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ArchivesClassical pronunciation of Edward
In The Harrap Book of Boys' and Girls' Names, by Charles Johnson and Linwood Sleigh, there is a very interesting information:
"The eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon's friends addressed him as Eddard, the polite pronunciation of the period, which survived among old-fashioned speakers well into the 1800s."
Nowadays, is this pronunciation used in some place or by some people (high English nobility, for instance)?
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
"The eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon's friends addressed him as Eddard, the polite pronunciation of the period, which survived among old-fashioned speakers well into the 1800s."
Nowadays, is this pronunciation used in some place or by some people (high English nobility, for instance)?
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com
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Replies
You've reminded me of my grandfather, who dated back to that century and when young would have come across people stretching right across the nineteenth century . He was not at all affected and he was a native Welsh speaker, but he loved to make fun of people who put on airs and graces. One branch of the family was named "Edwards" and sometimes he used to pronounce the name "Eddards". I thought that he was just doing his own thing, but maybe he was mimicking someone he'd come across who was rather affected?
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