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
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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" ]