A Conversation for Ask h2g2
How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
Icy North Started conversation May 19, 2015
How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
I tried earlier, but it sounded as if I'd momentarily lost my balance.
Any tips for English speakers?
How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
KB Posted May 19, 2015
I don't know, but I'd guess it's something like 'wow', with an initial /h/ .
How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
Gnomon - time to move on Posted May 19, 2015
The ao at the end is a nasal sound like 'ang'. I think the whole word is like "whan" with a more nasal ending.
How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
Gnomon - time to move on Posted May 19, 2015
The Portuguese Sao means saint and is pronounced San / Sang.
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psychocandy-moderation team leader Posted May 20, 2015
Sorry, posted from the wrong account by mistake.
My SIL, who currently is living in Brazil, says it is pronounced "juh-wow" (where the "j" is pronounced as it would be if one was speaking French).
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KB Posted May 20, 2015
Drifting off topic, but I found it interesting that a lot of guys on the Isle of Man are named Juan. It's not pronounced the Spanish way, but as it looks in English (Joo-an). It's like a familiar name for John.
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KB Posted May 20, 2015
It seems as good a guess as any. Presumably from contact with Spain at some stage down through the centuries, anyway.
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KB Posted May 20, 2015
Actually, I'm not sure that adds up: literacy and reading and writing came pretty late to the Isle of Man - post-Armada. So if they picked the name up at that time, pre-written-Manx, they would have picked it up by hearing it - so they wouldn't pronounce it Joo-an. That's a mistake you'd only make by reading it and pronouncing the letters as they would be pronounced in English...
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Gnomon - time to move on Posted May 20, 2015
Ok. Looking it up I find Portuguese j is different from Spanish j. It's a zh sound like a French j or the s in English vision.
The ao is pronounced ow but the tilde on it makes it nasal making it sound somewhere between ow and owng. So psychocandy's Brazilian version seems to be the Portuguese one as well.
I'd write it zhoo-owng.
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Gnomon - time to move on Posted May 20, 2015
In Wexford where English was spoken long enough to develop into a different dialect, the man's name John was pronounced jo-un and spelled Joan. It's likely that the Manx spelling is just a phonetic one of how they prounced John.
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Icy North Posted May 20, 2015
Thanks Gnomon.
'zhoo-owng' should be easy to remember - all I have to do is sneeze with a Manchester accent
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You can call me TC Posted May 21, 2015
Now that's settled, I am reminded of someone I once heard of who decided to name their son Guy. They had apparently never heard it spoken, however, and pronounced it Goo-Wee.
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How do you pronounce the name 'Joao'?
- 1: Icy North (May 19, 2015)
- 2: KB (May 19, 2015)
- 3: Gnomon - time to move on (May 19, 2015)
- 4: Gnomon - time to move on (May 19, 2015)
- 5: Milla, h2g2 Operations (May 19, 2015)
- 6: Moderator001 (May 20, 2015)
- 7: psychocandy-moderation team leader (May 20, 2015)
- 8: KB (May 20, 2015)
- 9: bobstafford (May 20, 2015)
- 10: KB (May 20, 2015)
- 11: KB (May 20, 2015)
- 12: Gnomon - time to move on (May 20, 2015)
- 13: Gnomon - time to move on (May 20, 2015)
- 14: Icy North (May 20, 2015)
- 15: KB (May 20, 2015)
- 16: You can call me TC (May 21, 2015)
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