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View Full Version : Difficult Names to Pronounce (And their correct pronunciations)



Maquise
2015-05-30, 01:17 PM
It seems to me that for a usually-spoken medium such as tabletop/pen and paper roleplaying games, we sure have a lot of unpronounceable names. Such as sahuagin. How does one pronounce that? Feel free to add any other terms from DnD/Pathfinder that you don't know how to pronounce, and correct pronunciations for previous ones on the list.

On a tangentially related note, how many people intentionally mispronounce daemon "day-mon" or something similar, just to be able to distinguish them from their chaotic counterparts?

sakuuya
2015-05-30, 01:28 PM
Wizards put out a (somewhat) helpful guide, which can be found under here (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_FAQ.asp) under "How do you pronounce...?"

According to them, sahuagin is sah-HWAH-gin, but I don't know if that's a soft or hard g.

Keltest
2015-05-30, 01:34 PM
Wizards put out a (somewhat) helpful guide, which can be found under here (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_FAQ.asp) under "How do you pronounce...?"

According to them, sahuagin is sah-HWAH-gin, but I don't know if that's a soft or hard g.

its a hard G. Also, I pronounce Daemon as Day-mon, as opposed to Dee-mon for Demon.

Honest Tiefling
2015-05-30, 01:50 PM
its a hard G. Also, I pronounce Daemon as Day-mon, as opposed to Dee-mon for Demon.

Butchering words from other languages is indeed a long-standing part of the English speaking cultural legacy. That, and I don't want people confused if they meet a daemon because they will assume a demon.

Forgotten Realms has the Iyachtu Xvim character, which I often pronounce as 'Bob' to make things easier.

Eldan
2015-05-30, 02:40 PM
It seems to me that for a usually-spoken medium such as tabletop/pen and paper roleplaying games, we sure have a lot of unpronounceable names. Such as sahuagin. How does one pronounce that? Feel free to add any other terms from DnD/Pathfinder that you don't know how to pronounce, and correct pronunciations for previous ones on the list.

On a tangentially related note, how many people intentionally mispronounce daemon "day-mon" or something similar, just to be able to distinguish them from their chaotic counterparts?

Mispronounce... eh. Just because I may choose Latin over English pronounciations doesn't mean it's wrong.

Keltest
2015-05-30, 02:45 PM
Butchering words from other languages is indeed a long-standing part of the English speaking cultural legacy. That, and I don't want people confused if they meet a daemon because they will assume a demon.

Forgotten Realms has the Iyachtu Xvim character, which I often pronounce as 'Bob' to make things easier.

I see you Xvim and raise you Lord Bob. (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=6060)

Anonymouswizard
2015-05-30, 05:05 PM
First off, I have a tendency to use Mandarin for names, as I have a rough idea of how to pronounce it and others can get the gist quickly.

Secondly, I say daemon as day-mon and demon as de-mon (with the long e), due to thatbeing how I was taught and a good identifier as to which. I even use daymon in Warhammer, where demon is the official pronunciation.

goto124
2015-05-31, 02:02 AM
That, and I don't want people confused if they meet a daemon because they will assume a demon.

I do the same for worm and wyrm (why-erm). That's an even bigger difference xD

Honest Tiefling
2015-05-31, 03:20 AM
I see you Xvim and raise you Lord Bob. (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=6060)

I concede to Lord Dijonmustardmon. Was Sony just trying to **** with players or something?

The worm/wyrm thing makes sense, through I fear my players are too dragon happy for this to work on them.

JeenLeen
2015-06-02, 04:09 PM
I concede to Lord Dijonmustardmon. Was Sony just trying to **** with players or something?

The worm/wyrm thing makes sense, through I fear my players are too dragon happy for this to work on them.

Reminds me. What's the thought on Wyld? I've heard some pronounce it like 'wild', others like 'weird', or is it another pronunciation?

For names in general, I had one game where we couldn't remember the name of an NPC after vising a few houses to investigate stuff, so I called him Dude H rather than bother.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-02, 04:14 PM
Reminds me. What's the thought on Wyld? I've heard some pronounce it like 'wild', others like 'weird', or is it another pronunciation?

