How would you pronounce Dahlia?

Dahlia, unless pronounced daylia, rhymes more with ball-ee-a than pal-ee-a in a SE English accent

Hahah, you're gonna hate me, but for me (SE England) it rhymes more with how I say pal than with how I say ball. However, I have an Essex-type SE accent. In a formal RP accent (like the Queen's accent), it would definitely be more like ball.

I think, based on these types of threads, the best thing to do when you see a "phonetic" pronunciation that doesn't make sense to you, is to assume that the poster is writing in a different accent to yours.

eg. in another thread, someone wrote that Maisie and Maisay sound the same to them, while they sound pretty different to me. I just assumed they must have a different accent to me. Based on accents I've heard on TV, probably a Scottish one.

These kind of threads that keep cropping up make me wonder if we in England hear more Scottish and N. Irish accents on TV than vice versa, making us more familiar with them and more aware of accent differences. Which is surprising, because I always thought the London-focus of the media in the UK would make it the other way round, and there is a stereotype (probably true in other respects) that English people are oblivious to the other countries in the UK.

Fullmoons

But the addition of an R that isn't meant to be pronounced is confusing for many of us

But apparently you should just know that the addition of the r actually means something completely different than an r sound 😂.

Never mind that half of the British isles wouldn't naturally know that an r means... no r.

This alone would only be a bit amusing to me, except that people took the hump that anyone questioned it 🤦. You MUST be making it up. Everyone knows an r means no r. Um... They really don't. Where I'm from we all pronounce rs. Regardless of class etc. It wouldn't occur to most people there that the dar sound is anything but darrr. It's really odd that people cannot wrap their heads round that.

It's fine to have a discussion about different pronunciations and I quite enjoy it, but it's another thing altogether when people say "you MUST know" when some people clearly don't. I assume all the people saying that have SE English accents as well.

I can't imagine how this thread would have gone if I'd said "how would you pronounce the name Tiger? Taidgh-er or t-aoi-ger?" and then acted incredulous when non Irish speakers didn't know what I was on about 😂😂😂.

If you want to have it pronounced universally with an R sound then make up a new name with an R in it.
While some people may pronounce/hear Day and Dar the same, a load of people won't and your child will be driven mad (and maybe you too) with her name being pronounced without an R.

To answer your question on pronunciation - for me the pronunciation is the same as the flower - Day-lee-ah

So, bawl and ball sound the same in my accent. Doll doesn't quite rhyme with ball, but, what I actually said was doll and ball for example sound a lot closer than ball and pal. Not that they are exactly the same sound.

So I'll try again ; Dahlia, unless pronounced daylia, rhymes more with ball-ee-a than pal-ee-a in a SE English accent. In an Irish accent it would be the other way round.

But the addition of an R that isn't meant to be pronounced is confusing for many of us

surely they know you don't actually write it down with an R?

You do when writing a pronunciation of something that sounds like car/far/bar/tar etc in your accent.

In most English accents it wouldn't be a flat 'a' sound and does resemble the sound in 'doll'.

Not in my South London accent 😂

These threads always leave me muttering words to myself. Thankfully i am alone,

Like another poster said, the only Dahlia I’ve heard ever heard of is the Black Dahlia. Don’t google it if you’re set on the name

The child would no doubt eventually google her own name and discover the gory details herself though! I wouldn't choose this name for that reason

I have an Irish accent but also lived in Scotland for years, the south west of England for years and now live in the SE England. Obviously that doesn't make me a phonetics expert, but having lived in all these places that is what I have observed. It isn't EXACTLY like doll or dawl, but it's somewhere in between to my ears.

Pronunciation threads are totally subjective though and I'm offering my observations based on my experience. But I'm not silly enough to think that because I say something one way, there is no other way to say it. I'm pointing out the differences and explaining why people might be confused by the op.

And really, even if you disagree on my explanation, my point is that in an Irish accent like mine for example, dah, like the a sounds in glass and father, sounds completely different to the SE pronunciation of those sounds.

Non-rhotic

I see what Fatkins means. In most English accents it wouldn't be a flat 'a' sound and does resemble the sound in 'doll'.

Again, goes to show how differently we all perceive these things.

This thread reminds me of an incident I had working in Australia when I was 21. I was a temp receptionist and was spelling an email address to a caller, and naturally for me I pronounced the 'r' (rather than saying 'ah'). My Aussie colleague told me I shouldn't do that as it makes me sound common. Of course I ignored her as that would have sounded weird and unnatural in my accent.

There’s always one...
Non-rhotic accent
I would say Dah and Dar the same

See this always annoys me, yes people with a rhotic accent would pronounce dah and dar the same, but surely they know you don't actually write it down with an R?

And somewhere between doll and dawl is Dahl. I did say somewhere between the two but just didn't repeat myself every time I said doll / dawl whatever.

Problem is, @Fatkins, this is all still subjective. In my accent, the A sound in Dahl doesn't sound remotely like the O sound in doll, to me.

Obviously that's how it seems to come across to you, but the long A and O are two very distinct vowel sounds to those of us that use them, as distinct as the sounds in till and tell, or pal and pall. I can see other southeasterners finding the idea that the long A sounds like O confusing.

I imagine in other accents, they might sound more similar, which is where the confusion comes from.

Maybe we should just ban all pronunciation threads. They seem to confuse more than they help.

And door has two os in it anyway.

I'm sure someone can tell us the phonetics for it though. It must have a proper name.

Yes and door rhymes with pour which is an o sound!

(Obviously not with a rhotic R at the end though)

So Dahlia unless pronounced day lee a becomes doll / dawlia in SE English accents.

No it doesn't. I really really don't get this. Daw is door to me.

This is why pronunciation threads are a waste of time 😂

What @soupdragon? It is ALMOST an o sound. Somewhere between o (as in ox) and aw (as in trawl).

I've been sitting here muttering to myself and it isn't anything like an o sound.

Like another poster said, the only Dahlia I’ve heard ever heard of is the Black Dahlia. Don’t google it if you’re set on the name :(

So Dahlia unless pronounced day lee a becomes doll / dawlia in SE English accents. Not in Irish for example.

Like glass and father in an Irish accent tend to keep the a like apple.

What @soupdragon? It is ALMOST an o sound. Somewhere between o (as in ox) and aw (as in trawl).

It happens in rhotic accents too. Doll and call, ball and bawl are a lot more similar than ball and pal.

flowery Have you actually read the responses to those points?