Re: Name Prenounciation ?

[Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>]

Poster: Corun MacAnndra <corun@access.digex.net>

Myrddin wrote:
>
>I have a question.This question been sitting around for awhile.But here it
>goes.A knight at emerald gave me the pronounciation of Myrddin as if double
>d had a th sound to it.I have always pronounced it and the herald which help
>me pick a name did too  as Myrddin as you would read it in straight english
>with d's sounding like d's. I thought I ask the merry rose this because
>there are some people who could help me finding the correct pronouciation
>who read this daily.Its welsh if that changes it any.Thanks in advance for
>any who help me solve this minor problem.I thought it only be honorable to
>listen to a knights words and see if they are right before I deny what he
>says.Sort of a food chain effect you could say:)
>Myrddin

In Welsh the double d is pronounced as th, or hth (sort of an elongated, or
aspirated th). So if I were to spell your name phonetically it would appear
as Mirhthin. The sound is not the hard th found in words like the or that,
but more aspirated, as if one were putting an h in front of it because of
the preceeding r, and the th, rather than forced with the tongue against
the teeth, is more blown between tongue and the roof of the mouth.

Where the double d is on the end, it is pronounced a bit harder, as in
Dafydd, which, if spelled phonetically would appear as Davith. 

The double l in names like Llewelyn, which is also Welsh, also have an
aspirated h in there and appears phonetically as Hllewelyn.

The accent in Welsh names is usually always on the first syllable (I say
usually, but I can't really think of an instance where it's not). Thus we
have MIR-hthin, DAV-yth, COR-un (which is also Welsh but has no double d's
or l's), HLLEW-elyn (note, this last is *not* pronounced hllew-EL-yn).

As a last note, I would strongly recommend that you pronounce the name in
the correct Welsh manner, not only because it *is* correct, but also
because pronouncing the d as d makes the name sound like midden, and you
really don't want there to be any confusion on this score. ;-)

In service,
Corun


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