Pronunciation of proper names

Anything to say about roleplay? Want to share a story? This is the right place.

Moderator: Wizards

Message
Author
User avatar
Tatiana
Apprentice
Posts: 28
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:43 pm
Location: Warsaw

Pronunciation of proper names

#1 Post by Tatiana » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:01 pm

I was always curious how people prounounce fantasy/rare names of their chars, and names of places in Geas like Isyanyr. So if you could post a short guide on how to pronounce the name of your char (even with a soundfile if you feel like it!) I'd be very graeteful.

Keep in mind that things for a non native speaker aren't always obvious, especially with this crazy vowel system english has. For example does Alamar have long A, or Ei as the first sound?

Perhaps if we come up with ideas on how to pronounce proper names we can
post them in Wiki later.

Tatiana is a russian name - with second t being a mild t resembling
'ch' or 'sh' and 'ia' not as one sound but one after another very short..
something like ta-chi-ana (well, if you watch tennis you may know ;))
and a proper way to shorten it would be Tania, but I guess Tati will
stick to her forever :P

Other problematic names I would like some feedback on: Arborea, Asador hmm, well, basically all that can't be found in a dictonary :)

adanath
Champion
Posts: 505
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:36 am
Location: Lynchburg, VA

#2 Post by adanath » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:05 pm

Adanath I pronounce with the first A long and the other two short.

Ay-dah-nath

User avatar
Vargrahim
Master
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 5:47 am
Location: VALHALL

#3 Post by Vargrahim » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:32 pm

Asador: A(w)sa-dor(r)

meaning, low A and long R.


Vargrahim: Var-(y)ra-hím

soft g and a soft i.
"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil." - Albert Einstein

User avatar
Alamar
Master
Posts: 249
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:39 am
Location: North Carolina, USA

#4 Post by Alamar » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:58 pm

I say "Asador" with both A's short like the "a's" in cat. First syllable emphasized.

Same with "Alamar" with the emphasis on the first syllable. (Just a side note, since I don't usually get the chance to talk about it... it comes from the Greek verb "alaomai" "to wander" so Alamar is loosely translated as "the Wanderer.")

"Meric" has a short e and a hard C at the end (not that I could think of any other way to pronounce it, just thought I would say so).

-poAlamar

rex
Veteran
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Jul 22, 2006 9:01 pm
Location: Canada

#5 Post by rex » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:12 pm

Rex is pronounced just as it spells out, 'Rex'

adanath
Champion
Posts: 505
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 9:36 am
Location: Lynchburg, VA

#6 Post by adanath » Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:42 pm

Rex = Pay-dro (long o and a)

User avatar
genesis
Wizard
Posts: 230
Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:48 am
Location: Finland, Helsinki
Contact:

#7 Post by genesis » Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:22 pm

Genesis, for pronunciation see the Bible. :P
Genesis the ideaSpawner

User avatar
chara
Wizard
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:54 am

#8 Post by chara » Thu Jan 18, 2007 6:09 am

Personally, I pronounce Arborea AR-bore-ee-ah, and Elvandar EL-vinn-dahr


Chara has two short a's - CHAR-ah

User avatar
Vargrahim
Master
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 5:47 am
Location: VALHALL

#9 Post by Vargrahim » Thu Jan 18, 2007 8:16 am

chara wrote:Chara has two short a's - CHAR-ah
Soft or hard "ch"?
"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil." - Albert Einstein

User avatar
chara
Wizard
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:54 am

#10 Post by chara » Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:24 am

Ch like "Chair" or "change" :)

User avatar
Vargrahim
Master
Posts: 189
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 5:47 am
Location: VALHALL

#11 Post by Vargrahim » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:05 am

And I always thought it was hard.. =)
"The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil." - Albert Einstein

Olrane
Champion
Posts: 780
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:56 am
Location: Illinois

#12 Post by Olrane » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:13 am

Mine's not tough, ol-RAYN

Thom I always pronounced with a "theta" sound, not like the name Thomas, but rather like the word "that".

One I've always wondered about was Zhakrin. Is the Zh supposed to be pronounced as /zh/ as in American dictionaries (I hate their damned annoying phonetic keys, they don't make sense), that is, like the consonant in the word Asia? Or is it simply supposed to be pronounced as a Z, with the H ignored?
Personally, I've always pronounced it ZAH-krin, though I've tried to make it sound like JAH-krin in my head to follow my presumption that the Zh was intentional.

User avatar
Abharsair
Site Admin
Posts: 901
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2005 11:24 am
Location: Regensburg, Germany
Contact:

#13 Post by Abharsair » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:15 am

Hah, I can do better than all of you and I put up a wave sound file which shows exactly how my name is pronounced: Click here to listen.

User avatar
chara
Wizard
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:54 am

#14 Post by chara » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:18 am

I've always pronounced Zhakrin as

ZAK-rynn

Olrane
Champion
Posts: 780
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 12:56 am
Location: Illinois

#15 Post by Olrane » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:22 am

And I thought I'd pitch in and say that my version of Asador is uh-SAY-dor.
It seems that no one will agree.

User avatar
Devi
Hero
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:58 am

#16 Post by Devi » Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:27 am

As a Tolkien fan, I feel a bit silly for asking, but I must know. How do you pronounce Quenya and Khuzdul?

I usually say kuhz duhl (both with schwas) and kay nee ah... although I have a feeling the second isn't even close.

Does anyone know how Yegerfin is pronounced? I usually say it like Jaegermeister.
Cemoch?
Blizt? (I usually just say Blitz. :)

Btw - Tatiana, I was shocked to read that pronounciation.

User avatar
chara
Wizard
Posts: 456
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:54 am

#17 Post by chara » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:25 am

I pronounce Quenya like QWEN-ya. I have no idea if that's "right" or not.

I pronounce Yegerfin like YAY-grr-fin, though I've heard other pronounce it as JEG-grr-fin. I have heard PO Yegerfin pronounce it, but I've totally forgotten which way he does it! :oops:

User avatar
yegerfin
Journeyman
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 4:37 pm
Location: Belgrade, Serbia

#18 Post by yegerfin » Mon Jan 22, 2007 8:20 am

chara wrote:I pronounce Yegerfin like YAY-grr-fin, though I've heard other pronounce it as JEG-grr-fin. I have heard PO Yegerfin pronounce it, but I've totally forgotten which way he does it! :oops:
Wow, post about me not related to fighting/size :)

well, since i got name by banging random keys and selecting one that looked like a name, only pronounciation i have is my native one - exactly as is written, one sound only for one letter :) With exception of Y which doesn't exist in my native language... so...

y as in... (y)es?
e as in r(e)d... both of them
g as in '(g)o', not as in (g)iant
e... exactly same as last one
r... seems english doesn't have proper r, so '(r)un' will work as any other r...

last fin is pronounced just like word fin, so...

f as in (f)ree
i as... fr(ee) again... yeah, not what you used to, but it's what i'm used to :)
n as in ru(n) again...



concatenate all of those, and it's how i pronounced it... probably not how most of you did though :)

User avatar
Sairina
Hero
Posts: 434
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:40 pm

#19 Post by Sairina » Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:45 am

I don't know about Khuzdul, but Quenya is pronounced like this:
Qu like in "question"
e short like in "den"
ny = Like n in "El Nino"
a = short, like in "arm"

Blizt
Hero
Posts: 263
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2005 12:14 pm
Location: Tennessee

#20 Post by Blizt » Mon Jan 22, 2007 11:23 am

Blizt = Blitz.

Drunken character creation.

Post Reply