Marianne

[elfride]

How would you pronounce this? Marry-un? Or Marry-Anne? Do you think it's awkward? I'm taking a liking to it.

I am a Marianne and have spent my entire life correcting people's mistaken pronunciations of my name. The one that really sets my teeth on edge is Mary Anne. Having said that, I love my name and like the fact that there isn't that many around.

I have a Marianne, pronounced as pp have said - Marry-Anne. With a bit of a French accent, as DH is French.

People do mispronounce it tho - even when I've just told them her name, they go, 'oh, Mary-Ann!' Or 'Marion' - even worse...

But pronounced correctly, it's a beautiful name!

I might be going to annoy you now, Caroline, but don't you think that maybe the reason 'Mary', 'merry' and 'marry' are all spelt differently is because they aren't actually supposed to be homophones?

'marry' - short 'a' as in 'apple'
'merry' - short 'e' as in 'egg'
'Mary' - your preferred way, like 'mairy', rhymes with 'dairy' and 'hairy'!

Maybe it's the double 'r' that signifies it's a short vowel sound. Although 'Marianne' has one 'r' of course, possibly as it comes from the French?

But then you could quite easily argue against that, that English spelling rules are illogical and I suppose it's not a very phonetic language. I really don't know!

Oh, I'm not arguing that the American way of pronouncing these words is logical or "correct." Our language has just evolved this way, for better or worse. I doubt you'll meet an American who wouldn't rather listen to a British/Irish/Scottish/Australian/South African etc. accent than an American one. Most aren't pretty.

I've never heard "merry" pronounced with the 'e' sound from egg. And if I did I don't know if I'd recognize it. I don't recognize a lot of subtle shifts in vowel sounds that people from other countries might. Like when I try to speak French, tres comes out as tray and no matter how many times I try I cannot get it right.

switch British out for English :D

Yes I see what you mean. I thought French 'tres' (can't do the accent) was pronounced 'tray'? Shows how little I know, then!

me too, but my french teacher insisted there was some subtle, sophisticated tongue/palate move I couldn't make so that the 'e' is a little more open, almost as in 'egg.' :D

My name is Marianne. My ex's dad called me Mary-Anne for Nine. Years. despite all of us correcting him all the time. Have also had Marian, Anne-Marie, Maria, Marie and Miriam, and all manner of misspellings as well... but most people do get it right first time!

My childhood nickname was Manny (and family and friends-of-family still call me that). A few of my friends now call me Mazza or Maz (and one opts for Marianna!) but mostly I'm called by my full name.

Fellow American here! Mary, merry, marry - to an American ear, they all sound identical. If we said, "Kyle's going to marry Liz," we would pronounce marry just like the name Mary. I was so confused when reading this thread; I couldn't for the life of me understand how people could love Marry Anne and hate Mary Anne when - to me! - they're pronounced exactly the same.

Have a listen here YouGrate this is the pronunciation for Mary (same as in American English, I think). So Brits would use this pronunciation for 'Mary Anne' as well, obviously. It is said like 'air' not with a short 'a'.

www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=mary&submit=Submit

Whereas 'Marianne' begins with a short 'a'. Unfortunately they didn't have 'Marianne' on the web site, but here is Marian:

www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=marian&submit=Submit

So it would be like that, but with the emphasis on the 'Anne' part

Can you hear the difference?

Or this is the pronunciation for 'Harry' which rhymes with the 'Mari' part of Marianne. Quite different to 'Mary'.

www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=harry&submit=Submit

I realise you don't say it like that in most American accents, but just interested to know if you can hear the difference?

I don't hate Mary Anne, BTW, but it's not so interesting as 'Marianne'.

I know two, both are Marry-anne

Thanks for all the links, Nadia! I can hear a slight difference, although if I weren't really listening for it I don't know if I would have. I see - or rather, hear! - what you're saying about Marianne now, though. It's subtle, but it is different from Mary Anne. And Harry sounds miles better with a British accent, for sure!

Marry-ann

I went to school with a girl called Marian - her parents were called Marie and Ian and it was pronounced Marie-ian....

OH MY GOD about Marie-Ian. Why? Just why?!

I have a toddler Marianne, pronounced Marry Ann. She really suits it and although some people mispronounce it occasionally, it's not a problem. It's unusual without being weird and I love both Marianne Faithfull and Sense and Sensibility so that was a big plus point!