New Post
Search
HelpHow do you pronounce Marius?
I posted this little informal linguistics survey on tumblr and thought I'd share it here as well. This is out of personal interest more than anything. I noticed in a video that one of my online buddies pronounces the name differently than I, and this piqued my curiousity. Hence, this survey.
Respond with one of the letters below, your native language, and where you’ve lived most of your life. Please specify a region if you live in a country with considerable dialectal variation (USA, UK, etc). Choose your natural pronunciation of the name, not the one you think is correct.
a. [mɛər i əs]
b. [mɛər i ɪs]
c. [mɑr i əs]
d. [mɑr i ɪs]
e. [mɑr i us] or
f. other (explain)
If you choose f, I'd prefer if you'd respond in IPA to prevent discrepancies. I am also mostly interested in vowels, so if you have a non-rhotic accent you can just pick a-e and note that you drop the R.
Respond with one of the letters below, your native language, and where you’ve lived most of your life. Please specify a region if you live in a country with considerable dialectal variation (USA, UK, etc). Choose your natural pronunciation of the name, not the one you think is correct.
a. [mɛər i əs]
b. [mɛər i ɪs]
c. [mɑr i əs]
d. [mɑr i ɪs]
e. [mɑr i us] or
f. other (explain)
If you choose f, I'd prefer if you'd respond in IPA to prevent discrepancies. I am also mostly interested in vowels, so if you have a non-rhotic accent you can just pick a-e and note that you drop the R.
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
I use c when I'm using it about a modern person (eg my cousin's son) and e for classical antiquity.
Interesting point about rhoticism - for both c and e, I end the first syllable with an open vowel and start the middle one with the R, so that issue falls away.
I greatly enjoy your Tolkien dragon! Do we own the same book, I wonder?
Interesting point about rhoticism - for both c and e, I end the first syllable with an open vowel and start the middle one with the R, so that issue falls away.
I greatly enjoy your Tolkien dragon! Do we own the same book, I wonder?
1
Is your cousin's son named Marius? I think I like her or his taste! I don't think I've heard of that used on a real person before.
I don't think the dragon I have in my signature is in any of the books I have. All the Tolkien books I own are the nice official, US-released Houghton Mifflin paperbacks. Which version do you own? :)
I don't think the dragon I have in my signature is in any of the books I have. All the Tolkien books I own are the nice official, US-released Houghton Mifflin paperbacks. Which version do you own? :)
1
I've got a whole separate book of Tolkien's own art. He was an accomplished water-colourist and, for instance, designed the cover for The Hobbit - stark bright blue and bright green and white. But he also wrote and illustrated stories for his children, as well as some really wonderful scenes from the novels - one of the woods of Lothlorien in springtime, for instance. But except for your example above, which I'm certain is one of his, he was rather bad at dragons in general - they often look like friendly puppies who want to play. I'll check the bibliographical details tonight SA time, and get them to you tomorrow.
Yeah, there are quite a few Marius people in South Africa, probably through the Dutch connection. This cousin is an accountant, but she named her kids quite imaginatively: Marius and Bianca. (Her name's Penelope, known as Penny and married to Bruce.)
Yeah, there are quite a few Marius people in South Africa, probably through the Dutch connection. This cousin is an accountant, but she named her kids quite imaginatively: Marius and Bianca. (Her name's Penelope, known as Penny and married to Bruce.)
1
I'm Swedish and have to pick f, I say ['mɑː rɪ ɵs]. (and that's an ɵ, not an e)
1
I can't read IPA and it looks too complex to learn just to respond to this post, but I pronounce it MAHR (rhymes with car) ee us (as in the word us)
1
That would be pronunciation C! :)
IMO, most IPA symbols aren't too hard to learn. You should play around with an interactive chart sometime!
IMO, most IPA symbols aren't too hard to learn. You should play around with an interactive chart sometime!
1
I guess e. [mɑr i us] or MAH-ree-us in BtN speak. Croatian, Croatia :-)
1
I can't remember what the symbols are for the vowel sounds....
I'm from Wyoming (so central/Western American English?) and I say both MAHR-ee-us and MAIR-ee-us. In the first one Mar rhymes with car, and in the second one it sounds like the word mare.
I can't tell whether I'm saying the u as a schwa or a "i"... I think it's more of a schwa when I say MAHR- and i when I say MAIR.
I'm from Wyoming (so central/Western American English?) and I say both MAHR-ee-us and MAIR-ee-us. In the first one Mar rhymes with car, and in the second one it sounds like the word mare.
I can't tell whether I'm saying the u as a schwa or a "i"... I think it's more of a schwa when I say MAHR- and i when I say MAIR.
1
I'm not 100% familiar with IPA, but I think it's A. Mare, ee, əs, emphasis on the first syllable.
I speak English, Michigan-style. :)
(Just to note, I learned to pronounced that name from Les Misérables, so I say it that way. Not sure how people here would actually go around saying it. I've never seen it in real life.)
And now I have Red and Black in my head...
I speak English, Michigan-style. :)
(Just to note, I learned to pronounced that name from Les Misérables, so I say it that way. Not sure how people here would actually go around saying it. I've never seen it in real life.)
And now I have Red and Black in my head...
This message was edited 2/8/2012, 4:01 PM
1
C. English. Midwest, USA. :)
This message was edited 2/8/2012, 4:02 PM
1
I say it like in a.
I've never met a Marius personally, but I've met a Darius, and he pronounced his name that way, so I guess I just assumed that was the pronunciation of Marius. I think I've also heard people referring to the Anne Rice character with that pronunciation.
I've also heard c, but I can't recall where; to me that would be an acceptable but foreign-ish pronunciation.
I'm from the western US.
I've never met a Marius personally, but I've met a Darius, and he pronounced his name that way, so I guess I just assumed that was the pronunciation of Marius. I think I've also heard people referring to the Anne Rice character with that pronunciation.
I've also heard c, but I can't recall where; to me that would be an acceptable but foreign-ish pronunciation.
I'm from the western US.
1
C
But I know a lot of people who say A or B. I just noticed that in my accent, for names ending in -us or similar sounds, I say [ɪs] after a consonant and [əs] after a vowel. I thought that was kind of cool.
But I know a lot of people who say A or B. I just noticed that in my accent, for names ending in -us or similar sounds, I say [ɪs] after a consonant and [əs] after a vowel. I thought that was kind of cool.
1
Interesting observation! You're from the USA, right? I live in the Northwest and use pronunciation B.
1
Yep, I live in upstate NY. I think the vowel-consonant thing could possibly a matter of personal preference, iykwim, since there are slight variations even within regional accents. There might be people with similar accents as mine who only say [ɪs] or [əs] or say [ɪs] after a vowel and [əs] after a consonant. It would be fun to do a study on it!
1
I've never met an American Marius but three or so German ones and they all pronounced it MAH-ree-uhs. I tried the best I could but the -uhs- part sounds like something I can't describe.
In an English speaking country I'd say MAH-ree-us.
I guess the German pronunciation would be closest to e) and the English one I'd use closest to d).
In an English speaking country I'd say MAH-ree-us.
I guess the German pronunciation would be closest to e) and the English one I'd use closest to d).
1