Antony, Anthony question

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I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" and "Anthony". Does anyone know why the form "Antony" seems to dominate in British / Commonwealth English countries, while the "Anthony" form dominates in American English? I know there are exceptions.
Which form is older? I'm wondering since "Tony" is derived from both if the American pronunciation of "Anthony" with /D/ is local only to the United States or US English, or is it pronounced in British / Commonwealth English (1) too.
Larry
(1) I use the term British / Commonwealth English to refer to that standard which shares common charactistics in the English-speaking world outside of the United States and/or its former territories such as the Philippines and Liberia, in other words the (British) Commonwealth of Nations and Ireland, recognizing there are local variations and pronunciation differences in each.

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Larry G wrote in message ...
[nq:1]pronunciation of "Anthony" with /D/ is local only to the United States or US English, or is it pronounced in British / CommonwealthEnglish (1) too.[/nq]
SAMPA correction - /D/ should be /T/
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/american.htm - Guide to SAMPA, an IPA like system for use without special symbols.
Larry

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[nq:1]I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" and "Anthony". Does anyone know why the form "Antony" seems ... is local only to the United States or US English, or is it pronounced in British / CommonwealthEnglish (1) too.[/nq]
The spelling "Anthony" is the usual one in the UK, though the "th" is usually pronounced as a "t".
Adrian

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[nq:1]I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" and "Anthony". Does anyone know why the form "Antony" seems ... in other words the (British) Commonwealth of Nations and Ireland, recognizing there are local variations and pronunciation differences in each.[/nq]
Anthony is the more common spelling in British English, we just pronounce it Antony.
I have an Australian friend Anthony, who insists it's pronounced. Ant-thony. He's been living in the UK for 12 years and it still drives him crazy that people meeting him for the first time call him Antony.

Alison

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Agreed, but the *surname* "Anthony" (apparently not uncommon in Wales) is pronounced with "th" by the only person I know so named and presumably by his family.
Glancing through a replica of the Shakespeare First Folio, I see that the form in "Julius Caesar" is usually "Antony", though occasionally the Latin "Antonius". In "Anthony & Cleopatra" it's usually "Anthony" (or "Anthonie", or just "Ant." to assign a speech), (I say "usually" because I haven't checked every line: I suspect "Anthonie" never appears in JC and perhaps "Antony" never appears in A&C.) Modern editions generally regularise both plays to "Antony" - I don't know why.
On the British stage the pronunciation is, I think, always with "t", not "th".
Alan Jones

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[nq:2]I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" ... recognizing there are local variations and pronunciation differences in each.[/nq]
[nq:1]Anthony is the more common spelling in British English, we just pronounce it Antony. I have an Australian friend Anthony, ... for 12 years and it still drives him crazy that people meeting him for the first time call him Antony.[/nq]
*Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary,* 11th ed., lists "Anthony" as a biographical entry for the Egyptian monk who became a saint. It gives the pronunciation as (in ASCII IPA) /'&nT@ni/ and /'&ntT@ni/ and gives /'&nt@ni/ as a "chiefly British" variant.
On a historical note, The Century Cyclopedia of Names at www.century-dictionary.com , and American work which I believe was published at the end of the 19th century, gives only the /t/-pronunciation for "Anthony." If the /T/- or /tT/- pronunciations existed at the time, they would appear not to have been considered acceptable by the editors of the Century Cyclopedia.

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

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[nq:1]I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" and "Anthony". Does anyone know why the form "Antony" seems ... local only to the United States or US English, or is it pronounced in British / Commonwealth English (1) too.[/nq]
In case it helps: the 1850 US census ranking of male names showed:

100th place Anthony

347 Antonio
444 Anton

No spelling Antony at all.

Best Donna Richoux

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"Anthony" is from the Latin "Antonius". The "h" is by folk etymology from the Greek "anthos", meaning flower, and the American pronuncation with /T/ is a spelling pronunciation. Um, did I just duplicate something in Mark Israel's FAQ?

Jerry Friedman

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[nq:2]The spelling "Anthony" is the usual one in the UK, though the "th" is usually pronounced as a "t".[/nq]
[nq:1]Agreed, but the *surname* "Anthony" (apparently not uncommon in Wales) is pronounced with "th" by the only person I know ... and perhaps "Antony" never appears in A&C.) Modern editions generally regularise both plays to "Antony" - I don't know why.[/nq]
Interesting that the Merchant of Venice, Quarto and Folio, has 'Anthonio'.
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

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[nq:2]Agreed, but the *surname* "Anthony" (apparently not uncommon in Wales) ... regularise both plays to "Antony" - I don't know why.[/nq]
[nq:1]Interesting that the Merchant of Venice, Quarto and Folio, has 'Anthonio'.[/nq]
"Anthonio" in Twelfth Night, too. Yet all (TwN and MV) are customarily rendered as "Antonio". As a forename, I think "Antony" must be rare in UK, though I've occasionally seen it e.g. Antony Armstrong-Jones, now Lord Snowdon. In any case, the default BrE pronunciation is plain 't'.

Alan Jones

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[nq:2]I have a question about the various forms of "Antony" ... is it pronounced in British / Commonwealth English (1) too.[/nq]
[nq:1]In case it helps: the 1850 US census ranking of male names showed: 100th place Anthony 347 Antonio 444 Anton No spelling Antony at all.[/nq]
The pronunciation rather than the spelling seems to be the issue here. I agree that the -t- form is very rare, even though it makes more sense. I know of no British "Anthony" who pronounces the -h-.

Compare German "Margarethe", where the -h- is a similarly redundant unsounded decoration.
Mike.

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