I have the original LP, and it’s spelled “Maria,” but pronounced “mariah” (long “i”).
Mariah? Maria?
It’s an intractible problem!
I wish I knew how to solve it.
So how do you solve a problem like Mariah/Maria?
I’m feeling excessively foreign here, as I didn’t realize the trailing H made a difference in pronunciation. Is it Mariah - mah-rye-ah and Maria - mah-ree-ah?
Storm by George Rippey Stewart in 1941 was responsible for the naming of Pacific storms after women. In the novel the storm is “Maria”. This was the inspiration for Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s They Call The Wind Maria.
Sorry forgot the important bit:
The matter of spelling vs pronunciation was dealt with in Storm
Quote:
Stewart notes in the book’s introduction that he originally intended the name to be pronounced in the soft Spanish way with the second syllable being ree: Ma-ree-a. But he later realized that the storm Maria was “too big for any man to embrace and much too boisterous.” He advises, “So put the accent on the second syllable, and pronounce it ‘rye’”
Disney also did a TV adaptation of the book, way, way back, which featured the song. It was pronounced Mariah.
Internet Broadway Database (click the “Songs in this Production” link) also confirms it as “Maria”
Generally, although besides the wind’s name, there’s also “Black Maria.”
Okay, just going to clear some things up here. My name is Maria, yes spelled like Maria & pronounced like Mariah. I have been correcting people my whole life. I am named after my Great Aunt Maria & her name is also pronounced like Mariah. My family & I are Norwegian. Maria is the Scandinavian spelling for Mariah. So people in the north understand the spelling more. & once you think about it & really look at the spelling… the only pronunciation difference lies within the “i”. The 2nd “a” in both names have the same pronunciation. So really the “h” is not needed. & also once you think about it Maria that is pronounced like Maria will have a slash above the “i”. & the Wind Maria is spelled like Maria & pronounced Mariah. My grandpa used to play his guitar & sing that song to me when I was little… before he died. He always called me Windy.
22 days short of a Zombreeze thread. Well that just blows.
The Eskimos have 100 different names for the wind.
I thought that was snow. I mean, I have a 100 different names for snow, too, but 98 of them are unprintable in a family publication.
*They *did.
Best wishes,
hh
Worse is when your voice cracks while singing it - then you have broken wind.
Ever since I saw that Far Side cartoon, I call the wind Murray.
Possibly the most famous Maria was Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria and Hungary from 1740-1780.
You pronounce her name as if it were spelled Mariah.
Just when the pronunciation of Maria became Mah-REE-ah, I don’t know.
Ha! Well done!
I know a lady here in Raleigh who spells her name Maria but pronounces it “Mariah.”