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Baby names

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Original poster

North/south divide - girls names pronounced dramatically differently?

59 replies

Stulbam · 23/11/2017 17:46

Like Sandra, Alexandra - they'd be pronounced with a 'sand' sound up north, but a 'sarrnd' sound down south. Not just a subtle difference in emphasis - a black and white divide.

I've spent the last month straining my brain in disbelief that I can't think of a single other example for girls (I've come up with Grant/ 'Grarrnt' for boys). My husband claims there's no other examples (exarrmples!) - surely this can't be?!

Help me prove him wrong Mumsnet?!

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Original poster
Stulbam · 26/11/2017 15:40

Ahh love mumsnet! Knew you guys would care!

Hetero, nope, I know a 'Tarrnya', actually two - one from the south, the other American!

OP posts:
HeteronormativeHaybales · 26/11/2017 13:34

Tanya's always Tanya, isn't it? Never Tarnya? (Unlike Alexandra, Francis etc.) Like Natasha - that would never be Natarsha.

ArbitraryName · 26/11/2017 13:30

Yes. The problem is that it’s based in the assumption that you speak with a particular accent.

It’s funny until you realise the putting saw and sore in an exam systematically discriminates against people from certain parts of the country. Or when you build your whole phonics system in the assumption that everyone speaks RP. Or when your English teacher has no idea (and refuses to accept) that actually they’re only homonyms for some people.

Carolwithane · 26/11/2017 11:44

I'm in Scotland we can't pronounce Carl - it comes out Carol. Must be our rolling rrrrrrrrrr's Grin

dowotmakesuhappy · 26/11/2017 11:35

I knew an american lady called Don once which was odd. One day I asked if her full name was Donna. She looked at me strange and said 'No just Don' a little while later she gave me a Christmas card signed 'Dawn'!! I had never seen her name written down before!

Alisvolatpropiis · 25/11/2017 22:45

South -

Sophie = So-fee

North -

Sophie = Saw-feh

CrossFreelancer · 25/11/2017 19:33

A few people have mentioned Tanya...

I thought
Tanya= Tan-ya
And
Tania= Tarn-ya/ Tarn-yuh

This is what my mother who is a Tania always says is correct?

BroomstickOfLove · 25/11/2017 19:28

The thing that always drives me crazy is when people write "ansaphone".

I've lived in England long enough that I speak with a non-rhotic accent now, but my brain still registers the difference and although when I say "raw" and "roar" they sound the same, my mind has them in completely different sound categories.

CountFosco · 25/11/2017 13:40

@CappuccinoCake However I say farmers and pyjamas (southern) they rhyme

Try saying Farmers with a Scottish (or Devon) accent where the 'a' and the 'r' and pronounced separately, and to you it no doubt sounds like a rolled 'r'.

Are you old enough to remember Taggart? "TheRe's been a muRdeR".

Julia Donaldson is particularly galling since she has (or does?) live in Scotland.

FetchezLaPhoque · 25/11/2017 11:23

Arbitrary I went mad at my son's spelling homework where saw and sore were presented as homophones. I think to non-rhotic speakers they are but my son now thinks that saw is pronounced with an "r" sound Hmm To me they are totally different. Julia Donaldson books are full of rhymes that don't rhyme in my accent.

DullAndOld · 25/11/2017 11:13

oh ok it could be homonym.
Anyway to my ear, raw and roar are identical..:)
But then I come from London.
Perhaps the books are culturally biased towards London and the south east.

DullAndOld · 25/11/2017 11:10

roar and raw are homophones not homonyms!!

Homo = same
nym = name

ArbitraryName · 25/11/2017 08:08

(Scottish) DS1 had an encounter yesterday with an english teacher who refused to believe that roar and raw are homonyms. In fact, he said he couldn’t figure out at all what the homonyms were supposed to be. He even demonstrated to the teacher that they sound nothing alike (other than starting with r) but she was insistent that he was simply wrong.

They put this sort of shit in exams.

CappuccinoCake · 25/11/2017 07:13

Brawne- but her name is pronounced Ah-na.

At uni we had a Swedish girl in our college and again pronounced Ah-na. It would have been rude to Anglisize it!

RebeccaWrongDaily · 25/11/2017 07:11

oh blimey Squoosh!

Lancelottie · 25/11/2017 05:22

I think you missed my point, Dolwar - I was offering the OP two names, one male, one female, for her little list. Both would be pronounced differently north to south.

squoosh · 25/11/2017 02:17

'how do people disagree on Frances? Surely it's fran (like in Frank) with siss. Or do those people say Frarnk?'

There was a thread.It went on for approximately 98 years. All about the pronunciation of Frances...

It was almost as though the idea that different people had different accents was a whole new concept.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/baby_names/2974801-how-would-you-pronounce-frances

RebeccaWrongDaily · 25/11/2017 01:02

oh, i live in north. I know that Francis is pronounced Fran (to rhyme with Ban) siss, trying to work out how south people think they can be right with Frarnsiss.... or frarnsess.

OneMoreTune · 25/11/2017 00:44

North! Smile

OneMoreTune · 25/11/2017 00:44

Beware- Lucy is Lerr-see up nirth

Heratnumber7 · 25/11/2017 00:38

PAUL-ine rather than Paul-EEN

MICH-elle instead of Mich-ELLE

JAN-ine instead of Jan-EEN

DiegoMadonna · 25/11/2017 00:31

No Rebecca, but people in southern England do pronounce France with a long ahh sound (I'm sure you've heard people pronouncing grass, bath and laugh in the same way), and Frances follows that pattern.

Frank does not.

RebeccaWrongDaily · 25/11/2017 00:04

how do people disagree on Frances? Surely it's fran (like in Frank) with siss. Or do those people say Frarnk?

TinklyLittleLaugh · 24/11/2017 22:41

I have two daughters with "ie." ending names, similar to Katie. Unfortunately when we moved up north they became Kateh, which I am not keen on at all.

And slightly outing, but my southern niece named her baby Daisy. I did actually cringe at northern accented DD crooning "Oh you little sweetie Derzeh" at her.

Disclaimer; I am an adopted northerner and wouldn't live anywhere else now. Still not quite sure about our local accent though.

BrawneLamia · 24/11/2017 22:32

Cassandra

Also, not a north south thing, but my 4 year old tells me off for calling the frozen character 'anna' not 'ah-na'.

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