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HelpRe: Helen or Helena?
in reply to a message by Andromache
Helen, all the way. Mostly because I really like its stripped-down elegance, but also because of the pronunciation issues with Helena.
In South Africa, Helena gets used by Afrikaans families and is pronounced heLEEAna. The centre syllable is like the word 'leer' if the R isn't sounded: long e and a schwa. Not good, except in its home language. Which is surely the point.
Myself, I expect it to be pronounced HElena, like Helen with an a. No doubt in a country with a tradition of Spanish naming, there would be good reasons for doing it differently.
In South Africa, Helena gets used by Afrikaans families and is pronounced heLEEAna. The centre syllable is like the word 'leer' if the R isn't sounded: long e and a schwa. Not good, except in its home language. Which is surely the point.
Myself, I expect it to be pronounced HElena, like Helen with an a. No doubt in a country with a tradition of Spanish naming, there would be good reasons for doing it differently.
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