There’s some real evidence behind the idea that Lord Byron couldn’t pronounce ‘Juan’. This is fine, plenty of people don’t know it’s one syllable starting with a Hh, but Lord Byron notably wrote a poem about a character named Don Juan. Kind of a failure of research.
But how can we prove this? Well, in his poetry. Byron used rhymes, see, and his rhyme scheme was actually pretty simple (Mark Steele credits it as on of the first ‘free verse raps’, which is… very English of him).
For example, we know he pronounced ‘feet’ as though it rhymed with ‘sweet’ and ‘inclination’ as though it rhymed with ‘station’.
Her very smile was haughty, though so sweet;
Her very nod was not an inclination;
There was a self-will even in her small feet,
As though they were quite conscious of her station
So, when it comes to ‘Juan’?
‘Your names?’—’Mine ‘s Johnson, and my comrade ‘s Juan;
The other two are women, and the third
Is neither man nor woman.’ The chief threw on
The party a slight glance, then said, ‘I have heard
Okay, so ‘third’ rhymes with ‘heard’, fair. And ‘Juan’ rhymes with… ‘threw on’?
This, too, was a seal’d book to little Juan—
I can’t but say that his mamma was right,
If such an education was the true one.
She scarcely trusted him from out her sight;
‘Juan’ rhymes with ‘true one’?
And Zoe, when the eggs were ready, and
The coffee made, would fain have waken’d Juan;
But Haidee stopp’d her with her quick small hand,
And without word, a sign her finger drew on
‘Drew on’?
So it’s pretty clear, to me at least, that Lord Byron thought ‘Juan’ was pronounced ‘jew-on’.
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