this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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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.

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[–] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 1 points 32 minutes ago

It may be a case of laziness which has started creating a local dialect. This is one of the ways living languages change over time, people start sluring words and sounds together until there is almost nothing left of the original words and there is a new word in their place.

[–] remi_pan@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 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

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 14 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 5 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

You don't live in Britain where:

  • This is a name people have.
  • It's pronounced like that.
[–] 13esq@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 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.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 2 points 4 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.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 hours ago

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

[–] LiamMayfair@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 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"

[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 43 points 15 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?

[–] Preacher@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 26 minutes ago

The definitive answer :-)

[–] myself@lemmy.ml 4 points 12 hours ago

Oh no not in Utica

[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 5 points 14 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

[–] Railison@aussie.zone 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Though the English ~~is~~ are weird

Local names in Britain do my head in

[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 17 points 14 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?)

[–] LiamMayfair@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 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 Kent).

[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 21 points 15 hours ago

Ive never heard of Sinjin.

[–] SouthFresh@lemmy.ml 9 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net -5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 24 minutes ago

No, but you said "why do the English pronounce" with no qualification that it's neither the only way nor the most common way.

You're right that it does happen, but your title implies it's the sole or dominant pronunciation.

[–] RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works 10 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Who has a first name of St John?

[–] stormio@lemmy.ca 9 points 12 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.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 12 hours ago

Pronounced Janer, I assume.

[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 8 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 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

[–] RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works 4 points 14 hours ago

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

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 5 points 14 hours ago

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