This has been wondering me ever since I found the forum... I've wondered how people pronounce Mari. (Can't help it, I love language!) And then I realized that I couldn't really get a descriptive answer "in writing" anyhow. (Explained below.) Okay, in my northeast US "accent" it's kind of like the "ar" in "far." M "are" ee. It's NOT NOT NOT like "Mary." I could definitely never be a Mary. I want to say the closest would be like "Mauri." I wanted to first say it's also close to "marry/Harry" but that would be my northeast marry/Harry and then I realized that some people's "marry/Harry" is exactly the same as my "Mary"... and Harry sounds like hairy in certain parts of the country." hehe Oh the troubles connected with loving the written and spoken word! How do YOU say my name? (and in what regional "accent?")
I've always pronounced it like...Marry (that's with a flat A...not AY as in Hairy... ).. I say it in a Scottish accent the name Mhairi .. is a Celtic name...and a very popular name here in the UK especially in Scotland and Ireland and despite the strange spelling is pronounced Marry...
I say it like you said you say it. I don't know what my accent is...Ive been all over the US except the south. My growing up years were in the northeast though.
@Mari North , I have looked at your name and wondered the same thing. What I came up with is Ma like Pa, (like in Ma and Pa Kettle) and then Ri is pronounced like the first to letter in reason. I have to admit that most of my life, I have wondered why people can't get my name right. I get called Ena, Ana, Inna, or Anna, but not Ina. It is pronounced like eye-na. If someone gets it wrong over and over I will asked them what they would say for Ida, Ima, Iva, or Ira. They will get those right.
Hi Mari, what an interesting subject. As a southwestern Canuck, I pronounce your name, Mar ee, slightly elongated first syllable, (which rhymes with bar,) clipped ee.
I've always pronounced your name Ina...like eye- na...simply because the generation before me (my fathers' generation) it was a popular name in Scotland...I had an auntie Ina..
Well I know I was pronouncing it wrong and that's why I was spelling it wrong in another post too. Sorry about that. And thanks for letting us know how you do pronounce it.
I've always "seen" your name like "eye-na", @Ina I. Wonder . I can see how someone could think it may be Ena or Inna, but it never occurred to me that it could be anything but eye-na.
I have a friend whose daughter is named Mari, and she pronounces her name just like it was spelled "Mary", so that is how I have been pronouncing it in my mind. I used to have a beautiful arabian, and her name was "Casmiriah" and we called her Mary for short, or sometimes Mariah, which is closer to how you promounce Mari. If you remember the song, "They Call the Wind Mariah", that is how we pronounced her name. Yvonne is also one of those names that get pronounced every which way, not to mention being called Evelyn or Elaine instead. My mom always called me Ya-vonne (accent last syllable). My dad used to call me Bonnie , and he would sing to me the song "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", which I loved. I thought the sun rose and set on my Daddy; so anything he called me would have been perfect. Friends call me Von or Vonnie, and people who don't know me will usually pronounce it E-vonne (accent first syllable), or Yah-vonne. When I was growing up, I could always tell if someone was a friend of my mom or my dad, by the name that they called me, either Yvonne or Bonnie.
Oh, @Yvonne Smith , we'll simply have to wash your mind out with soap. I'm definitely not Mary material.