I say 'wild' because y and i normally sound similar. Never heard anything else used.

I've encountered more problems with wyrm, having heard both 'worm' and 'wir-uhm' used.

JAL_1138
2015-06-02, 04:42 PM
Odd one: grognard is a French word (meaning "grumbler," and implying an old military veteran, esp. one who complains a lot) and actually sounds like someone saying "groaner" with a heavy French accent, "grow-narr" or "grow-ñarr." I still pronounce it "grog-nard" anyway because it sounds funnier.

Honest Tiefling
2015-06-02, 04:44 PM
Odd one: grognard is a French word (meaning "grumbler," and implying an old military veteran, esp. one who complains a lot) and actually sounds like someone saying "groaner" with a heavy French accent, "grow-narr" or "grow-ñarr." I still pronounce it "grog-nard" anyway because it sounds funnier.

I pronounce it that way, but that is because as an American it is my patriotic duty to not understand how French works. Also, I find it confusing.

JAL_1138
2015-06-02, 04:53 PM
as an American it is my patriotic duty to not understand how French works

Damn straight. :smallbiggrin:

My grasp of the French language is limited to Wiktionary-ing that word, anything on the label of a bottle of booze, a few things to do with fine Chapuis rifles and shotguns I can't possibly afford because I could buy a decent low-mileage used car instead if I had that kind of money, a few pieces from Monty Python skits, a few philosophers' names, and a few types of food.

Edit: I also learned how to say "hello," "please," "thank you," "where is the restroom," "where is the American Embassy," "please take me to the American Embassy," "I don't speak French," "I need to call the American Embassy," and "here is my wallet, please do not stab me" for when I went over there, but I've forgotten most of it.

VoxRationis
2015-06-02, 07:06 PM
My first big exposure to "ae" in orthography was through Latin, and I was trained to use classical pronunciations (always hard C, V sounds like W, etc.), so I'm always inclined to pronounce it like "aye," making it die-mun. But I recognize that's not popular.

Lord Torath
2015-06-03, 07:34 AM
Huh. I used to pronounce Sahuagin as SAW-hah-gwin until I looked at it a bit closer. Now I use SAW-wah-jin. And DAY-mon for daemon. Yes, even in Warhammer 40k.

So how do you say "Otyugh"?

VoxRationis
2015-06-03, 12:04 PM
Oht-yug, I would imagine.

I wish I had the IPA on this keyboard.

Ravian
2015-06-03, 12:20 PM
Huh. I used to pronounce Sahuagin as SAW-hah-gwin until I looked at it a bit closer. Now I use SAW-wah-jin. And DAY-mon for daemon. Yes, even in Warhammer 40k.

So how do you say "Otyugh"?

I generally go for either O-T-Yug or O-Th-Yug.

Sahuagin is Sa-Wagh-in.

Daemon is odd. When it's clearly used as a substitute for demon, (as in Warhammer 40k) I pronounce it as such. If it's clear it's something different (such as D&D's neutral-evil fiends, or Phillip Pullmans animal soul companions from the Golden Compass) than I call it a Day-mon. (This is largely to reduce confusion, since in D&D demons and daemons are different creatures, and because I hate confusing people when I describe His Dark Materials (even though I'm pretty sure Pullman intentionally used the demon pronunciation considering his attitude towards religion.)

Daremonai
2015-06-03, 01:46 PM
So how do you say "Otyugh"?

Well it's a stab in the dark, but the Final Fantasy series has a similar monster whose name is romanised as "Ochu"...

VoxRationis
2015-06-03, 02:36 PM
That's probably because Japanese has no 'tu' or 'tyu' sound. It has 'つ' and 'ちゅ', the latter of which is best said 'chu'.

Aedilred
2015-06-03, 04:30 PM
I say 'wild' because y and i normally sound similar. Never heard anything else used.

I've encountered more problems with wyrm, having heard both 'worm' and 'wir-uhm' used.

I believe that the conventional pronunciation of both is as "worm".

