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ArchivesRe: Lamar?
in reply to a message by Rachel Shay
Lamar is an Americanized version of the French surname Lamare, indicating an ancestor who lived by a pool or pond. It became a regularly used name in the Southern part of the USA during the 19th century because it was the surname of some prominent political figures, including Mirabeau Lamar of Texas and Lucius Lamar of Mississippi:
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/lamar.htm
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000030
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/lamar.htm
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000030
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Replies
There's an ex-pat American classical pianist/professor of music in South Africa called Lamar Crowson (I think ... it's been a long time!). He's a good performer, tall-dark-and-handsome, and a wonderful lecturer and teacher; I went to a brilliant masterclass he gave, long ago.
He pronounces his name le MAR - the e should be a schwa. Is that the usual version in the US, or are there other variants?
He pronounces his name le MAR - the e should be a schwa. Is that the usual version in the US, or are there other variants?
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I have always heard the name accented on the second syllable, but I suppose the vowel of the first syllable would vary a bit depending on accent. :)
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Accent and expectations; when Prof Crowson first came to South Africa, radio announcers on classical music programmes would put the stress on the first syllable of his name - LAM-ar - but as he became better known, they changed it to le-MAR, with the first syllable getting a schwa.
Presumably he phoned them up and put them right!
I've noticed a few instances where we (in SA it's basically British English, but with lots of variations because most people are second-language speakers) stress the first syllable and Americans stress the second. The only one I can think of at the moment is Clarice, where in Silence of the Lambs the character is cle-REES, first syllable a schwa again, but the ones I've known here have been CLAR-is. So we were probably just generalising from our usual position.
Presumably he phoned them up and put them right!
I've noticed a few instances where we (in SA it's basically British English, but with lots of variations because most people are second-language speakers) stress the first syllable and Americans stress the second. The only one I can think of at the moment is Clarice, where in Silence of the Lambs the character is cle-REES, first syllable a schwa again, but the ones I've known here have been CLAR-is. So we were probably just generalising from our usual position.
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Clarice is a great example. Two male names where this difference exists between the USA and England are Maurice and Bernard. In the UK these are accented on the first syllable, but the American pronunciation seems to have been influenced by French, and so in the USA we say "maw-REESE" and "bur-NARD". :)
Which way are Maurice and Bernard said in South Africa?
Which way are Maurice and Bernard said in South Africa?
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The English way! Jewish South Africans (used to) prefer the spelling Morris, and this has led some people to overcorrect and use the French pronunciation when they see Maurice and the English one for Morris. And Bernard gets the stress on the second syllable only in the rare cases when it is used by Afrikaans-speakers, who follow European rules and/or use the Bernardus version, which naturally gets middle-syllable stress; or Berndt, which solves the whole problem!
I remember a very good news anchor/reporter on US television (CNN, probably) called BerNARD Shaw. South Africans giggled; what the Irish playwright would have done is anyone's guess.
Kiddies' stories: Freaky Friday and its sequel, which I forget the title of. But the second book contains a character with severe nasal congestion who is thought to be Boris and to specialise in cooking beet loaf ... it turns out when he recovers that his name is either Morris or Maurice and he cooks meat loaf. So, we say BOR-is for Boris, including Russian politicians ... do you guys say bo-REESE? Or is that version just part of the fantasy genre?
I remember a very good news anchor/reporter on US television (CNN, probably) called BerNARD Shaw. South Africans giggled; what the Irish playwright would have done is anyone's guess.
Kiddies' stories: Freaky Friday and its sequel, which I forget the title of. But the second book contains a character with severe nasal congestion who is thought to be Boris and to specialise in cooking beet loaf ... it turns out when he recovers that his name is either Morris or Maurice and he cooks meat loaf. So, we say BOR-is for Boris, including Russian politicians ... do you guys say bo-REESE? Or is that version just part of the fantasy genre?
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