Sunday, October 19, 2008

Pronunciation Problems

Friday, while visiting with my cousin, Beck, she told me some things she's been involved with in recent years. For instance, after Hurricane Katrina, she went to New Orleans and worked there for three weeks in some type of Daycare setting. Then, the year after Katrinia, she went back to Louisiana with a group of young people and sent time there again, leading the youth group as they worked to help rebuild New Orleans.

Hearing about Beck's journey there really made me very proud of her -very proud to say this is my cousin who was willing and able to go there, to do that and try to help out in any way she could. Shows great spirit, love and compassion in my opinion.

She also told me a story too about a lady who was really upset over the pronunciation of her daughter's given name. First, I have to ask you this question. If you saw a name with spelling like this -Le-a, how would you pronounce it?

My guess was that it would be pronounced as "Leah" and Beck said that was her initial thought too. However, it seems the lady with the daughter whose name is spelled like that wants the pronuciation to sound like this "Lee Dash a" Interesting, huh? Worth a law suit though? I don't think so.

Actually, my daughter Mandy here pointed out that the symbol there -the dash (-) -well isn't that actually called a hyphen too? And if some people were to regard that as a dash, others as a hyphen, how would you know whether to call the girl "Lee dash a," or perhaps, "Lee hyphen a?"

Just some food for thought for ya!

12 comments:

Millennium Housewife said...

I'm going to bed all confused now. Does that mean anyone with a double barrelled surname has to add a dash/hyphen annomaly to their name. Funny post! Thanks! MH

Maggie May said...

Its definitely a hyphen. And what a ridiculous name to give a child. Leah is prettier, don't you think?
Some of these grown ups want a good shake up!

masgblog said...

Hi Jeni. Just read your comment about the Barrie truck! Very neat eh!...and so glad that it made oyu think of me...

I haven't been around much, but I am striving to return to my blog world.

M

terri said...

People are weird. Why would you even give your child a name that's going to cause confusion for the rest of their life?

dr sardonicus said...

I knew somebody with that name who pronounced it "Lee". Different strokes...

Mary said...

Jeni,

LOL Some people's kids. I would pronounce it Leah. If she wanted it to be pronounced as she describes why didn't she spell it Leedasha?

Sorry I haven't been over to visit for a while. We are just finishing up the apartment and have been doing odds and ends. We wallpapered one wall of the living room today. The rest of the room is painted, but that one wall has far too many flaws to be painted. Found a nice complementing paper.

Take care and have a great week. How are the kids.

Blessings,
Mary

Berni said...

Odd name perhaps English was not the first language or she couldn't spell.

Supercool Hotmama said...

Hahaha! My friend had a student in her class whose name was Female (Feh ma lay) - they thought that they had named her for them at the hospital. No lie.

Dianne said...

I've spent my whole life telling people to add the 2nd 'N' to my name. Very annoying at times.

Sandi McBride said...

Hey Jen, as long as they don't call her late for dinner, I'm sure Lea-a is quite content, lol!
hugs
Sandi

Suldog said...

As with others here, I have to wonder why in the world a parent would name a child in a way that could prove a constant source of irritation in the future? Amazing.

fermicat said...

That is different, but not the oddest name I've seen. Since I work in medicine, we see a lot of wacky first and last names come through our department. I also remember a kid who played football for my college and his first name was "I-Perfection" (but the dash was silent in his case). To each his own, I guess.