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Re: Pronounciation of HELENA?
in reply to a message by Lisa
Well, I'm Catalan, and here it is pronunced uh-LEH-nuh, as -h- does not sound in Catalan. I think Helena it's a really pretty name! I love Lena (LEH-nuh), too.


EVA

This message was edited 9/25/2005, 5:03 AM

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is that the same as elena?My mom's from Spain- and I read that Helena translates to Ileana in Spanish- I prefer for her name NOT to be Elena in Spanish ... what do you think?(I'm not asking my mom since I don't want to involve her in our naming process)
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Well, let's see.
In Catalan, the name can be written both Helena or Elena, although most people see Helena as the most Catalan one. They sound the same in Catalan, but in Spanish Elena is pronunced with the Spanish "e"...the [e] sound in the phonetic alphabet?
And I don't think Ileana is the Spanish form of Helena, at all. If you look at the link for Ileana, it says it's the Romanian form of Helen. And well, Helena is one of the forms for the Spanish Elena, but if you're in an anglo-saxon country, I doubt you'll be using the pronunciation I said, or will you? (And, btw, I agree with you: I'll never tell my family what I'm going to name my kids until they're born. I tried to comment on one of my favourite names with them once and both my mom and my sister could only say bad things about it! Aarrgghh! HA! As if I were to care! :-P)


EVA

This message was edited 9/25/2005, 6:22 AM

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