Rowan's name

[owl]

Another poll, and I've included an 'other' option this time!

I've been reading Run Away Home lately. Now, I always thought that 'Rowan', the name (trees are row-ans), was pronounced 'Roh-an', but Giles calls her 'Rowley' for short, not 'Roley'. So that would seem to suggest 'Row-an'. What way do all of you say it? Is there an 'accepted' pronunciation?

[Poll #639088]

ETA: By ro-an I mean ro rhyming with go, and row-an with row rhyming with 'cow'. Sorry about that.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Exactly the same way as I pronounce the name of the tree. "Row" as in "row your boat" and "an", definintely not like the horse colour "rone"

[owl]

Messed up the Unicode in that. Let's go with XSAMPA.

Oh, I meant ro-an to be two syllables ['ro:an], not [ron]. Row-an I meant to be ['rO:an].

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

Are we pronouncing "Row" as in "Row your boat"? Or like "I had a huge row with the waiter"? Because if it's the former, then "Ro-an" and "Row-an" (and "Rowley" and Roley") sound more or less the same to my Mancunian ears.

[owl]

No, row as in row-with-the waiter.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd interpreted it as in "row your boat". In that case I should be down as something different. "Ro-an" doesn't work for me because it would drift towards "roan" if there wasn't something between the "o" and the "a", i.e. quite a gentle "w"

[owl]

If you click 'View Answers' and then 'Fill out poll' you should be able to change your choice, I think.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Yes, it worked. Thanks.

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, I see. In that case, "Ro-an". Though I that's how I'd pronounce the tree too.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the tree pronounced any other way...

[darth-tigger.livejournal.com]

I mentally pronounce Rowley as in "row your boat" too, so I never had a problem with this. The frog Anthony Rowley in the children's song A Frog He Would A Wooing Go is pronounced this way, so it never occurred to me to pronounce it any other way.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've always supposed that the spelling Rowley was pronounced Roley. for the same reason - I was familiar with the frog.
I assumed that it was spelt with a w, because the name is, and that the spelling Roley would be used if he was abbreviating Roland.
I also assumed that she is named after the tree.

[chiasmata]

Always as in "row your boat" - and both the male and female Rowans I have known have pronounced it the same way.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

As in 'row your boat', mostly, I suspect, because of Rowan Atkinson.

[senji.livejournal.com]

Of course, whilst I've answered Ro-an; I'd pronounce Rowley 'Ro-ley' and Roley 'Rol-ey'…

[ciorstaidh.livejournal.com]

I would pronounce Rowan Marlow's name "Roh-an," because she and her family are English. If she were Scottish (or her ancestry was), I'd pronounce it "Row-an."

In Scotland, the Rowan tree is pronounced "Row-an," but in England it's "Roh-an."

I do the same with Rowena. It's just automatic with me, having some pronunciations over the border - what with family and an upbringing in Scotland, but working in London (and apparently now having acquired an "English/posh" accent!)