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[Opinions] Re: How would you pronounce Sonia / Sonya / Sonja?
In English I'd use Sonya spelling, because the majority of English speakers seem to have a hard time with 'J' being pronounced 'Y'.
Otherwise I prefer and like best Sonja. I dislike it spelled Sonia, since there is no ‘ee’ sound in it for me.It’s pronounced ‘SO-nya’,with O like in Sophie and own, BUT it's short, ‘NJ’ is a separate letter in Croatian alphabet (that’s why my name has 4 letters) and it’s pronounced like the Spanish ‘ñ’. I know a British lady who spells it Sonia and pronounces it the same way and dozens of Sonjas that were born in the 1970s and 1980s in Croatia use exactly the same pronunciation.
BTW, my name is Sanja, pr. ‘SAH-nyah’.And I find it funny that when I ask about my name people say they’ve never seen it, but many seem to be pronouncing Sonja like Sanja anyway so I guess they use it all the time:-)
You can listen to Croatian pronunciation here:Sonja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIeq_kimlHw (minute 1:45, 1:50)Sanja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQIWLn1y-I (minute 0:46)
This is the song after which my brother named me and the song is named after the lead singer.Please, ignore the bad song and costumes. It was in the 80s, lol.

This message was edited 4/18/2009, 6:22 AM

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