(no subject)

[boxofdelights]

I got into a stupid fight on James Nicoll's LJ, which inspired me to post:

How many syllables does "Julia" have?
How about "Danya"?
And "Darya"?

Given that the correct answer is "However many the person whose name you're pronouncing wants it to have," do you find it difficult to pronounce any of those names with two syllables?

How many syllables does "jewel" have? "Poem"? I don't want to start a stupid fight on my journal, but so far everyone who comments here has reasonably good sense and reasonably good manners. If you feel safe answering this question in this context: Do you have prejudices about people whose answers to the last two questions are different from yours? What are they?

And what is it about being female on the internet that makes people think I couldn't really understand what I just said, so they ought to explain it to me?

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Considering that until I heard it spoken, I pronounced Ms. Twain's name "SHAH-nya," I probably shouldn't talk. (Like that's ever stopped me.)

All those things have unstressed and mostly-swallowed syllables that I might pronounce if Being Theatrical, but mostly just hint at when speaking. Except "poem," which in my diction would slide too close to "pomme," and "jooolry," which vies with "jury" and "Jewry" in the soundscape, but "jew-el-ry" sounds aff-ec-ted.