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HelpRe: Alice or Elise
in reply to a message by insane romantic
I prefer Alice, partly I think because of the possible pronunciation issues with Elise.
I pronounce it e-LEEZ and assume it's somewhat French. If I know it's German, then I pronounce it e-LEE-zuh. In South Africa it's quite often used by Afrikaans-speakers, and then the confusion starts, because there is no z sound in Afrikaans, except for loan words; so to show that they intend the German pronunciation they often spell it Elize but give it two syllables instead of three. (Same thing happens with Ilse. They often spell that Ilze to help with the pronunciation.)
Elise is often given as an independent name here, usually as a simplified way of honouring an Elizabeth ancestor. But I always expect it to be a shortened form of Elizabeth, and I'm usually wrong.
I pronounce it e-LEEZ and assume it's somewhat French. If I know it's German, then I pronounce it e-LEE-zuh. In South Africa it's quite often used by Afrikaans-speakers, and then the confusion starts, because there is no z sound in Afrikaans, except for loan words; so to show that they intend the German pronunciation they often spell it Elize but give it two syllables instead of three. (Same thing happens with Ilse. They often spell that Ilze to help with the pronunciation.)
Elise is often given as an independent name here, usually as a simplified way of honouring an Elizabeth ancestor. But I always expect it to be a shortened form of Elizabeth, and I'm usually wrong.
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