However, this is a linguistic development that's resulted in an odd shift in that pattern of words: both "warm" and "worm" have changed their pronunciations. By the vowels, you'd expect "worm" to rhyme with "form" and "warm" to rhyme with "farm", and indeed these were, broadly speaking, the original pronunciations. At some point, they shifted so that "worm" started to be pronounced to rhyme with "firm" and "warm" to rhyme with "form".

In some dialects the three words are still pronounced differently, but in most, "worm" and "wyrm" are now pretty much aurally indistinguishable.

Ravian
2015-06-03, 10:24 PM
I believe that the conventional pronunciation of both is as "worm".

However, this is a linguistic development that's resulted in an odd shift in that pattern of words: both "warm" and "worm" have changed their pronunciations. By the vowels, you'd expect "worm" to rhyme with "form" and "warm" to rhyme with "farm", and indeed these were, broadly speaking, the original pronunciations. At some point, they shifted so that "worm" started to be pronounced to rhyme with "firm" and "warm" to rhyme with "form".

In some dialects the three words are still pronounced differently, but in most, "worm" and "wyrm" are now pretty much aurally indistinguishable.

Wyrm is another weird one for me. For some reason I make a conscious effort to pronounce it in a way that sounds almost exactly the same. I always emphasize the -er- sound in the middle, kind of like Whirl with an M replacing the L. Of course I realize that the regular pronunciation sounds so similar they might as well be identical, but for some reason I can mentally tell the difference between the two so I consider it important enough to distinguish the two. (mostly because it feels like most wyrms would resent being called worms.)

goto124
2015-06-04, 03:12 AM
(mostly because it feels like most wyrms would resent being called worms.)

Fairies and faeries?

Keltest
2015-06-04, 05:16 AM
Fairies and faeries?

You know, most authors I know of go with one or the other unless they refer to radically different things, in which case context will let you know which is which.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-04, 08:42 AM
Wyrm is another weird one for me. For some reason I make a conscious effort to pronounce it in a way that sounds almost exactly the same. I always emphasize the -er- sound in the middle, kind of like Whirl with an M replacing the L. Of course I realize that the regular pronunciation sounds so similar they might as well be identical, but for some reason I can mentally tell the difference between the two so I consider it important enough to distinguish the two. (mostly because it feels like most wyrms would resent being called worms.)

I personally use a different tone, worm is flat and wyrm descends. Whirm would just sound like you're stressing the w, so I'd distinguish butlikely not instantly (I have enough chinese friends that I'm used to hearing odd stress).


Fairies and faeries?

Both are pronounced fair folk :smallwink:

GungHo
2015-06-04, 08:46 AM
I only pronounce daemon as daymon when playing D&D because daemon and demon are two different things there. They really did themselves a disservice there.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-04, 08:54 AM
I only pronounce daemon as daymon when playing D&D because daemon and demon are two different things there. They really did themselves a disservice there.

D&D daemons are completely different from mythological daemons (which is different from demons although I'd believe that they share a root). I use daemon to remind people that the word doesn't mean demon.

In a game I was in we played members of the daemonhunter organisation, where we worked as demonhunters hunting demons, daemon was intentionally used to a) give something that allowed us to differentiate ourselves from our government funded counterparts and b) so it was clear if something referred to the organisation or profession. This only worked because, in setting, daemons had been proved to not exist.

goto124
2015-06-04, 08:32 PM
Warhammer 40k daemons- are they closer to DnD demons or DnD daemons?

Talyn
2015-06-04, 08:45 PM
Otyugh - OH-tee-ug.
Daemon - I say DAY-mun, even though I actually speak a little Latin and know it ought to be DYE-monn. Not sure why, to be honest.
Sahuagin - sa-HWA-gin, with a hard "g"

Also, I don't speak French, but I was under the impression that "grognard" is pronounced "GRAWN-yar."

How about Aarakocra? I pronounce it "AIR-ah-KO-krah," but I have no idea if that is correct.

Verte
2015-06-04, 10:45 PM
Daemon I usually pronounce "day-mun". Sahuagin I pronounce "Sah-WAH-gin". Otyugh I pronounce "OT-you" so that it rhymes with "NOT-hugh" - I tend to think of -gh as having a soft, aspirated, sound. Wyrm and worm I pronounce roughly the same way. I have no idea how to pronounce Achaierai, so I usually refer to them as Giant Hell Chickens.

