Thalia or Cadence

[FannyTheFlamingo]

These are my 2 new favourites. What does everyone think? How would you pronounce Thalia?

Here’s a British source (in which the pronunciation is the same as previous link).

dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/ghana

IVfly I don't understand your point either. If it's silent there is no need to add it to a word. Ever. And tbh even if people do this, it doesn't make it correct. But when we are talking about a spoken word I don't see how adding a silent letter is relevant.

Here’s a British source (in which the pronunciation is the same as previous link).

There is no R in the middle of this word?

It's Gah - nah. I don't understand how you are hearing an R

I'm Scottish. When I see an r in the middle of, or at the end of, a word I pronounce it. The same goes for most Americans and some English people. I think it's therefore a confusing way to indicate a long vowel. Wouldn't it be clearer to say Gahna?

I agree too with whoever said Gh doesn't indicate that the following vowel is going to be long. Here's Wikipedia on the subject:

In English ⟨gh⟩ historically represented [x] (the voiceless velar fricative, as in the Scottish Gaelic word Loch), and still does in lough and certain other Hiberno-English words, especially proper nouns. In the dominant dialects of modern English, ⟨gh⟩ is almost always either silent or pronounced /f/ (see Ough). It is thought that before disappearing, the sound became partially or completely voiced to [ɣx] or [ɣ], which would explain the new spelling - Old English used a simple ⟨h⟩ - and the diphthongization of any preceding vowel.

It is also occasionally pronounced [ə], such as in Edinburgh.

When gh occurs at the beginning of a word in English, it is pronounced /ɡ/ as in "ghost", "ghastly", "ghoul", "ghetto", "ghee" etc. In this context, it does not derive from a former /x/.

If there was no R in the pronunciation of Garna then it would be pronounced ganna as in gannet and apple.

Whether you render it garna or gahna the effect is the same!

Ar and ah sound the same.

Thalia.

Ar and ah sound the same.

Nope. Not to me, not to many tens of millions of other native English speakers.

Wouldn't it be clearer to say Gahna?

Only if she’s a Scottish person who’s never heard any English. Given that she’d heard two lots of audio, I’d have thought the point was clear enough.

Ar and Ah sound completely different to me too!

Ga-na sounds very different to Gar-na!

I have a niece called Hannah. Ha-nah. She would become Har-nah. That's just odd.

Given that she’d heard two lots of audio, I’d have thought the point was clear enough.

Assuming 'she' refers to me, I can clarify that even after hearing two lots of audio I still did not hear anyone say R in the middle of the word Ghana.

Your point, while you think is clear, is also incorrect. Using an H In a word does not, and never has meant that you pronounce that word with an R in it. This may be a regional thing for some, but the English language does not dictate it.

Ar and ah sound the same.

Sorry what? No they don't.

Not to me, not to many tens of millions of other native English speakers.

Every single English person knows RP pronucation even if they have a regional accent. Don’t play dumb.

There aren’t many regional English accents in which ah and ar are significantly different. SW possibly.

Every single English person knows RP pronucation even if they have a regional accent. Don’t play dumb.

This is funny. English people make up a very small minority of English speakers. Just because the word English is used for both doesn't make every English person an expert. Obviously.

Well, what a charmer you are, Tatiana. Don't play dumb indeed. As already explained, I am not an English person and while I am indeed familiar with RP my own accent is just as valid.

Also, RP stands for Received Pronunciation, so no need to say pronunciation twice.

Oh please don't do this to your child.
Cadence is now an IT buzzword.
I lived near a Thalia street and no one could get it right.

Tah-le-a, I know a Thais said Thai (as in the country)-is, I like that too.

I don't like Cadence

I agree too with whoever said Gh doesn't indicate that the following vowel is going to be long

That was a a fair point,because it’s not always the case as English is always irregular.

But Wiki just says that at the end of a word gh used to indicate a sound as in Scottish loch, but at the beginning it indicates g.

It doesn’t have anything to say on how gh at the beginning may modulate the sound of the vowel.

Ghee and ghetto are not English words. The former is Hindi and the latter is Italian, and the gh comes from those languages.

So all we are left with is ghoul on that point.

As already explained, I am not an English person and while I am indeed familiar with RP my own accent is just as valid.

No-one has said your accent isn’t valid, Scottish accents are very nice. What I am saying is that any regional still knows what RP sounds like, so the quibbling over r and ah is specious.

Assuming 'she' refers to me, I can clarify that even after hearing two lots of audio I still did not hear anyone say R in the middle of the word Ghana.

Presumably you can hear the ah? Presumably you have heard RP? So from this your infer the ar pronunciation I am referring to is pronounced the same as ah.

Your point, while you think is clear, is also incorrect. Using an H In a word does not, and never has meant that you pronounce that word with an R in it.

Not what I said. Read it more carefully. I said it does in those instances but in ghost it changes from o as in ox to oh.

RP. Explanation for incorrect use of the English language.

We are not talking about ghost. We are talking about the H in Thalia and Ghana not indicating an R sound further into the word.

I pronounce Ghana and the word 'garner' exactly the same.

I would also naturally pronounce Thalia as tah-lee-uh, where the 'tah' rhymes with bar.

But then I pronounce 'bath' as 'barth' too

Cadence sounds like the sort of name British Gas would give itself when it wanted a re-branding - Thalia is nice.