This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: prounciation
Click here Sian
vote up1vote down

Replies

Hello Ivayla!! Wow, i'm pretty shocked right now .. because as i was scanning the messages i saw your lovely name - and it suddenly struck me that it has a funny resemblance to my middle name (very Slavic name) which is: Ivana.I really like your name because it seems to have a sort of 'feminine' quality to it - probably because of the 'yla' ending on it. Very interesting.Angelica
vote up1vote down
Yep, it is "SHAHN" or "SHARN" (said the same way) as it's my middle name!PP's in Profile

♥"Mada"♥
Bren: I'm a statistic, you're a statistic, we're all statistics! Heartless, souless, walking figures!
Raleva: Bren....go back to sleep!My characters have issues... X-/
vote up1vote down
No, the database is wrong on this one . . .My Welsh friend Tudur has a sister named Sian. It's pronounced SHAHN (which equalls SHARN in Australian, so mum2bubba is correct).I knew a Sian whose name was pronounced SHAWN, but she was born in 1983, looong before the name became popular, so her parents may just have been wrong. I've never heard the database pronunciation at all.
ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
vote up1vote down
The database pronunciation would be used in Scotland since we don't use the long "ahh" vowel. But everywhere else, yep, "Shahn" is correct :-)_____________________________________________________________________Elinor"Yeehaw!" is not a foreign policy!
vote up1vote down
Hmm, fair enough. From what I know of a Scottish accent, would it be closer to SHUN than to SHAN?:-)
ChrisellAll we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

vote up1vote down
A completely different vowel from that in the word "shun" ... It would rhyme with "can". However, that's just an adjustment for my accent and not the standard pron, which is a long "ah" like you said :-)It's so difficult describing accents in writing!_____________________________________________________________________Elinor"Yeehaw!" is not a foreign policy!

This message was edited 10/27/2005, 9:28 AM

vote up1vote down
IPAThe solution is the transcription in IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet), which is used in linguistics works, in dictionaries and in language text books from secondary school to university. "The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. It is intended as a notational standard for the phonemic and phonetic representation of all spoken languages."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_AlphabetIt is very very useful.(In Catalonia, secondary school pupils have the IPA and the transcription of texts in IPA as subject in language courses, usually in Catalan courses, but applied to Spanish and English, too.)Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
vote up1vote down