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Help[Opinions] Ralph (m)
in reply to a message by Bear
I'm American, but so far the UK posters seem to be unaware that Ralph is pronounced "RAYF" in Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore (1878). Another example is English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (his name is pronounced "RAYF"). I've always heard that "RAYF" is the traditional/older/posh English pronunciation.
ETA: I just thought of another example, Ralph Nickleby from Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. His name is pronounced "RAYF" in the 1977 BBC television serial. However, it is pronounced "RALF" in the TV version of the play, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982).
ETA: I just thought of another example, Ralph Nickleby from Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. His name is pronounced "RAYF" in the 1977 BBC television serial. However, it is pronounced "RALF" in the TV version of the play, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982).
This message was edited 10/17/2011, 6:39 PM
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Ralph started out as Rafe, but slowly the tide turned in the 19th century - Ralph Rackstraw was, of course, a patrician who got exchanged for a common infant as a baby, so part of the joke is that his name gives a big fat clue to his actual origins. Like Oliver Twist, speaking perfect English in spite of his erratic upbringing.
Basically, it's a spelling pronunciation. I blame universal literacy. So, though I wouldn't hesitate to accuse Ralph Fiennes of towering egoism, nor would I necessarily castigate the man for keeping an old tradition alive. (I knew a young Ralph once who must have been born in the 1990s or late 1980s: parents were a high-flying financier and a most pretentious teacher of English.)
Basically, it's a spelling pronunciation. I blame universal literacy. So, though I wouldn't hesitate to accuse Ralph Fiennes of towering egoism, nor would I necessarily castigate the man for keeping an old tradition alive. (I knew a young Ralph once who must have been born in the 1990s or late 1980s: parents were a high-flying financier and a most pretentious teacher of English.)
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