How do YOU pronounce "Oona"?

[Lord Torath]

I personally go with OH-oon-uh.

How do YOU pronounce Oona?

[Gift Jeraff]

oo-nuh
oo-nuh

[Fyraltari]

Like that: Oona. oo-nah.

[Kish]

Ooh-nah. Two syllables. Excitement followed by negation.

[Synesthesy]

I often mistake this kind of things, reading names how I would in Italian. Oh-nah

[hroþila]

Long o, full ah: /ˈoːna/.

I imagine it's meant to be exactly what you'd expect in English, though: OO-nuh /ˈuːnə/.

[MysteryMeme]

Ooh-nuh. Maybe it should be Ooh-nah, but nope, Ooh-nuh.

[D.One]

I hear it like tuna.

[Ruck]

OO-nə.

Well, I have to write at least ten characters to meet the minimum for this post, so let me tell you all about the joys of the schwa... oh, we're already at ten. Darn.

[KorvinStarmast]

I hear it like tuna.
That is correct.
Oona O'Neill Chaplin was married to Charlie Chaplin. If you watch the movie with Robert Downey Junior and Moira Kelly (Chaplin (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103939/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast)), you hear them pronounce it that way.

[hroþila]

That is correct.
Oona O'Neill Chaplin was married to Charlie Chaplin. If you watch the movie with Robert Downey Junior and Moira Kelly (Chaplin (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103939/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast)), you hear them pronounce it that way.
Weirdly enough, everybody in Spain seems to call Oona Chaplin (that's Oona O'Neill's granddaughter) "Onnah" /ˈona/ to her face, and I've never seen her correct anybody, but of course in the only clip I've found of her saying her own name (in English) she says "Oona~(t)una" /ˈuːnə/. I guess she's simply resigned herself to her name being butchered whenever she visits Spain.

[martianmister]

As MOON-uh.

[DaggerPen]

Put me down for oo-nuh.

[TARINunit9]

Ooh-nah. Two syllables. Excitement followed by negation.

You mean a trochee (https://xkcd.com/856/)?

[factotum]

Yeah, I'm oo-nuh too. Since the Giant speaks English I expect his names to be pronounced as words in English tend to be (ignoring regional accents), and that seems the best fit.

[phrxmd]

[ˈuː.nɐ] for me

[Borris]

I often mistake this kind of things, reading names how I would in Italian. Oh-nah

Same here, except with French.

Rhymes with tuna.

[Albion]

Aw-nuh. It's used as a girl name here so won't bother with changing it from that

[Goosefarble]

Yeah, I'm oo-nuh too. Since the Giant speaks English I expect his names to be pronounced as words in English tend to be (ignoring regional accents), and that seems the best fit.

Well, then again, Elan (which I always pronounced with a short "e" as in "egg"), he pronounces Ee-lan.

But I also pronounce it like Oona Chaplin.

[Sir_Norbert]

"Ee-lan" /i:lən/* is the pronunciation that would be derived from standard English conventions. The stressed vowel is followed by a single consonant, so it's long, as in Eden, ceded, demon etc. (Or, with other vowels, bacon, final, holy.)

Yes, I know there are exceptions to the rules. The rule I described is still the standard, and exceptions are just that, exceptions. There's a good article on the subject here: http://www.zompist.com/spell.html

And yes, I know elan is an actual word and it's not pronounced according to the rule; that's because it's a loanword from French.

[mowque]

Why would I ever say it out loud?

[denthor]

Don't know.

Need more treats

[Flame of Anor]

And yes, I know elan is an actual word and it's not pronounced according to the rule; that's because it's a loanword from French.

And if a character were named Esprit, basic English rules would suggest /'ɛspɹɪt/, but the loanword rules would overrule them and say /ɛs'pɹi:/. Which is the reason why the Giant's pronunciation of "Elan" is counterintuitive.

[Ruck]

The actual word has an accent: élan. The name Elan does not.

[factotum]

Why would I ever say it out loud?

Even if you say it in your head while reading it you have to "pronounce" it in a certain way.

[ti'esar]

...I think I've been pronouncing "elan" the word wrong my entire life.

[hroþila]

The actual word has an accent: élan. The name Elan does not.
But English is not at all consistent in its use of diacritics in loanwords, so "elan" is also found.

[Fyraltari]

Strangely enough, I don't think of Elan's name as the same as "élan" (probably because a main character called "moose" just doesn't fly by me). In my head it starts the same but ends in [aː n] rather than in [ɑ̃].

[RaveDave92084]

Because of my Philippina wife I hear Oona in two ways, depending on mood and what I was thinking previously:

1. Primary - like "tuna"
2. Secondarily - Oh-oh-na, with the accent either on the second syllable or third. When the accent is on the third syllable, the 3rd syllable takes on a longer "awe" sound with a rising lilt, almost like a question mark at the end.


I think of Elan as "E-lawn". The "E" is long as is "eat", "peet", "beet", etc.

Sometimes I play a bit with it in my head and add Romance style pronunciation for the vowels, with a french "n" added for the end.

Since I believe that Elan's name and character are based on the French word for enthusiasm and style, that helps with the wordplay in my head.

I love hearing how others "hear" the words in their head.

[RossN]

'Oo-nah'.

'Oona' itself is an Anglicisation of the Irish given name Úna. It isn't a very common name even here in Dublin but I've known a few girls with that name.

[mowque]

I love hearing how others "hear" the words in their head.

Maybe it will interest you, but I don't 'hear' anything when I read.

[Velaryon]

I don't. I just nod, get treat. But if I did, it would be OO-nuh like the majority here.