Divided by a common tongue...

[cimorene]

I just remembered that last December when I listened to all the back seasons of David Mitchell's radio game show, The Unbelievable Truth, I accidentally learned that apparently there is a spelling difference (for the general UK audience) between the names Sahra and Sayra, because somebody said, I think when talking about American song lyrics??,

"Well, Sahra, but it's spelled Sayra," (or possibly vice versa?) and none of the other people there - there were four others plus a studio audience - said anything such as I would have said or expected to hear, like

"What?" or "Huh?" or "The hell are you talking about?"

Obviously they must mean Sara and Sarah, but which is which? Why? How universal is this idea? (I didn't know the song they were talking about, so I don't remember what it was. Otherwise I could find the first answer at least by looking it up.)

Comments

[wychwood]

I would say Sara = Sahra, to rhyme with Cara or Lara, whereas Sarah is Sehrah, to rhyme with bearer or carer; is that not how Americans say Sarah? The only instance I can think of is "Sarah Smiles", by Panic! at the Disco, and that sounds like the pronunciation I expect!

[hebethen]

In English I would pronounce both Sarah and Sara the same way, as "SÆ-ra". However, I could imagine if someone were named Sara in a different language I might want to pronounce it differently, sort of like how I might pronounce "Jean" differently if it were a French person, if that makes sense?

[wychwood]

Interesting! Yeah, they're definitely different names in the UK.

[cimorene]

Agree with Hebethen.

I am an American millennial, and the name was very popular in my age range, one of those names where there were often 2 or 3 per class. I knew many of both spellings as a child, and nobody ever who pronounced it with an "ah".

[wychwood]

Haha, divided indeed! Sarah is, or was, a very common name over here, maybe particularly GenX / millennial, but there aren't very many Saras - but none of the ones I've met pronounce it the same as Sarah.

[torachan]

Thirding what the others have said. Sara is usually just an alternate spelling of Sarah in the US. There are some exceptions (like, someone with the Japanese name Sara would be pronounced Sahra, though they'd probably have to inform people that it was pronounced that way first) but most Saras are just Sarah without the h.

[wychwood]

It's so interesting that we do this differently! It seems so random.

[conuly]

Under no circumstances would Americans, even those with non-rhotic dialects, describe Sarah as rhyming with bearer. Because the latter word has an r at the end :)

[wychwood]

I mean, yes, but barring going into a 15-minute lecture on phonemes I couldn't think of another word with the correct first vowel and final schwah that didn't end in an R. Hopefully most people will be able to do the complex translation required to omit the final "r" from the sound of the pronunciation.

[conuly]

You’d be surprised, I think, how many people don’t have the knowledge base to know they ought to do that when converting from rhotic to nonrhotic. Or even that the two ideas of orthogtaphical convention might vary!

Terra, mascara, and eta all rhyme with Sarah in my ‘lect, as does the middle of “triceratops”.

[cimorene]

Lol. Every now and then I still have a little realization like "Ohhhh it rhymes for them" when reading old British books, or rereading ones with bits that didn't make sense before.

[conuly]

Er and erm will still trip me up every single time.

[cimorene]

I went through decades pronouncing them in American. I still do it sometimes without thinking.

[cesy]

Yeah, same here

[ironymaiden]

The song is most likely Sara by Jefferson Starship

[cimorene]

Oh that's great! Thanks!