Re: Sidonie
in reply to a message by BBH
Medina Sidonia, he who lost his Spanish Armada, puts me right off. Perhaps I'm over-educated ... ?
But if I had to choose, I'd prefer Sidonia to Sidonie, which looks as if it wants a French pronunciation and that would be a bore in English.
But if I had to choose, I'd prefer Sidonia to Sidonie, which looks as if it wants a French pronunciation and that would be a bore in English.
Replies
No, I don't think the English pronunciation is a bore, which would be sih-DOE-nee, or would just adopt the French sih-doh-NEE. Not boring at all! Sidonia seems way less cute to me.
To my ears, Sidonie the English way contains dough, which is not encouraging. The French version is good, but it can be very boring going through life explaining about French phonetics every time you're introduced. Cute is fine for the under-5s and again for the 12 to 15s, but tedium is a life sentence.