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HelpRe: WDYTO Clara?
in reply to a message by Serafina Starstrider
I don't like it very much. It's okay, but like Martha, a little starchy and homely. I picture a milkmaid? haha no, it's not that bad! but it does not feel urbane or stylish to me. Intelligent, but more mature and sedate. I much prefer Claire, which gives me a much brighter, more energetic, spiffy impression.
I pronounce it like the first part of "clerical" +a. Not quite as long an "AY" as Claire, but definitely not like the A in cat, and not like the A in car either.
I think that the "A as in cat" pronunciation would be a dialect of American English that I don't speak - it sounds Midwestern to me, or possibly New England. There are basically no words, that I can think of, that have A followed by R and I pronounce them with a short A like in "cat." The way I speak, AR can only be either "ah" (car, Lara) or "ay" (care, Clara).
I kind of agree with RoxStar that it seems artificial - it's not pretentious exactly, but affected - to pronounce it in the US like Lara (car), unless you have a European accent. Because I've never heard anyone say it that way here. I've only seen Americans say on name boards that they would prefer it that way.
- mirfak
I pronounce it like the first part of "clerical" +a. Not quite as long an "AY" as Claire, but definitely not like the A in cat, and not like the A in car either.
I think that the "A as in cat" pronunciation would be a dialect of American English that I don't speak - it sounds Midwestern to me, or possibly New England. There are basically no words, that I can think of, that have A followed by R and I pronounce them with a short A like in "cat." The way I speak, AR can only be either "ah" (car, Lara) or "ay" (care, Clara).
I kind of agree with RoxStar that it seems artificial - it's not pretentious exactly, but affected - to pronounce it in the US like Lara (car), unless you have a European accent. Because I've never heard anyone say it that way here. I've only seen Americans say on name boards that they would prefer it that way.
- mirfak
This message was edited 9/18/2016, 12:22 PM
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