I've only heard it pronounced with the A soft like
Abby. I'm sure that's how people would pronounce it too. If you liked it pronounced with a long A, she'd just have to correct them. You actually could spell it Abriel and that would make more sense to pronounce it that way... at least in my head. Au doesn't make any sense and wouldn't be a problem, since there is no u in it.
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Vita Brevis, Ars Longa**
This message was edited 1/31/2008, 2:14 PM