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Original poster

How would you pronounce Margery?

55 replies

soundsystem · 04/04/2014 12:38

I thought this was a simple name (unusual now but hard to get wrong) until DH said it.

Would you pronounce it with a hard G or soft G?

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squoosh · 06/04/2014 06:25

Spellings aside, it's an awful name to inflict on a child, no matter which variation you choose.

badtime · 05/04/2014 19:37

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Kempe

Pretty well known. You would have to be 'a bit thick' Hmm to think this wasn't a legitimate spelling.

Bunbaker · 05/04/2014 18:38

I agree nooka

nooka · 05/04/2014 18:30

Margery exists as a name in it's own right, it's a form of Margaret and has been around since the middle ages. If I met a Margery I would not assume her parents had meant to have Marjorie and were 'a bit thick' as that would be a) incredible rude, and b) wrong, showing that I was quite stupid myself. To be totally accurate Marjorie is a form of Margery.

PigletJohn · 05/04/2014 15:53

...except I suppose for those pretentious nutters who say things like "tell-ay-vis-ee-on" to rhyme with "kyrie eleison"

For some reason choirs seem pronounce words that way.

PigletJohn · 05/04/2014 15:47

thanks

Greythorne · 05/04/2014 15:36

The French 'je' sound does exist in English, in words like television.

Bunbaker · 05/04/2014 15:22

"My Godmother did pronounce margarine with a hard 'g', as in Gary. I think it might be an upper-class thing?

It's also what the germans do, if that helps."

Ah, that explains why my mum used a hard "g".

If I recall correctly, in French if there is an "a" after a "g" it is a hard "g". If there is an "e" after it then it is a soft "g". (It is an awfully long time since I did Franch at school so I am prepared to be corrected).

Branleuse · 05/04/2014 15:15

its Marjorie. If you spell it margery, youre going to look thick

and its a soft g, like in gerald

florascotia · 05/04/2014 15:09

Gaelic Marsali (mentioned by poster above) is to my mind much prettier than Marjorie.
And it's softer to say: approx MAH-sah-lih.

charitygirl · 05/04/2014 14:19

Maaarlborough is how you pronounce the fags, not the town!

MrsRuffdiamond · 05/04/2014 13:11

I take your point, nooka, but I think that the 'Shroosbury' pronounciation is quite prevalent, whereas 'Warsestershire' isn't.

I heard a presenter on the radio this very morning, pronouncing Shrewsbury 'Shroosbury'!

What's your take on Mahlborough/Mawlborough?

8isalotoflegsDavid · 05/04/2014 05:26

with a soft G.

But isn't it usually spelt Marjorie?

It's an awful name anyway. Please don't pick it. Grin

It just reminds me of horrible cheap margarine, and Marge is a very unattractive NN.

It's one of those names that falls into the category of 'Should NEVER EVER be revived' along with Mavis, Enid, Edna and Gertrude.

nooka · 05/04/2014 05:04

MrsRuffDiamond your godmothers is/was quite right. No one should be calling Shrewsbury shrews-bury! That's like calling Worcestershire war-cest-er-shire instead of wooster-shire. Just one of those funny quirks of English place name pronunciation.

GoodnessIsThatTheTime · 04/04/2014 17:05

Im the same steath but I can say that two different ways!

Mar jcher ie
mar ger ie

StealthPolarBear · 04/04/2014 17:00

I do see what you mean op
But I'd say it as margarine without the final n sound
It was my grandma's name
(rather than like Mar-Cherie - best I can do)

GoodnessIsThatTheTime · 04/04/2014 16:55

Alrhough I wouldn't use g for Gary I can hear differences in margarine and margery maybe its soft g or french j' ...

MrsRuffdiamond · 04/04/2014 16:47

Haha, that brings back happy memories of going to stay with my Scottish aunties, who called pizza (new-fangled, at the time!) peeza pie (no 'ts' sound for the 'zz'!)

wigglybeezer · 04/04/2014 16:32

lots of older Scottish people say margarine with a hard G but then my Wee Granny also used to pronounce beige as be "beedge".

MrsRuffdiamond · 04/04/2014 16:25

Oh, dear, do they?! Blush

charitygirl · 04/04/2014 15:55

MrsRuffDiamond - to be fair to your godmother, I think that is how the locals pronounce those town names (you'll tell me you are a local now!). Margarine with a hard g is barmy tho!

PigletJohn · 04/04/2014 14:48

The inventor of margarine (I think he was French or Belgian) thought that during manufacture, thd greasy globules looked like pearls, so he named it after the ancient Greek for pearls (it was common for educated people to di such things, and pretentious uneducated people still do it).

British people at first used the hard G pronunciation but it fell into disuse as the word became treated as an English one.

People who like using nobby foreign accents clung on to the Greek derivation for some years.

MrsRuffdiamond · 04/04/2014 14:29

I'm pretty sure my Godmother wasn't German! She used to pronounce Shrewsbury (which I say like the rodent) as Shrowsbury, and Marlborough as Mawlborough. I assumed it was an upper-class affectation idiosyncrasy!

squoosh · 04/04/2014 14:13

Zut alors, a French J/'zh' sound would be trés wanky if neither of you are French.

Beastofburden · 04/04/2014 14:12

My Godmother did pronounce margarine with a hard 'g', as in Gary. I think it might be an upper-class thing?

It's also what the germans do, if that helps.

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