How would you pronounce Zana ?

[RoseApp]

My friend assumed people would pronounce her child’s name Zana like Zah-nah as in Suzanna but several people have pronounced it as Zar-na

Agreed! Although not everybody pronounces book the same, so back to square one!

Using the IPA should help get around this regional accents issue. (Sorry if this adds extra confusion but it is all easily Googleable!)

I would say it Zaːnə if the name is spelt with one n (first ‘a’ sound like in father, with the second being more of a schwa sound). With double n it would be Zænə which I think is the pronunciation the friend is after (first ‘a’ sound as in apple).

To my ear “Barth” sounds very strange for the city of Bath 😄 Sounds like barf or something. Anyway - what a fascinating study we have made for linguists here 🤣

And this is the same for the word ‘but’? I have heard put that way, it’s a Spanish pronunciation, but not but? I have heard but like baht and but (with the u being like under) but never like oo?

And this is why there is a phonetic symbol system.
We all had to learn it as Speech Therapy students in order to transcribe speech exactly as produced.

Each sound has a symbol and we were given a list with key words as reference. But the reference only worked if you knew the RP pronunciation! There are 2 different symbols for 2 u sounds and the list gave the references of "put" and "cup". Great if you're from Windsor but but no help at all if you're a Mancunian and the u sounds the same in both 😉

Oh believe me, I'm in London, but bordering Essex and some definitely go to Barf or have a nice bubble barf.

🤣🤷🏼‍♀️🥰🥰🥰

Yeah the way I say it does rhyme with barf. How do you say it? I know some people say bath to rhyme with cath, like the beginning of the name Catherine.

Yes Bath to rhyme with Cath sounds good to me. Baath. An aaah sound.
I’m Northern Irish, by the way 😊

I think the PP hit the nail on the head when they said that in some places when r is used, it's rolled a bit. So thinking we say barth sounds odd to them as they're not pronouncing barth in their head like we do in the south. Baahth might make more sense... but looks equally ridiculous 🫣

I'm Irish and Bath is pronounced like Bat where I'm from because we don't pronounce our "th"s... but we also don't pronounce our Ts very often either so some people would just pronounce it bah! 🙏🤣🤣

Oh that other poster will love you. You don't add letters, you take them away 😂

I wish there was a setting on mumsnet to record little voice notes so I could hear all these amazing different pronunciations!

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/NvcAExVYmLc

For anyone confused, watch this! He explain very well the north-south divide using ‘bath’

How many seconds would people need to pronounce the aaaaaaaaaaaaa / aaaaahhhhh / aaaaaaaaaarrrrrr sound though 😅

It doesn't 'convey a long vowel' though, that's the point. 🫣

I've spent the past 30 mins sitting here gurning away, looking like I've lost the plot, whilst I've been pronouncing all these words in my head 😳

The sound doesn't need to be exaggerated at all, however if they insist then another a would be best (aa).

Those are 3 seperate sounds to me.....😵‍💫

It features in digraphs and has the function of changing the vowel e.g.
Cat Cart
Ten Tern
Bon born

In a rhotic accent you would hear the 'r' sound after the vowel. In a non rhotic accent you wouldn't. But the use of the 'r' in the spelling of the words changes the vowel sound

@rosesareredvioletsareblueaimverytiredandsoareyou please can you read my post above from 20:26 which explains this exact point. It DOES convey a long vowel sound to non-rhotic speakers.

How dare you?
Nah, Irish accents are often lovely - though I sometimes struggle iftheysometimesspeakfartoofast. 😁

I've read it.

I understand all of this.

It’s your point, and your point alone because literally everyone else on this thread understands that it does.