i was curious because i've always heard it as gen-ah-veeve. but then on Project Runway Canada, the girl Mary Genevieve has had it pronounced both zhawn-vee-ehv & more like gen-vee-ehv. i'm sure she actually says it as the first (zhawn-vee-ehv), though.
Geneviève: the correct pronounciation in French is Je-ne-VEE-eh-v, where the first two syllables have a closed sound, like the vowel in the word 'search'. It's absolutely not J-AWN-vee-ehv, nor J-AWN-vee-v
You're right about it being properly Je-ne-vee-ehv... (where the j is pronounced zh) but in speaking French, most would slur it to Jehn-vee-ehv or even Jawn-vee-ehv.
they would slur it to a very quick j-n sound, but they could never sound it as Jawn as if they were reading -en- as a diphthong, because the 'e' and 'n' belong to different syllables. Although in the end, to our ear, it would sound almost like that sound.
p.s. I'm saying this because I've heard people (my mom for one) emphasyzing the -en- (awn) sound in attempt to make it properly french :P I guess it's because it's a characteristic sound in their language :P but I'm annoyed by my own pedantry, so I'll stop :P
I pronounce Genevieve as either Jen-a-veeve (American) or Jean-vee-ev [Jean like the French male name Jean] (French) depending on the circumstances. The American pr. tends to be my default since I know two girls named that who pronounce it that way, but I prefer the French way.
Guinevere can be pronounced (and spelled) several ways. GWEN-ah-veer, GWIN-ah-veer, GWEN-ah-feer, or GWIN-ah-feer, usually. It's less often pronounced with a soft G, making it similar to Jennifer.
i rather like the french pronciaion of genevieve: jon-vi-ev, however, i dont know what counry you are from, but in the united states it would seem silly and pompous to impose that everyone pronounciate it like that insead of the american pronouciaion: jin-eh-veev.
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Guinevere - Gwen-ah-vere
at least that is how i pn them lol
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And in Dutch I'd pronounce Genevieve very differently but I don't think that's what you're getting at here ;)
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GWIN-uh-veer.
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It's absolutely not J-AWN-vee-ehv, nor J-AWN-vee-v
Guinevere: I could never figure it out :P
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but I'm annoyed by my own pedantry, so I'll stop :P
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Yes, that's what I was getting at.
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(I'm French-Canadian and have a 100% French name)
But yeah, it's Jeuhn-vee-ev. ...but it's hard to type out the beginning of the name.
Phonetics, anyone?
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Gwen-ah-veer.
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Guinevere I say Gwen-a-veere.
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I really can't type out the pronunciation of the first syllable, sorry.
And,
Gwen-ah-veer.
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Guinevere: GWEN-a-veer
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I would say Guinevere either like "GWEN-ih-veer" or "GWYN-eh-veer".
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i love guinevere! gwen-eh-veer.
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