No offense, but as we can make up screen names, I didn't know it was your real name. Adding to that, I've never heard/seen the name Mari before, so I'd assume it was short for Marianne or something like that. After learning those things, though, with my native-born-914-accent, I'd pronounce it the way you do: Marr- ee, first syllable rhymes with 'far.' If I can add: all of the Northeast isn't the same- when I was in central NYS, people would say they were going to 'merry hairy,' the same as in the midwest.
A short series of famous people called Mari. The 1980s singer Mari Wilson had top ten hits, but was probably most well-known for her magnificent beehive.
I would pronounce it Mah ree...same as my sisters middle name, except hers has an E on the end of it. It is a good name nonethless. However, you spell it. I think not ending in e or y is probably what throws a lot of people. It is just one of the things that people need to look at when they are picking out names and spelling for their kids.
I would pronounce the first syllable of your name name like the long sound of "mar", "car", "bar" "far" etc and the second syllable as a very short 'i' as in "it", "bit", "hit", "sit" etc. Adding an "e" - to make the name Marie, changes the pronunciation completely for me. The "a" would be flat as in "flat", "hat", "cat" etc and the second syllable would be longer as in "see", "me", "we" etc It's fascinating what one little vowel added to the end of a word can do to the sound. My natural accent when I speak English, by the way, is north-west UK.
I would say Mari as you explained it. I hate my given name. However when Hispanic people say my name (I live in California) it sounds better and almost tolerable.
The Polish names struck me as the most difficult to remember, and spell. At Dana Corp. in Chicago, we had a Maintenance guy named Skrczypczak. My Polish wife, born in Germany, explained that a "Skrczypczak" was a "fiddler"! The Czechs also had some "doozies". As a small kid, I heard my Mom and sister talk about Maryanne Tipover. "Tipover"?? Girl my sister went to high school with, her name was "Przrevratil", which meant when something tipped over!
I'd never be able to pronounce them What struck me as slightly amusing, years ago, was learning how many surnames in foreign languages translate to 'Smith'- including some people I knew whose last names were Kovac, Ferraro, and Lefebvre... never would have guessed their names meant Smith!
@Janice Martin Amazing! Wondering how that came about. If you remember the late, great Ernie Kovacs, who supposedly was Hungarian, my Mother, ever the vigilant keeper of Czechoslovak roots, often remarked he probably was Czech! We loved him! Frank
If you mean mine Janice, thank you. No it's not. I went with kitty because I like cats and then it was suggested I change the second name to something more like a real name which was fine. I looked in the phone book and quickly found Carmel. I'm from California and I thought 'that works' Thanks again.