How to pronounce Dahlia?

[MarsMama17]

Im not a fan of the Day-Lia pronunciation and much prefer Dahl-ia or Dahl-ya.
Dahl-ia comes out naturally for me I’m northern.

How do other people pronounce Dahlia in the UK?

Thank you xx

If you watch Gardener's World I've never heard anyone say anything other than Day-Lia on there that I can recall.

Ditto GQT.

My dad grew them too! Day li ah.

Day-lia. I’m in the north. Dar-lee-a is the American pronunciation. I personally would rather Day-lia like the flower, than Dar-lee-a like the murder.

I would assume Dahl-ia - SE England

If you spell it Darlia there's no mispronouncing the way you like it

I’ve always known it spelt Dalia and pronounced Daliyah

I’m English (all over tbh!) and always thought it was pronounced Darrr-Leah, not sure I’ve ever heard it in an English context though (most likely American tv)

No, it sounds fairly standard for Scottish English. That poster was just saying she has a rhotic accent, which is completely typical in Scotland.

For what it's worth, I would pronounce Dahlia with a short a, like in cat. I imagine most people in England, if not using Day-lia, would have a long a like in the English English pronunciation of words like calm and palm. That's what people are describing with 'ar'.

I've only ever heard it pronounced Day-lia.

Also Scottish, and I’d say Dahl-ia. (I’d pronounce the flower that way too, though I’ve heard the Day-lia pronunciation too… weirdly always assumed that was American, though apparently the opposite is true!)

This reminds me of those Flora / Dora / Cora pronunciation threads - folk saying they pronounce Dora or Cora like Flora doesn’t help much when the rhyming word is also pronounced differently in different parts of the country 😂

I’d ask specific to where you live OP, as that’s likely how you’ll have to deal with it most of the time? Both are correct though, as per the attached photo from Google AI!

I've only ever heard the flower pronounced as Day-lia, but I know someone with a human child with that name, and they pronounce it Dal-ia. Not dahl, dal (rhymes with pal). They're not northern, by the way. I find this a bit strange but hey ho, it's their choice, not mine. But if I was of childbearing age it might make me hesitate to use that name because people seem to be pronouncing it at least 3 different ways!

I read it as a name and said Dar Lee A. But would also pronounce the flower day lee a. Not sure why in my mind there is a difference!

Day-lia

No it definitely isn’t.

Dahl-i-ah, after the person it was named for (Mr Dahl, not Mr Day).

I’ve never heard it pronounced as anything other than Day-Lia!

Uk but like the flower I would say Dar Le Ar

I would say Dahl-ia like Roald Dahl, but I have heard the flower called Day-lia

I’d say dah lia. Don’t know why because I call the flowers daylias

Just to confuse matters further Dahl (as in Ronald) has different pronunciations in different parts of the UK....

It’s a flower. It’s pronounced Day-liah

To be honest Dah-liah sounds more southern to me than Northern - like bath/barth

Darlee-Ah like the flower

I have never heard anyone pronounce the flower this way. It’s day-lia.

Sounds like either the 'correct' pronunciation (the named Dahl) or the day-lia pronunciation are equally used/valid.