(no subject)

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

My husband and I do standardized testing for English language learners and often come across some doozies of names. 'Diana' is one in particular people like to screw with. We see 'Dayana' so much that I wonder if it's not a popular name in Mexico or something. Today, I came across a Dallana. WTF.

Comments

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

I see my fair share of Dayanas and the problem is that to get the same sound as the English Diana people add an 'ya' there to make it sound right in Spanish. When you say Diana in Spanish, spelled like that, it actually sounds Dee-anna and I guess people fall in love with the sound of it in English and there is really no way around it.

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

oh and even though it's even worse than Dayana the 'll' does the same as the 'y' sometimes so that's the double L there. So really to a Spanish speaker the name Dayana and Dallana are the same as Diana to an English speaker... though I, personally, would never do that to the name Diana but that's because I can speak both languages.

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

Yah, I know it does the same. It's still as offensive as all the 'kr8tyv' spellings we see in English.

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

oh trust me, I'm not saying it's right lol was just kinda explaining... I wasn't sure if you spoke Spanish or not =)

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

Oh yah, I do. :) Not 100% fluently, but yah. I do standardized testing for ESL students in California, so many of my students are Spanish-speaking.

Lordy.. just a terrible use of the ll. I see plenty of Spanish names that I just love, but a lot of the kids have 'American' names and it just kills me when they're totally butchered like this. Dayana was weird, but I could at least work with it. Dallana? No, no, no, noooo! Part of why it's bugging me is you'd just never see it used quite like that in Spanish. I've also come across a few Nalley's as of late.. also Nayeli's, which I think is much prettier.

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

oh okis ^.^ and yeah you should see some of the things I put up with in my classes. I teach English here (Venezuela) but all of my students are already English speakers so it's more of a Lit class for them but in the University I see so many things that are just like 'sigh' one that sticks out is Yon (John) and uh... Reichel is one of the worsts I've seen lately I think I remember an Eilaiya (literally... Elijah) but not sure where I've seen this. Nayeli is cute, I have a friend with the 'actual' spelling Naghieli but then I never spell that right xD

[gaspardgroupie.livejournal.com]

Diana is such a pretty and elegant name! I don't see why people would want to change it.

[th3-unicorn.livejournal.com]

Here in Italy the phonetic spelling of Diana would be Daiana, but sometimes Dayana or Dajana by people who are feeling exotic! (as y is not part of our alphabet, and j for "y" sound was in the olden days).
The italian name would be Dee-ah-nah, but the global world we now live in has casted new horizons upon the naming scene!

My best friend in high school was named Diana, pronounced as in English, but since most italians would call her Dee-ah-nah, sometimes she appeared in the written form as Daiana.

I'm guessing in Spanish they would have the same issues with Diana being pronouced Dee-ah-nah, so I assume they also go into tricks like that to ensure the English pronunciation.

[fueschgast]

Heh, I met a Dajana a few years ago. Never seen that name before, but I assumed it's a way to make sure the name is pronounced the English way. Hee, didn't know that's an international thing.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

Could Reichel be a surname homage? Some of my cousins have Reichel as their surname.

[stormqueen280.livejournal.com]

It's incredibly common, you wouldn't believe.

[stormqueen280.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's not exactly a creative spelling, more an adaptation to the local language. Of course, some adaptations get really bad, but I'm so used to Daiana and Daiane (and Dayana and Dayane too, of course), that I don't even pay attention to it anymore.

Anyway, I always preferred Diana pronounced as Dee-an-nah, so...

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

Thanks both.

Yah, I speak Spanish, so I know why they're spelling it like that; it's just still so weird. I guess I feel like they're not doing it to make it pronounced properly, but to give it a little flair, which bugs me as much as *kr8tyve* spelling. The 'll' just works weirdly in Dallana as well. Maybe my vocab just isn't good enough, but I can't think of any other Spanish word that has the 'll' immediately followed by '-ana'. If there was such a word I wouldn't think they'd spell it as 'yuh' sound as 'll'.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

After reading the first sentence I had to check if you were in or near Phoenix, since I teach down here and hear all the time about ELL testing. Yay for northern California and UCD! I grew up in the east bay myself.

I've had one student named Diana so far. I said it the English way, but her friends said dee-ah-nuh. My coworkers seem to get most of the more out there names, though my gem this year is Ernestina.