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Help[Facts] Orion pronunciation
Orion's English-language pronunciation is generally stressed on the second syllable, but there are a few notable Orions who pronounce it OR-e-un:
- Orion Clemens, Mark Twain's brother
- Orion Samuelson, a broadcaster
- Lake Orion, a place in Michigan
Is there any information out there on how this pronunciation arose? It seems like it might be a regional error from a time when people were more isolated, since they're all from the Midwest USA and were all named before 1950. Other pronunciation variants sometimes have more specific explanations, though (i-REEN versus i-REE-ny), so if you know anything, I would be interested. Thanks for your help.
- Orion Clemens, Mark Twain's brother
- Orion Samuelson, a broadcaster
- Lake Orion, a place in Michigan
Is there any information out there on how this pronunciation arose? It seems like it might be a regional error from a time when people were more isolated, since they're all from the Midwest USA and were all named before 1950. Other pronunciation variants sometimes have more specific explanations, though (i-REEN versus i-REE-ny), so if you know anything, I would be interested. Thanks for your help.
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Replies
I'm not sure where this pronunciation comes from in these cases, but I wanted to say that this is actually really close to the pronunciation in other languages. O-ree-on would be the standard Dutch pronunciation and German is really close to that with second O drawn out a bit longer than in Dutch. I definitely wouldn't call this pronunciation an error. In theory it could have something to do with immigrants from areas where this pronunciation is the normal pronunciation for Orion.
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