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Re: Denise and Dennis
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I prefer Denis to Dennis. Denise just doesn't appeal to me at all. In South Africa it is pronounced deNEES, not deNEEZ.
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Denise is almost always pronounced deNEES in the USA, too, as shown by the fact that Deniece has turned up regularly as a spelling variant.
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Things are changing here, because post-democracy the country has much more contact with Francophone countries which means that French is becoming popular as a foreign language in schools. Previously a few, mostly English-medium high schools offered French (and Latin - those were the days!) but the majority of Afrikaans-medium schools offered German, an easier option for their learners. The consequence is that French given names and surnames don't sound very French any more: I've heard the -s pronounced in Georges, for instance.
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