New Post
Search
Help[Opinions] Re: Kiera or Brenna?
in reply to a message by as
Brenna always makes me think of the surname Brennan with the "n" dropped off of it. So it doesn't strike me as very feminine or attractive.
I much prefer "KEER-uh." Forgive me while I go into my namenerd-y snit about spellings. My prefered spelling is Ciara, it's the most authentic, as you point out. But I understand that it is not very user-friendly outside of Ireland. So the Anglicized spelling of Kiera is fine to me. I rather like it.
But there I draw the line. The Keira spelling bugs me. In Irish the letters "ci-" are pronounced "kee-." Thus, Ciara is really "KEE-uh-ruh," but when spoken at a normal rate is gets smooshed into two syllables and you are left with "KEER-uh." So why do I get bugged out at the Keira spelling? Aren't they the same thing? No.
If I were to pronounce Keira in Irish it would sound more like "KEH-ee-ruh" or "keh-EE-ruh" or "KEHR-uh." Keara would sound like, "KEH-ahr-uh" or "keh-AHR-uh" or "KEHR-uh." I know this sounds like nit-picking, but I spent too many years getting my degree in linguistics and studying transliteration to let this pass on my watch.
There is a Russian name of Kira ("KEER-uh") that I like as well. [It has the same pronunciation as Ciara / Kiera, but a different origin.] The masculine form is Kiril ("keer-EEL") which is the Russian form of Cyril.
Kyra is lovely, but I would pronounce it as "KIE-ruh," using it as the feminine form of Cyrus.
Thanks for getting this far and letting me rant.
I much prefer "KEER-uh." Forgive me while I go into my namenerd-y snit about spellings. My prefered spelling is Ciara, it's the most authentic, as you point out. But I understand that it is not very user-friendly outside of Ireland. So the Anglicized spelling of Kiera is fine to me. I rather like it.
But there I draw the line. The Keira spelling bugs me. In Irish the letters "ci-" are pronounced "kee-." Thus, Ciara is really "KEE-uh-ruh," but when spoken at a normal rate is gets smooshed into two syllables and you are left with "KEER-uh." So why do I get bugged out at the Keira spelling? Aren't they the same thing? No.
If I were to pronounce Keira in Irish it would sound more like "KEH-ee-ruh" or "keh-EE-ruh" or "KEHR-uh." Keara would sound like, "KEH-ahr-uh" or "keh-AHR-uh" or "KEHR-uh." I know this sounds like nit-picking, but I spent too many years getting my degree in linguistics and studying transliteration to let this pass on my watch.
There is a Russian name of Kira ("KEER-uh") that I like as well. [It has the same pronunciation as Ciara / Kiera, but a different origin.] The masculine form is Kiril ("keer-EEL") which is the Russian form of Cyril.
Kyra is lovely, but I would pronounce it as "KIE-ruh," using it as the feminine form of Cyrus.
Thanks for getting this far and letting me rant.
This message was edited 1/4/2011, 12:56 PM
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
Wait. You have a degree in linguistics? Be still my heart! I've considered going back to school to study the same just because I love words, languages, names and surnames. No practical reason at all. ;-)
This message was edited 1/3/2011, 8:22 PM
1
Well, they call it a degree in linguistics. I really have a degree in Russian language, but I had to take a lot of linguistics classes along the way. And it was from "the __________ School of Languages and Linguistics." So I think that counts.
You should, you should! I signed up for adult education classes in Italian at my local community college. It was a blast, except I sounded very Russian when I spoke Italian. (lol) Go for it.
Or if you don't have classes locally, there's a great set of lectures by Prof. Seth Lerer called "The History of the English Language." You can get it on amazon on CD or DVD. I love to listen to it while driving long distance. It's all about English from Anglo-Saxon times up to the present, but there's a beginning few lectures on pure linguistics that you might like. Etymological catnip.
You should, you should! I signed up for adult education classes in Italian at my local community college. It was a blast, except I sounded very Russian when I spoke Italian. (lol) Go for it.
Or if you don't have classes locally, there's a great set of lectures by Prof. Seth Lerer called "The History of the English Language." You can get it on amazon on CD or DVD. I love to listen to it while driving long distance. It's all about English from Anglo-Saxon times up to the present, but there's a beginning few lectures on pure linguistics that you might like. Etymological catnip.
1
I'll just ditto you whole post on pronounciating Kiera, which is why I prefer Kira. All the other variations I pronounce like you described and not like KEER-uh.
And if you're annoyed, try to imagine how my poor Slavic phonetic-language brain is feeling when English speakers spell names in 20 different ways and still claim that the pronunciation is the same.
And if you're annoyed, try to imagine how my poor Slavic phonetic-language brain is feeling when English speakers spell names in 20 different ways and still claim that the pronunciation is the same.
1