I've been thinking a lot about names recently. There are some Welsh names that I absolutely adore but I know that I can't use while we live over here. Two names may give you an example of what I mean...
1. Megan. Pronounced with the 'e' the short sound you get at the start of 'egg'. Lovely name. Here, they pronounce it 'Me-gan' as in 'you and me'. Irritating.
2. Sian. To you and me, this is a simple name. The 'Si' is the soft 'sh' of 'shop' and the 'a' is a long round sound 'ah'. Sian. Easy. Not to the Australians. Oh no. Here, they say 'see-ann'. I despaired until I heard someone called 'Sian'...until I saw that they spelt it 'Shaan'...
Grrr.
3 comments:
It not unique to the auzzies. I know a girl here (UK) called "Siobhán" who insists on pronouncing it "Show-burn". Horrid. The more educated amoung us will know that it should be pronounced "Sha-vorn".
Oooh...that made me cringe! Makes me think of one case that I read of where a mother used to go crazy about people mispronouncing her daughters name. The name was 'Lee-ah' and, of course, most people said 'Leah'. Apparently the mother intended it to be said 'Leedashah'...
Ells Bells did you get my news yet? :) xx
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