this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
-13 points (39.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43896 readers
953 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Checkmate, Chuck. πŸ‘‘

Edit: Given the number of downvotes I'm getting, I'm guessing a lot of people have just learned that they've been pronouncing St. John wrong. Don't beat yourselves up. It's not like it's a terribly common name.

top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

There is also the wedding scene of Bernard and Lydia in the 1997 movie Four weddings and a funeral. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYzQFudZ70k

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Not a single person in my insane number of years has ever said sinjin

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

You don't live in Britain where:

  • This is a name people have.
  • It's pronounced like that.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I live near a village called St John's Town of Dalry and no one says sinjin nor have I heard anyone's name referred to that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Am in UK, and yeah, I've definitely heard it pronounced that way, sometimes combined with a second name, eg St John-Smith = Sinjin-Smith

I think it's a thing posh people use sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago

Lived there for years and years. Never heard it pronounced that way. Strange

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yup, Sinjin is definitely a thing.

Source: I know a St. John and he told me the right way to pronounce his name is indeed "Sinjin"

[–] [email protected] 43 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

We don't as far as I know. St John is usually pronounced Saint John. Though English is weird and you might have come across a local pronunciation. Do you know where abouts in the UK that one comes from?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago

Roger Moore pronounced his alias St John Smythe as "Sinjun Smythe" in "A View To A Kill"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago

Oh no not in Utica

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

Perhaps not precisely "sinjin". Wikipedia gives the IPA as /ˈsΙͺndΚ’Ιͺn/ or /-Κ’Ι™n/ where the Κ’ is the g in beige or the s in pleasure so it's a bit more of a zh sound than a j sound: "sinzhin"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_(name) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Though the English ~~is~~ are weird

Local names in Britain do my head in

[–] [email protected] 17 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I am english, in the UK. I have never heard someone say sinjin instead of saint john. The only thing I can imagine is a local accent? But id think its more like sint jin (sint jawn?)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

That's not how I've heard it pronounced. Not in the north at least. The T is mute. It's "sinjin" (rhymes with Ken).

[–] [email protected] 21 points 13 hours ago

Ive never heard of Sinjin.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

β€œ It can be pronounced…” is not the same as, β€œIs often pronounced”

[–] [email protected] -5 points 12 hours ago

I didn't really say either of those, at least in the post. What's your point?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Who has a first name of St John?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

In Vancouver, Canada, we have a journalist named St. John Alexander who pronounces his first name as "Sinjin." I heard him say it on TV and it sounded weird. His profile even mentions it.

He's often asked about his name. St. John is originally British and is pronounced "Sinjin." His parents discovered it in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

Pronounced Janer, I assume.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

From Wikipedia St John Pettifor Catchpool (1890–1971), English Quaker relief worker St. John Ellis (1964–2005), British Rugby League player St John Ervine (1883-1971), Irish writer St John Groser (1890-1966), Anglican priest and Christian socialist St John Hornby (1867–1946), British businessman St John Horsfall (1910-1949), British motor racing driver St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton (1856–1942), British politician St John O'Neill (1741–1790), Irish MP for Randalstown Saint-John Perse, pseudonym of Alexis Leger (1887–1975), French poet and diplomat St John Philby (1885–1960), British civil servant and explorer in Arabia

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Weird. I never would have guessed anyone was named that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

I grew up in Britain no one I knew says sinjin, but Sinclair,warrik (Warwick) etc were the norm