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Re: Rhys Ifans! Welsh fans, another pronunciation pop question

From:Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Saturday, November 27, 2004, 18:56
On Saturday, November 27, 2004, at 04:39 , Sally Caves wrote:

> Here's a pronunciation question of a less academic nature, and defintely > more answerable. Chris and I just came back from watching the new film > _Enduring Love_ (dir. Roger Michell), based on Ian McEwan's novel and > starring Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans.
[snip]
> Hugh Grant character :), I was struck by his name and its spelling in the > credits; I knew instantly that he must be a native speaker (he IS, and a > "gog" at that);
We should maybe explain that "gog" is what a south Walian calls a north Walian; the south Walian is a "hwnta" /'hUnta/. The origin of the latter name is AFAIK unknown, but "gog" is derived from _gogledd_ = "north".
> but I heard his name pronounced in a movie trailer as Reese > Eye-Fonz. Or for those of you baffled by this primitive way of spelling > out > pronunciations: /ris 'aifAnz/. As though he was the Fonz. I was aghast.
So would I.
> Surely it is /Ris 'ivans/ and dammee if I can't remember the CSX for the > voiceless trilled/tapped "r" after all that instruction you gave me.
/r_his 'ivans/.
> Please > don't tell me that he goes by this pronunciation in Britain, having > capitulated to anglophonism.
No - he doesn't. Your 'average' Brit monoglot anglophone would say /ris 'Ivn=z/ or /ris 'Ifn=z/ depending on how well s/he was aware of the way |f| is pronounced in Welsh.
> Or is the announcer in the trailer a twit?
We this side of the Pond would just assume /'ajfAnz/ was an Americanism similar to the way we've heard _Iraq_ pronounced "I wrack" and _Iran_ pronounced "I ran" in newsreels :) Whether that makes the announcer a twit or not I guess depends upon your view of those who say "I wrack" and "I ran". Ray =============================================== http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown ray.brown@freeuk.com =============================================== Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight, which is not so much a twilight of the gods as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

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John Cowan <jcowan@...>