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The release of "The Force Awakens" reminded me of something I found confusing in both the older and newest Star Wars movies -- the pronunciation of Han Solo's first name.

It seems that some characters pronounce Han like you'd pronounce the first part of the word Hand. Others pronounce it like the first part of the country Honduras.

Which is correct?

I don't remember hearing him say his own name (though he probably did at some point) so I'm unclear on this.

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    "Which is correct?" You say TomaRto I say TomaYto. Who is 'correct'? It's all just accents to me, even Han's way of saying his own name is simply him saying it with his accent. Does that make his way of saying his name any more valid than anyone else's way of saying it?
    – Andrew Thompson
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 2:03
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    Hans. The S is invisible but not silent.
    – cde
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 5:05
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    @AndrewThompson yes, it does. The pronunciation of a name should be deferred to the person with said name.
    – cde
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 5:06

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It's pronounced HAHN Solo.

You can hear his own pronunciation of his name when he introduces himself at the very start of this clip:

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    He pronounces Falcon funny too.
    – cde
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 5:09
  • Falcon is another 'tomato' word, US Falcon, UK Folcon, though Ford makes a decent showing of getting it closer to Folcon in that clip.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 8:53
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    @Tetsujin UK Fawlcon, I'd say.
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 11:19
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George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars clearly thinks that it's Han with a hard 'a' (rhymes with "hand").

It's not entirely clear why every other character mispronounces it throughout the film series.

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  • Now try to tell all those Lucas-haters that he has any kind of authority on that matter (but of course he has, he's created him). ;-)
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 13:30
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    @NapoleonWilson - Oh, I expect this to be a downvote magnet. It's not "fanboy approved" to suggest that Lucas had any involvement with the making of Star Wars.
    – user7812
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 16:58
  • Only the British actors mispronounce it.... (i.e. pronounce it in the British way)
    – Gerald Edgar
    Commented Jan 18, 2016 at 17:13
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    @geraldEdgar - over-trained, I guess. That's what comes of hiring respected British thespians for low-budget sf movies.
    – user7812
    Commented Jan 18, 2016 at 17:15
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Han is pronounced with a soft "a". Like "Hahn" (rhymes with "con"), as opposed to "Hann" (rhymes with "Ann").

enter image description here

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    … but, but… you can't use 'sounds like' comparisons, because you don't know the accent of the person reading the comparison. In British English, there's no way I could torture the word 'con' to sound anything like Han.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 8:52

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