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HelpName pronunciation in general + Niobe
Has your pronunciation of a name ever changed, over time/use? If so, what name(s)?
I thought of Niobe recently and realized I don't read it the way I did at first...I used to think nye-OH-be, but now I want to read it more like NYE-ə-bee...probably neither are correct in Greek, but oh well.
How would you pronounce Niobe?
I thought of Niobe recently and realized I don't read it the way I did at first...I used to think nye-OH-be, but now I want to read it more like NYE-ə-bee...probably neither are correct in Greek, but oh well.
How would you pronounce Niobe?
This message was edited 10/12/2018, 9:30 PM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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For me it's definitely NEE-o-beh
Same applies to Nike Nee-keh
Same applies to Nike Nee-keh
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I guess I'd say it "Ny-OH-Bee. But honestly it never comes up in my life or my reading. :)
I can't think of an instance in which my pronunciation of a name has changed, aside from not knowing how a name was supposed to sound and then finding out. Like I didn't have the first notion how Caoimhe was pronounced, and now I know. But it still never comes up in my everyday life or reading.
I can't think of an instance in which my pronunciation of a name has changed, aside from not knowing how a name was supposed to sound and then finding out. Like I didn't have the first notion how Caoimhe was pronounced, and now I know. But it still never comes up in my everyday life or reading.
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One of my late sister-in-laws (French speaker) was a keen follower of the royal family, and used to refer to"Lady Dee".
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When I see Lady Di in writing I’m also inclined to read it as “Lady Dee” in my head, the English pronunciation sounds like “Lady Die”. Most Italians are going to call her “Lady Deanna”, though a lot of the names are Italianized, so people will say “Regina Elisabetta” for instance. Though the younger princes tend to keep their English names for some reason.
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Hi Noel !!!
Being Italian there are so many names (especially English) that are not intuitive at all. The worst are Latin/Greek names that an English-speaker says in a different way such Irene, Aurora, Hermione, Penelope.. It is so hard to guess how these names are read by an American, Australian or British person.
Niobe Νιοβη is one of these names.
I saw It few times so It is not in my PNL.
I pronounce It nee-OH-be but I don't know if It is right in Greek.
Being Italian there are so many names (especially English) that are not intuitive at all. The worst are Latin/Greek names that an English-speaker says in a different way such Irene, Aurora, Hermione, Penelope.. It is so hard to guess how these names are read by an American, Australian or British person.
Niobe Νιοβη is one of these names.
I saw It few times so It is not in my PNL.
I pronounce It nee-OH-be but I don't know if It is right in Greek.
This message was edited 10/13/2018, 6:07 AM
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I am intrigued with wonder about how these names read or sound to you. For many years I pronounced Hermione incorrectly - even to this day I laugh to myself when I see it - almost in wonder about how I might have been so foolish. I am generally not a good pronouncer of names or words.
This message was edited 10/14/2018, 4:41 AM
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I first encountered it in Hamlet: the first soliloquy, where Hamlet is trying to make sense of his mother's second marriage, shortly after his father's death which she had mourned with apparent sincerity. And if you scan the lines,
A little month; or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father's body
Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she,
then it's got to be NYE-ə-bee. I've got no clue what it would be in modern Greek, or indeed in ancient Greek, but I've never heard anything else.
The only name I pronounced spectacularly wrongly is Heidi. I assumed that the -ei- would sound the same in German as it does in Afrikaans, making it HAYdi, but of course it doesn't. It took a movie to disabuse me!
A little month; or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father's body
Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she,
then it's got to be NYE-ə-bee. I've got no clue what it would be in modern Greek, or indeed in ancient Greek, but I've never heard anything else.
The only name I pronounced spectacularly wrongly is Heidi. I assumed that the -ei- would sound the same in German as it does in Afrikaans, making it HAYdi, but of course it doesn't. It took a movie to disabuse me!
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