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[Opinions] Changing Pron.
Do you think its possible to change the pron. of some names?the examples im thinking of are:
Finlay - Fin-lay not Fin-lee
Phineas - Phin-ay-as instead of phin-ee-as
Amias - Uh-My-as instead of Uh-mee-asI dont like ee sounds, i prefer ay or eye sounds.Wdyt?Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
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my son's name is finlay (spelled this way) and people mispronounce it all the time so that actually would work in your favor! slightly annoying for us nontheless! we often shorten to finn
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Finlay - The pronunciation I use (and the pronunciation I've heard around here) is more like fin-lay than fin-lee. The end syllable is more like the 'i' in 'it' than an 'ee' sound (ie you wouldn't pronounce it as EET). It's not like you wanting to change it to FINE-ley or something.
Phineas - I don't see why not.
Amias - I do pronounce it as uh-MY-as so that wouldn't bother me.Small changes like that don't bother me, differences like that can simply be down to differences in accent. However radically changing a pronunciation just because you want to isn't good, like demanding Niamh be pronounced NEE-am.
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I pronounce Amias Uh-MY-as as it is, so I don't think that it would be a problem at all. Most people would probably initially pronounce it Uh-MY-as anyways since looks similar to Elias. I don't think that using different pronunciations would be much of an issue with Finlay and Phineas either.

This message was edited 9/2/2006, 5:57 PM

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Actually, I think...all of those pronunciations are already generally accepted.
I've heard both Finlay and Phineas pronounced the way you prefer, and I've only heard Amias as uh-MY-as.
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I guess it could be done, but you'd have the devil's own time getting people to understand your pronunciation, especially if you don't have an exotic accent that would 'justify" it.
Personally I think it'sa little bit pretentious when people take names and decide they want to say them differently than they're meant to be pronounced. I have a friend in her forties, named Melissa, whose mother wanted her name pronounced Ma-Lees-a, and to this very day, her mother and sisteers are the only people who say her name this way. The rest of the world just says Ma-Liss-a like usual. Her mother gave up around first grade on getting anybody else to say the name her way.
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Well, my daughter Symantha is pronounced SIGH-mantha. I think changing pronounciation is great!-------------------------------------------------
I AM A PROUD MOMMY!Alyx-Andrea Madison and Lyndsay Kylie (born '00)
Aidan Jacob Dylan and Jayden Alan Eric (born '03)
on-the-way Symantha Scout Skye (Due end of Sept.)Next babies:
(if girl) Courntie-Emma Ashleigh Lesley
(If boy) Keega
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I've always said uh-MYE-is for Amias and thus don't see it as a change of pronunciation. And as for the other two...while I know how they're "supposed" to be pronunced, I hear them in my head the same way you do. Sure, you can always change how a name's said. It's happened all throughout history, as I'm sure Cleveland Kent Evans can attest to (he recently mentioned that NINE-ah was the common prn. for Nina a hundred years ago, while now the most common is NEE-nuh). Just ask yourself the following questions: Will it bother you if some people think you're ignorant for the way you pronunce the name? Will it bother you to have to correct people constantly as to the name's pronunciation? If the answers to these questions are "no," then why not? In the end, if that's how you love the name, that's how you love the name--etymology "purists" and everyone else be damned. If the answer's yes, though...well, that makes for a problem, I think. If also depends on how common the name is, I think. For example, if my sister Sara decided to call herself SAHR-ah (she's a SARE-uh), she'd be fighting an uphill battle. There are a kajillion Sara(h)s in the US, and very few of them are anything but SARE-uh. On the other hand, I think a Finlay could get away with being Fin-lay here--not only are there not many Finlays to start with, I suspect many people would mispronunce it that way anyway.Array

"It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in."A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having.

This message was edited 9/2/2006, 5:23 PM

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