New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Re: Ariana Pronunciation
in reply to a message by Panda Ross
people will have many different ways of saying Ariana. The only "correct" way is how a person expects their name to be said. I would say æ-ri:a:-nə, as the initial "a" naturally undergoes i-umlaut to |æ| (the sound in "pat"; i: is EE, a: the usual sound in "far"; ə an indistinct mid-vowel)
This message was edited 11/4/2019, 6:41 AM
1
Replies
Actually, the pronunciations are organized within correct usages. AHR, for example, is pronounced like ‘far.’ AR is pronounced like ‘air.’ So I don’t know if people pronounce it just AR-ee, there should also be AHR-ee.
1
EHR is pronounced like AIR except with a slight EH. AR is pronounced AIR. Like Aaron, Karen, and Barrett pronunciations, for example, there are two pronunciations which differentiate with EHR and AR, which almost sound the exact same. For example, Karen, either pronunciation, it will be almost the same. However, AHR is pronounced like the letter R, making Ariana incorrect, (Pretty sure) so I am just wondering if BTN can add an alternative pronunciation.
1
Ah, in this case Aaron, Karen and Barret pronounced AR- rhyme with carrot and barren, and it's the EHR that is supposed to signify a pronunciation like "air" "care" "bare". These should be quite distinct in both length and phonetic value. This is all detailed in BtN's basic guide to pronunciation: A- fat, pat, cat; AH- far, par, car; EH- fair, pear, care. Now in some dialects the A of cat may sound "almost the exact same" as the Eh- of care, but I've never heard one, whereas I do know the distinct pronunciations with a long initial EH "EHR-ən" and the short initial A "Ar-ən".
1
The pronunciations given in the BtN entry (with the initial a the same as in "at") would seem to be correct. These are certainly the pronunciations I'm familiar with. In these versions the stress is on the first two a-s, but only the second may be long (when pronounced AH). Your proposals are plausible, but not what is meant to be indicated by BtN. First, ahr-ee-AHN-ə, without initial umlaut under the influence of the second stressed AH; second EHR-ee-AHN-ə or EHR-ee-an-ə by further umlaut causing raising of the /æ/ to /e/ (this is what we call leveling, as the /e/ is closer in position to the long /i/ indicted by BtN's "ee", but it also results from a tendency of English speakers to sometimes assume "ar" is pronounced EHR [as in Aaron] rather than AHR when the A is long). Further leveling may even result in some people saying it EHR-ee-en-ə, particularly in dialects where unstressed vowels are raised and fronted to /e/ or the majority of vowels are nasalized. Since we're not asking what is the correct pronunciation in Attic Greek, or highland Gaelic, the issue is not what is the correct pronunciation, but whether the BtN entry reflects a common pronunciation among English speakers. Given the wide range of English dialects it may be impossible to include every one you'll hear, and it wouldn't be accurate to describe any subgroup as "correct".
This message was edited 11/24/2019, 7:58 PM
1