While delving into the origin of the word blasé yesterday, I stumbled upon a fascinating piece of information regarding the historical pronunciation of Don Juan. In contemporary English, most individuals pronounce it as Don Wan, with a growing number opting for don hwan due to their exposure to Spanish. However, in Lord Byron’s rendition of the Spanish tale (the initial prominent English adaptation), he chose to rhyme the name with words like ruin and true one, suggesting a three-syllable pronunciation such as don jew-ahn or don zhu-wan. This deliberate choice by Byron was a literary device aimed at underscoring the irony of an uneducated, rural narrator recounting a sophisticated, urban narrative. Interestingly, some individuals did adopt this pronunciation for a period of time. Byron also opted to rhyme the city name Seville (which should sound like se-bee-ya in Spanish) with “uncivil” and the Guadalquivir river with the word “river”, despite the correct pronunciation ending with a quiveer sound.
