MovieChat Forums > The Best of Everything (1959) Discussion > Why did they call her 'Carolyn'?

Why did they call her 'Carolyn'?


Her name is CAROLINE, not Carolyn. That drove me nuts.

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it's pronounced both ways -- generally the preference of the person so named.

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Um, no. Caroline is pronounced Caro-LINE. Carolyn is pronounced Caro-LYN.

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Um, no. I respectfully disagree. I went to school with 2 Carolines who BOTH pronounced it as linn not LINE and they were both from literate families.

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Here you go, ec1979 -- the board's very own Henry Higgins:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091107204206AANH1RD




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Dorothy Gale

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That link is dead.

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https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091107204206AANH1RD
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The world doesnt owe you a damn thing.

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Thanks....proves that most people agree with me.

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not at all. it says it's decidedly regional. and since the book on which the movie was based was written by a New Yorker, and the movie took place in NYC, the prevailing pronunciation of Carolynnnnn for the spelling caroLYNE was correct.

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The world doesnt owe you a damn thing.
Lauren Bacall

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Decidedly? Hardly, it's an opinion poll website. Most of those commenting agree with me. The movie (it's a book first) may take place in NYC, but Caroline is from outside the city.

We live in a society that, when many people do something incorrectly (and since most Americans are stupid, that happens frequently), we change the rules. This happens with spelling and grammar; we even change the definitions to words to accommodate general stupidity. This is such a case: many people mispronounce the name "Caroline" as "Carolyn", so now, that's accepted too.

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Interesting discussion at this link....

http://forums.thebump.com/discussion/7085874/caroline-vs-carolyn

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I agree with you, and that's been my experience. Also, the pronunciation regardless of spelling is Caro-lynn much more often than Caro-line (at least here in California, New York, and Colorado, all of which I've lived in. Bbut someone here sure needs to be right on this so I suggest we simply know better and let them enjoy their childish tantrum.

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I agree with you, and that's been my experience. Also, the pronunciation regardless of spelling is Caro-lynn much more often than Caro-line (at least here in California, New York, and Colorado, all of which I've lived in). Bbut someone here sure needs to be right on this so I suggest we simply know better and let them enjoy their childish tantrum.

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I'm in California. I know four Carolines, all pronounce their names rhyming with "twine." As far as famous Caroline's: Sweet Caroline, Caroline Kennedy, Caroline Ingals, all pronounced phonetically, rhyming with "twine."

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Yeah right. If that's true then they were pronouncing their names wrong. It happens all the time.

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[deleted]

The name Caroline was borrowed directly from French. So technically, everybody pronouncing the last syllable like the English word "LINE" is incorrect. Even if that is common usage, that doesn't mean it's really correct. Do you pronounce "Pauline" or "Josephine" or "Celine" that way?

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Yes, in FRENCH, Caroline is pronounced Caro-leen, but we're talking about its English pronunciation.

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Oh you Americans...so insular....only you say Carol-LINE, it's your accent. Those who speak English properly understand the nuances of the language pronounce it correctly as Caro-LYN.

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Not really, Brits say caro-LINE, too, as well as Made-LINE instead of Made-LYN.

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