & English spelling/pronunciation guide you provided - together with the one variation, I would pronounce Jeanne (Zhahn) i.e Jeanne Claude for a male or female--or even pronounce Jeanne-Marie (Zhahn) Marie more probably for a female than for a male, but this would work nicely for a male as well, for a boy to retain a female relative amidst his name. I would be more likely to pronounce Jeanne as (JEE-nee) if I knew the person referenced were that of a female.
It is common among French to omit annunciation (pronunciation) of the final letters of a word or name, as the speakers of English have omitted pronunciation of silent letter "e", which almost seems now to be a useless suffix, for approximately six-hundred years. The frequent obscurity of these sounds amidst these universally common spelling and pronunciation variations may be partial reason why so many folks guard the gender designations amidst particular minor spelling variations with such ferocity. As Jean is commonly acceptable for males or females, but Jeannie, at least in the US, is more reserved for females; as Julian is perfectly acceptable for a male--who would more rarely use Julie as a nickname, or vary the spelling of Julian as Julianne--using the same pronunciation for each spelling.
This message was edited 10/24/2015, 12:35 PM
1
In English and among English speakers, I pronounce it JEEN. The Jeannes I've known have insisted it should be like "Jeannie," though.
Jeanne Mariah
Jeanne Amelia
Jeanne Peronel
Jeanne Camilla
Eh. I'd never use Jeanne--I'm more of a Jane or Joan girl--but if I did, I'd spell it Jean. The more I type Jeanne, the weirder it looks.
Jeanne Mariah
Jeanne Amelia
Jeanne Peronel
Jeanne Camilla
Eh. I'd never use Jeanne--I'm more of a Jane or Joan girl--but if I did, I'd spell it Jean. The more I type Jeanne, the weirder it looks.
1
I would have guessed that Jean was pronounced JEEN and Jeanne was pronounced JEE-anne to rhyme with Leanne or Deanne. Huh.
I dislike "JEEN" least, of the two options.
If I had to name a daughter Jeanne she would be one of these
Jeanne Bean - just kidding
Jeanne Mattea
Jeanne Kezia
Jeanne Elise
Jeanne Juniper
I dislike "JEEN" least, of the two options.
If I had to name a daughter Jeanne she would be one of these
Jeanne Bean - just kidding
Jeanne Mattea
Jeanne Kezia
Jeanne Elise
Jeanne Juniper
1