I guess that at one time 'Saint' as an element in a name was pronounced rather sloppily as 'Sin'. Cf 'Sinclair' = 'St Clare', and the old pronunciation of St Mary Axe (as in Gilbert and Sullivan's 'The Sorcerer') as 'Simmery Axe.' I suppose some families, such as Norman St John Stevas's (or Stevas'), kept the old pronunciation but regularised the spelling.

I rather like these pronunciation anomalies, although the long term trend appears to be to get rid of them. ('Rafe' as the pronunciation of 'Ralph' no longer seems standard.) I always try to remember to say 'forrid' for 'forehead', but nobody else seems to. (I also make an effort to pronounce 'ate' as 'et', although 'ayte' now seems more or less standard.)

This post was last modified: 20-01-2014 12:00 PM by robin orton.