How would you pronounce Dahlia?

[Whatsinagirlsname]

I love this as a girl's name, but in pronunciation I prefer "Dar Lee uh" to "Day Lee uh". Do you think this would cause too much confusion?

You're naming your daughter after a flower. People will assume the pronunciation is the same as the flower. Day-lee-a.

Yeah, it’s a flower name, you’re in England, hence the “correct” pronunciation is like the English pronunciation of the flower.

The vampire in Buffy was Darla btw.

Yep, I'm totally baffled that there can be rhotic-speakers who aren't aware of non-rhotic pronunciation, and vice versa. How can anyone live in the British Isles and not be aware of it? I mean ok, maybe you might not have given it any conscious thought, but when the 'r' issue comes up, surely you just imagine the word as pronounced by a Scottish or RP English person and all becomes clear?

Day-lee-ah, like the flower

lazylinguist I get that people with some accents don't pronounce Rs, though it's not something I consciously thought of on opening the thread. What I don't get is why, if you don't even pronounce it, you'd add it into the phonetic spelling. That's what confused me. I'm not trying to offend anyone and was a bit puzzled to get replies like "there's always one."

Thanks for the education. I am a Rhotic speaker. I stand by what I said, the word Darlia, as the OP wrote it, pronounced by a rhotic speaker would sound horrendous.

Except the OP is talking about Dahlia, not Darlia. She mentioned Dar Lee Uh because she has a non-rhotic accent and dar is her way of describing dah...

lazy

Yes, most people who have encountered this problem before probably have read the thread and thought "oh yeah, she means dah, not darrr".

But clearly there are non rhotic speakers who don't think things through very well either...? You know? Not wanting to pick on anyone, but there was a pp who said, even after the issue had been discussed, "I don't see how dar can be anything but dah" or something.

So, why would it surprise anyone that someone with a rhotic accent who just happened across the op wouldn't immediately think "oh I must put on an accent completely different to my own when I read this".

I get the confusion Sakura. The reason is that if I (for example) try to think of a word with a long “ah” sound all the examples that leap to mind end with r: car, bar, far, star. Apart from Bah as in Humbug nothing else comes to mind.

Day Lee ah

Day lee a

Dar Lee ar

Fatkins, as I said in my post, I am equally baffled by non-rhotic speakers being unaware of the rhotic pronunciation.

Sakura - it's not a question of non-rhotic speakers 'adding an r we don't even pronounce' to phonetically convey that sound. It's that if you're a non-rhotic speaker trying to write that sound, it makes just as much sense to write it as 'ar' as it does to write it as 'ah', as Random says. You might just as well ask why many of the rhotic speakers on hthe thread have added an 'h to make it 'ah'.

Day-lee-uh

I love the word rhotic - never heard of it until this thread. Didn't even know there was a word for people who don't pronounce their Rs.

When it’s a name I pronounce it dar lee ah but I call the flower a day lee ah

Thanks Random, makes sense when you explain it.

You might just as well ask why many of the rhotic speakers on hthe thread have added an 'h to make it 'ah'.

I'll answer this one - it's because 'ah' describes a longer sound than 'a'. Also there's really only one way to pronounce it, while there are two very different ways to pronounce 'ar' depending on your accent.

Fatkins, as I said in my post, I am equally baffled by non-rhotic speakers being unaware of the rhotic pronunciation.*

But you weren't just baffled by rhotic speakers not getting this immediately. You said they must be pretending not to get it, just to be a pita! Or am I confusing you with someone else? Apologies if so.

I also don't understand why you'd add an R to explain how to pronounce Dahlia.

Is there any other way to pronounce Dah other than Dah?!

Could be a short a as in cat fullmoons.

Dah/lee/a

No, more like Dah/lee-a

Like the flower basically

And of course it could be be pronounced Day, because that’s how the OED will tell you to pronounce it in this word.

I’d assume it was pronounced like the flower which is spelt the same way as the name (ie: Day-lee-ah)

If the name was to be pronounced “dar-lee-ah” I’d recommend it be spelled Darlia, to avoid confusion.

What I don't get is why, if you don't even pronounce it, you'd add it into the phonetic spelling

The R modifies the previous vowel sound by making it longer. You don't pronounce the "ruh" sound at the end, but the vowel sound itself changes when an R is there. Just like adding an E to the word man makes it mane - you don't pronounce the E but it changes the preceding vowel sound. No becomes nor. Co becomes cor. Adding an R to Da makes it a decidedly long-sounding vowel, whereas Da is a bit more ambiguous (could be long like darling, could be short like dad).

Is there any other way to pronounce Dah other than Dah?

Yes, it could rhyme with hah, which has a short vowel sound in my accent.

Basically, adding an H is a little confusing if you're a non-rhotic speaker, as there could be multiple pronunciations (Ha and Hah could both be long or short, Har is definitely long). Ironically, Adding an R makes the pronunciation less ambiguous (if you're someone with a non-rhotic accent )

As for Dahlia, I'd pronounce it Daylia. Because that's how it's said here because the English language is a pain in the arse.