Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

How do you pronounce Juliet?

36 replies

Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 00:40

I ask because my sister is called Juliet and I think it's a beautiful name. My parents intended it to be pronounced, she pronounces it, and all the family pronounce it, JULy't.

However her whole life she's been called Julie-ETTE and has given up correcting people. It seems like such a popilar name on here and I wondered how people think it should sound.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
mathanxiety · 26/04/2014 23:34

PrettyFilou -- thanks for that link. I love with a rocking German orchestra from his later years.

The Juliet I know goes by JU-lee-ET.

candycrushhater · 26/04/2014 22:43

Juliet - Jooly-it a bit like Harriet. Pronounced the same as the old TV show Juliet Bravo (showing my age).

Juliette - joo-lee-ette

DramaAlpaca · 26/04/2014 22:17

I'd pronounce Juliet with the emphasis on the first syllable.

Juliette, on the other hand, has the emphasis on the last syllable.

Only1scoop · 26/04/2014 21:46

Just read my post looks v odd

Only1scoop · 26/04/2014 21:45

My dp sis is Juliet ....they seem to pronounce the last bit clipped also more like Joolyt....

TheScience · 26/04/2014 21:42

I'd sat Joo-lee-et, and can't really hear the difference between the two pronunciations mention tbh.

Panzee · 26/04/2014 21:40

To rhyme with Capulet. :)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 21:38

No, I'm the same.

I started reading this thread before I made dinner and it's been bugging me on and off since 8.30. Blush It's weird how you look at something too long and every pronunciation sounds wrong, isn't it?!

Alisvolatpropiis · 26/04/2014 21:35

The way you've written it LRD, I now can't work out how I pronounce it Hmm. It must be my (mild) Welsh accent at play!

LRDtheFeministDragon · 26/04/2014 21:15

I think you can give an educated guess, because he's writing iambic pentameter, and for 'it is the east, and Juliet is the sun' to be ten it'd have to be the two-syllable 'jul-yet' pronunciation. Not very convincing because Shakespeare isn't actually that fussed about ten syllables, but there we go.

You can sort of tell how people pronounced things despite non-standardised spelling - it still follows patterns, they're just linked more to dialect than to dictionaries.

(That is really boring, I know. Sorry).

I think Juliette is prettier sounding, personally. But it's a lovely name either way.

LynetteScavo · 26/04/2014 20:57

Same as you, op.

Julie-ETTE just sounds weird to me, but it's what people outside of our family tend to say.

Alisvolatpropiis · 26/04/2014 20:53

Is it mispronunciation if the majority of people say it that way?

I think it's a bit difficult to know how Shakespeare intended the name to be pronounced given he's been dead quite some time and generally speaking made up quite a lot of the words he used.

Also standardised spelling didn't exist when he was writing his plays and didn't until Doctor Johnson's dictionary.

Original poster
Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 20:15

By the way my DSis has survived more than 50 years of mispronunciation so this is in no way a matter of urgency.

OP posts:
nooka · 26/04/2014 19:05

Oh and I wouldn't expect to pronounce Juliet and Juliette differently (assuming they were both English). I thought that the ette spelling was just a variant.

nooka · 26/04/2014 19:03

I think it's really difficult to talk about pronunciation on paper, so I looked up some audio files, and see that it is apparently an issue (possibly because of people doing productions of Romeo and Juliet?)

I haven't found any sites (yet) that have an 'English' pronunciation (and in any case I imagine that it varies significantly across English accents) but here are two sites with audio files for Juliet:

www.forvo.com/word/juliet/

www.pronouncenames.com/search?name=juliet

On the forvo site the second pronunciation comes closest to how I would say Juliet (even though it's from an American)

We have a Harriet and a Juliet in the family and I'd say that they sound pretty similar, but then I might say Harriet differently to other people too Grin

Prettyfilou · 26/04/2014 18:52

As in this song:

JulesJules · 26/04/2014 18:43

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Coconutty · 26/04/2014 18:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsTamkin · 26/04/2014 18:34

Yes as a drama practitioner I'd argue Shakespeare's Juliet is closer to Harriet in emphasis

IsabellaRoarsome · 26/04/2014 18:12

Ju-li-ette is always how I've pronounced it but got told off for doing so by my drama lecturer years ago because it is supposed to be Julie-utt as Shakespeare intended.

HolidayCriminal · 26/04/2014 18:03

JUlee-ette.
I don't like it, though. ... Pretentious maybe?

Tenrec · 26/04/2014 18:02

Joo-Lee-et.

PenguinsLoveFishFingers · 26/04/2014 17:57

I have never heard it pronounced like Harriet Confused

TheOneWithTheHair · 26/04/2014 17:45

I agree, like Harriet. That's what I was clumsily trying to say up thread.

Original poster
Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 14:08

Interesting - thanks all. As far as I can tell Shakespeare intended it to be pronounced with the emphasis on the JU and a neutral vowel rather than an ET sound at the end. Like Harriet. But yes, the -ette pronounciation does seem to be quite common and I think that's a shame - it makes the name a bit naff and overly girly imo.

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread