Pronunciation issues

[spring13]

AFAIK, it should be pronounced CAH-riss or CAR-iss. Definitely not CARE-iss. That's the thing about names in foreign languages, you have to acknowledge at some point that it's not necessarily what you want it to be. Sometimes, like with a biblical name, you get an Anglicized pronunciation that differs from the actual Hebrew, but i don't think that really applies to a name that has no context other than its original language, kwim?

[encore]

I always hear people pronouncing Brianna differently (bree-anna or bree-onna)

[hayley88]

@encore I would say Bri-anna rather than Bri-onna. That could be an accent thing rather than pronounciation per se. People could think they're saying it the same way but their accents make it sound different,know what I mean?

[dancingwithdad]

It sounds like some others pronounce it the way I do-- Care-iss...so, would it be horrible if I named my child that and went with that pronunciation?

[jeska]

It sounds like some others pronounce it the way I do-- Care-iss...so, would it be horrible if I named my child that and went with that pronunciation?

I don't think it would be 'horrible', at all. It's just an accent thing. I'm Australian, and all these words have the same short 'a' sound in my accent:

Paris
Carys
cat
Harry

In most American accents that I've heard, 'cat' would be the odd word out. 'Harry' in an American accent sounds like 'hairy' in an English/Australian accent.

Just like these words all have a long 'ah' sound, in my accent:

Tara
car
far

Whereas in the American accents I've heard, the name 'Tara' sounds like 'Terra', and does not have the same sound as 'car' at all.

So what I think is, the people around you who have the same accent as you, will probably pronounce it Care-iss anyway. But an English/Welsh/Australian person will say 'Ca-ris'. (If I said 'Care-iss', I would feel as if I was putting on a fake American accent. )

[hayley88]

I think the correct pronounciation of Carys may well be impossible with your accent...so it's not as though you're wilfully saying differently,it's just your accent.
If you were British I would say yes it is wrong,because the short a is natural in our accent. But as you're not it's not such a big deal.
I say this as a Welsh person too!
Have you thought Cerys (Keh-riss) as an alternative,or does the short vowel issue crop up there too?

[kala_way]

It's probably just the same idea as Cara being optionally pronounced Care-uh or Car-uh.

In my opinion, most pronunciations are just optional, saying there's a 'right' way is really just saying there's a 'normal' way. With all of the unique and non-traditional names I think non-traditional pronunciations are just run of the mill.

Of course, most names have accepted/expected/traditional pronunciations. If someone told me their name was Joshua pn'd jaw-SHEW-ah instead of JOSH-ew-a I'd probably glare at them.

When I first read the name Seamus I pronounced it cee-mus rather than Shay-mus, but I admit Shay-mus sounds much better!

[nat108]

Eulalia
I just love it but even I don't pronounce it the same way everytime so I couldn't saddle it on a kid
- Olalla Torres is a soccer WAG and my first intro to the name. I liked the way it looked, but I pronounced it "oh-law-luh". Then I realized, duh she's Spaniard, it's "oh-lawl-yuh"
- Eulalia- I liked "you-law-lee-uh", nn Eula or "you-lay-lee-uh", nn Layla. I figured since Eu is pronounced "you" (Eugene, Eunice, Eudora) those pronunciations would make more sense. But I don't want to just take a name from another culture and pronounce it however I want so I'd have to go with "oh-lawl-yuh" if I used it.

And I pronounce Carys like Harris

[amandaberry]

I also pronounce it care-iss, I know of a little girl named Carys and that's how they pronounce it.