re: Correct Pronunciation Of "Caroline" Kennedy? page 2

If that was the case, English would be a logical language and parts of words would be pronounced always in the same way regardless where they were in the word (or even if they were the whole word). How about "wild" and "wilderness", "I like to read" and "I read the whole book yesterday", "face" and "surface", and dozens of words ending with "ate" which have a different pronunciation if they are adjectives or verbs (like "approximate"), to name a few...

Even though one can expect a diphthong as the last vowel in "Caroline", it is not the only possibility. If one wants it as a diphthong, that syllable has to receive secondary stress. Examples: mouth vs Plymouth; land vs Maryland; Ford vs Stanford.

From these, one can claim that English is an irregular language; but it is not an irregular language. It appears irregular to all L2 speakers, who impose their L1 vowels and L1 syllabic structure and who are ignorant of the great vowel shift and phonologies of Old English and Middle English.

Look at the words like machine, police, etc. Here, the second vowel/diphtong is /ɪi/. However, the underlying diaphoneme (phoneteme) went through great vowel shift, becoming /aɪ/ in American dialects. Why did not this happen in words like machine, police? But it happened in words like line. The answer is pretty simple: machine, police, etc (french words) entered after great vowel shift. So, they received near-French vowels, near because French /i/ is closer to the cardinal vowel 1.

It is pronounce just like it is spelled: Care oh line.

It's because Caro-line can be pronounced either way. I Believe it was originally pronounced Caro-lin, but was Americanized to Caro-line. Then the variant Carolyn began to be used by those people who wanted to ensure that pronunciation. I am named after my great aunt Caroline, but my parents spelled it Carolyn to be sure people would pronounce it correctly, but I get called Caro-line all the time. I feel that there is no real argument about how to pronounce either name because the person whose name it is knows how their name is supposed to be pronounced and that's what people should call them. Since the names are really variants of the same name, I don't really care and will answer to either. However, I do not answer when someone calls me "Carol" because I don't know they are talking to me!

So- I agree that she used to be referred to as "car-o-lin" kennedy, that's how I remember it from my bygone youth. Basically it seems that it was traditionally pronounced that way but has been Americanized to "car-o-line" See discussions about Madeline or Jaqueline...

There is an audio clip of her mother introducing her as Caroline (1:48), to rhyme with "fine".

https://kennedydynasty.com/episode/sweet-caroline/

anonymous It is pronounce just like it is spelled: Care oh line.

That must be American pronunciation. British pronunciation has long involved pronouncing the Ca part the same as the ca in cab and cat. The ro part is the same as the word row as in to row a boat. The line part is the same as the word line as in to draw a line under something.

That means pronouncing the name as Ca-ro-line.

Except that there are people who spell their name the way you do and pronounce the last syllable as lyn. My great aunt was one who pronounced her name lyn but spelled it line. I am named after her except my parents changed the spelling to lyn to avoid the confusion. However, lots of people call me Caro-line. Go figure! I answer to both because it’s essentially the same name and I’m tired of correcting people. I will tell someone the correct pronunciation of my name when I first meet them and that’s it. Just please don’t call me Carol.