While I'm making random posts

[effex]

I'm completely incapable of pronouncing 'Sean' correctly in my head. It rhymes with 'bean' every. time. I read it. This would not normally be a problem, but Sean Cassidy is all over the recent spat of X-Men fic and it bothers me.

I have the same trouble with Eames (sounds like 'aims', strangely enough), but I've been dealing with that since History of Design and have made my peace.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

Comments

[thedorkygirl]

Continuity. It took me 8 years of fandom to realize that continuity (a word with which I was familiar and able to use!) was the same as a show's "continue-itty." A lot of times, if I read a word often but don't use it, I'll screw up when reading, but be able to pronounce it correctly in every day life.

Photographer/photographer was the first time I noticed this - I was 10 and like, "WHOA, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG, SELF!"

[effex]

XD It was hyperbole for me - it took me a long time to figure out 'hy-per-bo-lee' (spoken) and 'hyper-bowl' (written) were the same word.

[torachan]

Now that I've watched Inception, I have no problem pronouncing Eames the correct way in my head when I read it, but before I saw the movie (which was only fairly recently, so I was reading the name a lot before that, just because so many people on my flist are in the fandom), I never knew if it was pronounced Eems or Aims and it bugged me, because I can't read without hearing the words in my head.

[effex]

[nods] I'm not sure why my brain's so stubborn when it comes to the name - I've seen the movie, I've attended lectures on Charles and Ray Eames numerous times... I've decided to blame Ames, Iowa, which I lived near for a couple of years and is pronounced 'aimes'.

[crossedwires]

I do the exact same thing with the name Sean.

[effex]

It's the 'ea', I think - it's gotta be a victim of English's quirky evolution, there's no other way to see 'sea' and read 'shaw'.

[brewsternorth]

Damn those crafty Gaels and their wicked way with vowels!

It took me being corrected by someone else (><) to know how to pronounce "elegiac" correctly. Emphasis on the "i" rather than on the "le".

[kate]

I actually knew a guy whose name was Sean and he pronounced it 'seen'. For real. He was a weirdo dating my sister's best friend and I couldn't help but laugh every time he introduced himself.

[effex]

Huh! I wonder if the pronunciation was his choice or his parents?

[kate]

No clue; he was in his mid to late twenties when I met him, so plenty old enough to change it either way, if he had a mind.

[covenmouse]

Sean has always gotten me the exact same way. Eames I would pronounce as "eems" or "EE-AH-ms" and I'm not sure how else it would be pronounced. o.O

Also, Geoff. Supposedly it's pronounced "Jeff," but I always look at that and say "Ghey-off." Of course, I named a fictional character that and pronounce it my way, so hah.

Oh! And "Meme." Which is supposedly Meem, somehow or another, but I always read it as "Mei-mei." (like "little sister" in...Mandarin? I think that's Mandarin. That or Cantonese.)

[effex]

You're right on Eames/eems - in its case the ea is pronounced like the ea in 'bean', and yet.

Aha, Geoff. I have trouble with that one too - it sounds like 'Joff'. Which is apparently the Old English way of pronouncing it, so I'm giving myself a pass. Either way it has too many vowels.

I used to think meme was pronounced 'mem-e', like memo but with an e. I've mostly trained myself out of that one (mostly).