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Help[Opinions] Re: How do you pronounce Aaliyah?
in reply to a message by Ylva
"I think it is a beautiful name but the spelling looks complicated to me. But I guess not to Americans, b/c you have several names with similar spellings (Aaron, Isaac, Elijah)."
I'm not familiar with the Swedish language but there aren't any names or anything with two 'A's?
"Chan eil tuil air nach tig traoghadh"
"Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know"
- 'Home', Michael Buble
I'm not familiar with the Swedish language but there aren't any names or anything with two 'A's?
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know"
- 'Home', Michael Buble
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
No, no double vowels at all
Aaron is Aron, Isaac is Isak and Elijah is Elias. Aaliyah would probably be just Alia. Frankly, I don't see the point of the double A's. Is a double A pronounced differently than a simple A? I don't see the point of mute H's either (Sara and Hanna are fine) but I would not be surprised if people started spell them as Sarah and Hannah in Sweden too. Such is the impact of USA.
"But it’s all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself."
Rick Nelson, GardenParty
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
Aaron is Aron, Isaac is Isak and Elijah is Elias. Aaliyah would probably be just Alia. Frankly, I don't see the point of the double A's. Is a double A pronounced differently than a simple A? I don't see the point of mute H's either (Sara and Hanna are fine) but I would not be surprised if people started spell them as Sarah and Hannah in Sweden too. Such is the impact of USA.
"But it’s all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself."
Rick Nelson, GardenParty
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
1
The Double Vowels and the Mute 'H's... (long post)
The double vowels and the silent 'H's don't really make any sense in English, however there is an explanation in etymology--namely Hebrew and Greek--and transliteration of those names into English.
The Hebrew names Sarah and Hannah (anglicisation of Chanah), are English transliterations of the Hebrew characters (and I wish I had the alephbet on my computer to better illustrate what I'm trying to explain, but I don't, so please bear with me) SHIN RESH HEY (Sarah) and CHET NUN HEY (Chanah). The final character (letter) is HEY which is transliterated as the English letter 'H' and is pronounced as the English letter 'H' (almost undistinguishable when placed at the end of a word or name).
HEY is considered somewhat of a sacred characters as it appears twice in G-d's unspeakable name. HEY can also be seen as a symbol of G-d's presence within a person. (The HEY was added to Avram and Sarai's names when they accepted the law of G-d and thus became Avraham and Sarah). And finally, adding a HEY to a noun feminises it. If you take a look at English names in their Hebrew forms using the alephbet, you'll notice that most of them have a HEY at the end.
So, when names were transliterated into English, there were choices made whether to transliterate the HEY into 'H' or to drop it all together. Sarah, Chana=Hannah, Rivkah=Rebekah, Leah and Peninah are the only names that are coming to mind at the moment that kept the final 'H'.
As for double-voweled names, Aaron is an anglicisation of Aharon, the proper transliteration of ALEPH HEY RESH VAV NUN. Hebrew does not have characters for vowels, instead it relies on a series of dots that lie nearest to the consonant to convey vowel sounds. Aleph is a silent character, however because of a dot that denotes an 'ah' sound, the first syllable is 'ah'. The second character is HEY, which makes the sound of an 'H', however there's a dot attached to it, so the sound is 'hah'. Therefore, the first two syllables of the original Hebrew form of Aaron are 'ah-ha'. Apparently, the HEY was dropped, probably when the Bible was translated into Greek as I don't believe (but I could be wrong) that the Greek language didn't have a character that corresponded to the Hebrew HEY.
The double vowels and the silent 'H's don't really make any sense in English, however there is an explanation in etymology--namely Hebrew and Greek--and transliteration of those names into English.
The Hebrew names Sarah and Hannah (anglicisation of Chanah), are English transliterations of the Hebrew characters (and I wish I had the alephbet on my computer to better illustrate what I'm trying to explain, but I don't, so please bear with me) SHIN RESH HEY (Sarah) and CHET NUN HEY (Chanah). The final character (letter) is HEY which is transliterated as the English letter 'H' and is pronounced as the English letter 'H' (almost undistinguishable when placed at the end of a word or name).
HEY is considered somewhat of a sacred characters as it appears twice in G-d's unspeakable name. HEY can also be seen as a symbol of G-d's presence within a person. (The HEY was added to Avram and Sarai's names when they accepted the law of G-d and thus became Avraham and Sarah). And finally, adding a HEY to a noun feminises it. If you take a look at English names in their Hebrew forms using the alephbet, you'll notice that most of them have a HEY at the end.
So, when names were transliterated into English, there were choices made whether to transliterate the HEY into 'H' or to drop it all together. Sarah, Chana=Hannah, Rivkah=Rebekah, Leah and Peninah are the only names that are coming to mind at the moment that kept the final 'H'.
As for double-voweled names, Aaron is an anglicisation of Aharon, the proper transliteration of ALEPH HEY RESH VAV NUN. Hebrew does not have characters for vowels, instead it relies on a series of dots that lie nearest to the consonant to convey vowel sounds. Aleph is a silent character, however because of a dot that denotes an 'ah' sound, the first syllable is 'ah'. The second character is HEY, which makes the sound of an 'H', however there's a dot attached to it, so the sound is 'hah'. Therefore, the first two syllables of the original Hebrew form of Aaron are 'ah-ha'. Apparently, the HEY was dropped, probably when the Bible was translated into Greek as I don't believe (but I could be wrong) that the Greek language didn't have a character that corresponded to the Hebrew HEY.
1
Thank you but why Norah then?
Your explanation is interesting, but I am quite certain that Norah is not a biblical or Hebrew name. So why this extra H there?
My guess is that parents think they make the simple Nora more classy and beautiful by adding an extra H. I think the opposite.
I wonder if we will see Larah, Laurah and Tarah too? As I am certain most people have no idea why Sarah, Hannah, Leah, Susannah etc have the H at end.
"But it’s all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself."
Rick Nelson, GardenParty
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
Your explanation is interesting, but I am quite certain that Norah is not a biblical or Hebrew name. So why this extra H there?
My guess is that parents think they make the simple Nora more classy and beautiful by adding an extra H. I think the opposite.
I wonder if we will see Larah, Laurah and Tarah too? As I am certain most people have no idea why Sarah, Hannah, Leah, Susannah etc have the H at end.
"But it’s all right now.
I learned my lesson well.
You see you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself."
Rick Nelson, GardenParty
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
1
That, I can't answer. :) I suppose random 'H's are added to names that don't have an etymological history of using one because parents think it's trendy, makes it unique, makes it longer or makes it somehow more attractive. It's kind of like the aggravating trend of using a 'Y' in lieu of vowels.
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1
That was wonderful!
You really did an excellent job! I'd never heard that before but it makes perfect sence to me now. I would have said 'just because' as well and maybe something about the names not being strictly English but the translations of Hebrew names. You made it so plain and elegant! Thanks! :)
"That tongue of yours is hinged in the middle, sister!"
You really did an excellent job! I'd never heard that before but it makes perfect sence to me now. I would have said 'just because' as well and maybe something about the names not being strictly English but the translations of Hebrew names. You made it so plain and elegant! Thanks! :)
"That tongue of yours is hinged in the middle, sister!"
1
You're welcome. :)
nt
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nt
1
That has to be the best explanation ever.
And I was going to say 'just because.' lol.
"Chan eil tuil air nach tig traoghadh"
"Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know"
- 'Home', Michael Buble
And I was going to say 'just because.' lol.
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know"
- 'Home', Michael Buble
1