Re: Pronunciation Of _William

It is certainly risible to hold to an idea that people who don't
pronounce "William" with THREE syllables are somehow being "sloppy" and
"not speaking clearly" or using a "street pronunciation".

Peter Stewart...

Douglas Richardson...

Dear Gentlemen ~

My son's name is William. I pronounce his name with two syllables.
Occasionally I call him by his full name, William McConnell Richardson.
Then I use all three syllables.

So both pronunciations are correct. Stop your arguing.

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah

You certainly have changed your tune, as you originally maintained,
explicitly, that William doesn't even HAVE three syllables to be pronounced,
whereas now you are admitting, implicitly, that it does have THREE after
all, but that it is equally "correct" to pronounce only two of these.

Your withdrawal of misguided insults directed at me can only be accepted
when it is proffered.

Peter Stewart

Peter Stewart...

Careers in the BBC have risen & fallen over things as small as the
second -i in William.

I live in a city named Melbourne, which the inhabitants almost all
pronounce "Malb'n". Many of them find it risible when our head of state
speaks distinctly of "Melbourne", but then she has the advantage of
having heard the name spoken by people who in turn had heard Queen
Victoria speak about her prime minister, after whom the place was
named.

So who has the correct version? Both, of course. Great changes, such as
the vowel shift in English, and lesser changes such as effectively
eliding semi-consonantal -i into a full consonant -y eventually become
"correct" when the habit (whether "sloppy" or not) is found to be
practically universal. This doesn't make the former pronunciation
incorrect - I remember an old lady in the 1960s who still said
"balcony" with the stress on the second syllable, rhyming with
"macaroni", as it had been pronounced in the 18th century. She wasn't
wrong, just out of date.

Meanwhile there is the separate problem of persons who try to ridicule
others over matters they don't themselves understand, then fail to
withdraw their jibes honorably when they have to change their tune. For
this there is no help, only contempt.

Peter Stewart

Indeed Hilarious!

Re: Pronunciation Of _William_