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[Opinions] Pronunciation?
Inspired by the recent Broderick twins, I've noticed that people are mentioning that they prefer the Marian spelling over the Marion one. Now, my question is do you pronounce them the same?
Because to me Marian is like Marianne 'MEH-ree-AN' , while Marion is 'ME-ree-ohn'. Also in English I think of Marian as female and Marion as male (in Croatia Marian is a male name, but pronounced differently).

This message was edited 6/23/2009, 5:47 PM

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I say Marion and Marian the same - Mar-e-an. They are both versions of the same name and female names to me.I say Mar-e-anne for Marianne though I have heard it said more like Mary Ann.
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Marian -> mah-ree-ahn -> it´s male nameMarianna -> mah-ree-ah-nah
Marion -> Mah-ree-awn
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I know that's how Marian is in Slavic languages (including mine), but here it's a female name pronounced the English way.

This message was edited 6/24/2009, 6:01 AM

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There was a song in a musical about Marian the Librarian! So the first syllable is like a female horse. In Marion the first syllable has a short vowel, like the one in man and apple.(But I speak British English.)I would never expect Marian to sound like Marianne; I see and hear it as originally an adjective meaning 'something to do with Mary', where Mary can be the Tudor queen or the mother of Jesus. And Marion to me is a French equivalent of 'little Mary'. I prefer the look of Marian and the sound of Marion, but I would use Marianne long before either of the others.
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I'd say Marian as MAA-ree-an (A like in apple; the last syllable is kind of between "an" and "in") and Marion as MARE-ee-un (A like in chair, the last syllable is a schwa).
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I'd pronounce Marian MEHR-ree-an; I guess it's the same as Marianne, but without the second accent. Marion would be MAR-ree-uhn. Marian is softer- I think of them the same as you, Marian being feminine and Marion being masculine.
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In my accent, there is a teeny, teeny, tiny, slight difference, like almost made-up, in Marian and Marion, and I'd call them versions of the same name. It's gotta have another N to be Mary-anne.
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Ditto everything. It's like MEHR-ree-in and MEHR-ree-un. very subtle.
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That's how I pronounce it tooFor what it matters I prefer Marion over Marian.
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no ideawhere you get the ME pronunciation for either.Marion and Marian are very similar "marry-on" and "marry-un" 2nd has a softer sound.
Marianne to me is "marry-ann"
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This site?I pronounce Mary like words merry or marry, just with a different stress. And I write it down like ME-ree. And the pronunciation for Mary on this site is 'MER-ee', so I don't see the problem.I'm not a native English speaker, but that's how I've always heard it pronounced on TV and real life by both the Brits and the Americans. Where are you from and how do you pronounce the 'marry-' part in the names mentioned?

This message was edited 6/24/2009, 5:57 AM

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ERto me the ER sound is the same as in FathER and biggER etc. so if you were to spell Mary the way you write it down I'd spell it totally different to Mary.
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australia.marry is exactly that. marry like as in marriage, married, marry.Mary to me has more of an AIR sound in it rather than an ER sound. just like Sarah. I certainly wouldn't say its said SER-uh
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That expalins it:-)
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A lot of dialects say Mary and Merry exactly the same.
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fair enough :)its interesting to see that people have different ways they think are the right and wrong ways to pronounce names.I guess it depends on where you come from among other things.I live in a place called Maryborough and quite often people say it like Merry burra.
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Yeah, I wish English was a little more standardized, lol. In my dialect Mary and Merry are the same, and it makes me inordinately unhappy. I try to make the difference when I talk, but it sounds pretentious. And I guess it is.People also often don't differentiate between E and I here. Pen and Pin sound the same. My name's Emma and everyone calls me Imma. I differentiate.
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r u a kiwi??fush and chups? lol sorry.
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lol no. I wish. Just southeastern US. I have been watching flight of the conchords and think it is so funny when they say Bret's name. "This song is didicated to all the ippiliptic dogs." hee hee heeno for some reason we don't do it with things like Bret and Devon, which is the logic I always use when I'm trying to convince someone there is an actual difference between Emma and Imma.
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I think I'd pronounce Marian more like "Mehr-ee-ann" and Marion like "Mah-ree-on," but it's very similar to yours.
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