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Josephine
I'm loving Josephine atm, which is strange because I really dislike Joseph. But Josephine is just so pretty and elegant! It has left me wondering:1. Which is your preferred spelling and form (Josephine, Josephina, Josefine, Josefina etc.)2. Which is your preferred pronounciation - JO-sə-feen / yo-ze-FEE-nə (or other) ? Also, do you think the yo-ze-FEE-nə pron. would work in an English speaking country, because most people would automatically pronounce 'j' like a hard j, and not a soft 'y'. Personally, I love both pron., but am loving the more exotic yo-ze-FEE-nə a little bit more today.

This message was edited 6/10/2011, 10:43 PM

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1. Josephine2. JO-se-feenI don't think it would work too well in an English speaking country.
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I like both pronunciations of the namesI prefer Josephine and JosefinaIf you want to assert the "yo" sound I would use the spellings of Josefine and Josefina. I think you;ll have to correct most people either way, but at least some will recognize the F vs. PH and know to use the "yo" sound.
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I love both Josephine and Joseph, although I prefer the Spanish/Port. Josefina with the J= h or S.A. soft j. Not only do they sound pretty, they look pretty as well.
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It's a charming name. I used to think it sounded dowdy, but now it sounds sweet and melodic to me. I prefer Josephine to the other spellings and forms. It looks the most pleasing to my eyes. My favorite pronunciation is JO-sə-feen.I think if you spelled it Josefina, you would be more likely to get people in an English-speaking country to pronounce it yo-ze-FEE-nə, but initially, they would probably pronounce it jo-ze-FEE-nə. I think it would take longer for people to catch onto Josephine pro. yo-ze-FEE-nə.
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I like Josephine and I would spell it this way.I say JO-sa-feenI think in English countries, people would automatically use a hard J sound. Especially because Josephine has a well-known hard J english pronounciation (not like Janna or another german name which is more commonly pronounced with the Y sound)
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1. Josephine
2. I instinctively say JO-sə-feen, but I prefer zho-za-FEEN.
3. I don't think it's realistic to expect to use a German pronunciation for a fairly common English name. You'd constantly be correcting people and they'd never think it would be pronounced that way.
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I like Josephine too! I don't really have any opinion on the other variations you listed- I don't love them, but I don't have any issues with them.I use the pronunciation JO-suh-feen. I live in the US, and I do think you would run into issues with using the yo-suh-FEE-nuh pronunciation. I think people here would naturally use the most obvious pronunciation for both Josephine and Josephina.
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