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HelpRe: Jeanne
in reply to a message by spacealien
Interesting example for this question!
Given the French & English spelling/pronunciation guide you provided - together with the one variation, I would pronounce Jeanne (Zhahn) i.e Jeanne Claude for a male or female--or even pronounce Jeanne-Marie (Zhahn) Marie more probably for a female than for a male, but this would work nicely for a male as well, for a boy to retain a female relative amidst his name. I would be more likely to pronounce Jeanne as (JEE-nee) if I knew the person referenced were that of a female.
It is common among French to omit annunciation (pronunciation) of the final letters of a word or name, as the speakers of English have omitted pronunciation of silent letter "e", which almost seems now to be a useless suffix, for approximately six-hundred years. The frequent obscurity of these sounds amidst these universally common spelling and pronunciation variations may be partial reason why so many folks guard the gender designations amidst particular minor spelling variations with such ferocity. As Jean is commonly acceptable for males or females, but Jeannie, at least in the US, is more reserved for females; as Julian is perfectly acceptable for a male--who would more rarely use Julie as a nickname, or vary the spelling of Julian as Julianne--using the same pronunciation for each spelling.
Given the French & English spelling/pronunciation guide you provided - together with the one variation, I would pronounce Jeanne (Zhahn) i.e Jeanne Claude for a male or female--or even pronounce Jeanne-Marie (Zhahn) Marie more probably for a female than for a male, but this would work nicely for a male as well, for a boy to retain a female relative amidst his name. I would be more likely to pronounce Jeanne as (JEE-nee) if I knew the person referenced were that of a female.
It is common among French to omit annunciation (pronunciation) of the final letters of a word or name, as the speakers of English have omitted pronunciation of silent letter "e", which almost seems now to be a useless suffix, for approximately six-hundred years. The frequent obscurity of these sounds amidst these universally common spelling and pronunciation variations may be partial reason why so many folks guard the gender designations amidst particular minor spelling variations with such ferocity. As Jean is commonly acceptable for males or females, but Jeannie, at least in the US, is more reserved for females; as Julian is perfectly acceptable for a male--who would more rarely use Julie as a nickname, or vary the spelling of Julian as Julianne--using the same pronunciation for each spelling.
This message was edited 10/24/2015, 12:35 PM
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