I think it was just the result of his accent - everyone in the movie said it gowen, but the actor playing
Arthur was the only one putting on a west country accent (if you've ever seen Hot Fuzz, most of the characters in that have this accent) and so had a lot of 'ers' and 'ars' in his words lol So he said gowen as garwin.
British west country accents have always reminded me of the American yooper accent lol.
I don't know that
Gawain is meant to be said as gowen though. There have been loads of other movies/shows where it is said as ga-wayne or gwayne... so it may have been a stylistic choice. Or maybe they hired a linguist who decided gowen was the most likely historical pronunciation.
(though if you see the movie, the time period is semi-anachronistic, with some parts seemingly in the 8th century where they mention saxon neighbors, and then other parts more 13th century in art and architecture. I'm pretty sure that is a deliberate stylistic choice though to reflect the time period of the stories, which are said to have originated in the dark ages but were more popular in the middle ages. So if they did employ a linguist who knows what time period they were using for pronunciation).
My PNLs = http://www.behindthename.com/pnl/37275
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last updated 07/2021
This message was edited 7/30/2021, 8:50 PM