You should go try out names you know how they sound and do a comparison of THEIR pronunciation. It is not accurate in any technical linguistic sense... but it is pretty good to me. If I heard it from an irish native it would be as given... slightly dahn/dawn-a-van; think lilt and sing-song. I'd expect a british/scots to be donno-vin. I'm influenced by the pop-star, of course, and he, in Ontario English, in between, as you'd expect; no so 'oo' as in "so what?" and not so 'ah' as in "waaaaaaaaa". Donovan is, IMHLO (in my humble linguistic opinion) is Dannavin; 'anna' as in my home town of Toronto (which I pronounce Taranna). Of course, in Japanese it could be Donnoban in the west, and in the East with a different intonation, with no emphasis.
Thank god there can be no good answer to the question.
no subject
You should go try out names you know how they sound and do a comparison of THEIR pronunciation. It is not accurate in any technical linguistic sense... but it is pretty good to me. If I heard it from an irish native it would be as given... slightly dahn/dawn-a-van; think lilt and sing-song. I'd expect a british/scots to be donno-vin. I'm influenced by the pop-star, of course, and he, in Ontario English, in between, as you'd expect; no so 'oo' as in "so what?" and not so 'ah' as in "waaaaaaaaa". Donovan is, IMHLO (in my humble linguistic opinion) is Dannavin; 'anna' as in my home town of Toronto (which I pronounce Taranna). Of course, in Japanese it could be Donnoban in the west, and in the East with a different intonation, with no emphasis.
Thank god there can be no good answer to the question.