Is this a legit pronunciation?

[OpheliaFlora]

@morganalefaye

jor-JAY-na is my favourite pronunciation so that’s what I tend to say (except in the context of P&P, in which case I say geor-gee-ana). Although I’ve never heard it as an ‘official’ pronunciation, I think you could get away with jor-jana since, as you said, it sounds almost as though the ‘ee’ is there but has just been swallowed slightly. There’s a tendency among the British upper classes to drop/merge vowels like that anyway - think Diana being reduced to two syllables - so to my ear that’s what is sounds like haha.

Anyway, to answer your question: no, I don’t think it is technically a legit pronunciation but I don’t think it would be too much of a problem if you wanted to pronounce it like that. Be prepared for a lot of people saying geor-gee-ana at first, though.

I suppose it’s along the lines of [name_f]Rosa[/name_f]-mund for [name_f]Rosamund[/name_f] or [name_f]Rosa[/name_f]-lind for [name_f]Rosalind[/name_f]. It’s not the most common pronunciation but just from looking at the name, it isn’t a “wrong” pronunciation either.