Well, my wife gets really annoyed when some idiot tells her she is mispronouncing her own name.
She was once standing behind someone explaining to a French speaking clerk that her name, pronounced Chumley, is spelled Chomondeley. Then there is Fetherstonhaugh, pronounced Fanshaw.
Cholmondeley. You missed an el.
And Enroughty, pronounced “Darby.”
Are you suggesting the rhyme was . . . contrived?
In my head actor Ralph Fiennes’ first name rhymed with Alf. It took me a long time to realize that this other actor I’d hear talked about - “Ray Fiennes” - was the same dude.
And that his last name is “fines” and not “fee-yen-ess.”
Somehow my head canon got his last name right.
There is that Israeli television host, Guy Pines (PEEN-ESS) (or is it pee-ness? I’m not even sure)
As far as I understand it, Ralph IS pronounced as Ralf. The name pronounced as Rayf, and written as Raphe is a diminutive, like Charlie instead of Charles.
I don’t think it’s a diminutive. I believe it’s an independent variation of the name Raðulfr.
Every American I know named “Ralph” pronounces it like Ralf. The only two people that immediately come to mind who pronounce(d) that spelling as Rafe are the aforementioned Mr. Fiennes and the late English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The Wikipedia entry for the name Ralph describes Rafe as a “more rarely” used pronunciation (which certainly matches my observations as an American).
Also, Sir Ralph Richardson.
Same as homage. I cannot force myself to say the h even though I know that’s the correct (or at least more correct) version. And valet in some meanings, like the male manservant, is pronounced vall-it - you do say the t.
In British English we also say the t in fillet (filet, one l, is said like it’s French). FWIW yes, quay is key, not kay.
It has been pronounced “vittles” since Middle English. The spelling got latinized to be closer to the latin spelling. This has happened to a number of different words.
What is the Origin of ‘Vittles’ for Food? | CulinaryLore.
It sounds like Queen Victoria may have pronounced it this way
Vachel Lindsay left no doubt which pronunciation he preferred, and even spelled the word “Kallyope” to emphasize his point.
Maybe these are all just shibboleths??
As is cay.
In Carmel, Indiana (CAR-mull, in these parts), the Carmel Symphony Orchestra plays at The Palladium. We joke about the “ballet” parking.
The rime was contrivved.
This one is a little different. This is not actually just two wildly divergent spelling vs. pronunciation of one name. According to the family history of the names (you can find it on-line somewhere, it’s that famous), “Enroughty” and “Darby” are really two separate unrelated names. The family acquired the two separate family names through separate histories, one of which happened to come down orally and one in writing, and they ran with that those.
There’s an editorial cartoonist who calls himself Donkey Hotey.
Also a donkey in Mr Rogers