Admiral Squish
2015-06-04, 11:06 PM
I only realized I was saying sahuagin wrong when I checked out the D&D online game, where they had actual people say it.
Also, I've always said it 'Oat-yoog'. Or 'oh-tyoog'.

Work on my setting has led me to whole new realms of failure in terms of pronunciation. I've pretty much given up on saying anything aloud in Nahuatl. Mandarin seemed easier, but then I tried it in front of my mandarin-speaking friend and was sworn to never do it again. Inuit words are basically entire sentences without spaces. Then there's dozens of other native american languages, too, and countless dialects of each, every single one of them bearing their own linguistic weirdness.

Kami2awa
2015-06-05, 01:28 AM
Otyugh - OH-tee-ug.
Daemon - I say DAY-mun, even though I actually speak a little Latin and know it ought to be DYE-monn. Not sure why, to be honest.
Sahuagin - sa-HWA-gin, with a hard "g"

Also, I don't speak French, but I was under the impression that "grognard" is pronounced "GRAWN-yar."

How about Aarakocra? I pronounce it "AIR-ah-KO-krah," but I have no idea if that is correct.

"Daemon" can be used as an alternative spelling of "demon" in English, and it's pronounced the same. It also by itself refers to a guardian or guiding spirit, rather than an evil one.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-05, 03:18 AM
Mandarin seemed easier, but then I tried it in front of my mandarin-speaking friend and was sworn to never do it again.

Really? I found that once you get past the fact it uses a different set of sounds (which can be difficult) Mandarin is a fairly simple language to pronounce. There's only four tones, with only the third tone (down and then up) giving me any trouble despite it being in my friend's name. Pinyin is also a consistent phonetic system, so once you've learnt it you should be able to get a new pronunciation almost instantly. (Also pause between each word as if there was a comma there, your pause will be slightly long but you'll be speaking properly)

Kalmageddon
2015-06-05, 04:07 AM
Since I'm italian, I tend to pronounce things as written, which oddly enough, according to WotC, makes me use the correct pronounciation for most of those weird monster names, except "drow". Here in Italy I don't know anyone that doesn't pronounce it "drow", with the "ow" sound identical to the verb "own", sometimes skipping the "w" sound entirely and producing something like "drò".

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-05, 04:48 AM
Since I'm italian, I tend to pronounce things as written, which oddly enough, according to WotC, makes me use the correct pronounciation for most of those weird monster names, except "drow". Here in Italy I don't know anyone that doesn't pronounce it "drow", with the "ow" sound identical to the verb "own", sometimes skipping the "w" sound entirely and producing something like "drò".

I'm fairly certain drow should rhyme with how and not though, the latter would be dro. I've never met anybody who doesn't try and pronounce D&D names phonetically.

The one that still gets me is the fact that Americans pronounce Wally as Waldo, which makes talking to my half-american friend confusing at times.

The best mispronunciation I ever heard was 'wampire', which made me think of a chibi count Dracula.

SCAL37
2015-06-05, 05:14 AM
In the case of "Otyugh", I tend to pronounce the "gh" as /γ/ (voiced velar fricative) as in Irish and the "ty" as /c/ (voiceless palatal plosive) as in Hungarian (that sound is also present in Irish). "Daemon" I pronounce as in Latin (I learned my Latin pronunciation from Ars Magica, which uses classical pronunciation), I pronounce the y in "Wyld" as /y/ (like German "ü" or French "u"), and "wyrm" as "wirm" rather than "worm" (which I know doesn't make sense as a distinction in a lot of accents).

I should think of some more of these. I have a fondness for pronunciation, which unfortunately leaves me with a tendency to create characters with names that other people find hard to pronounce; I gave my Guild Wars character a name with three syllables and one vowel, and my Pathfinder Society character a name where neither of the vowels exist in most forms of English.

Keltest
2015-06-05, 05:28 AM
I'm fairly certain drow should rhyme with how and not though, the latter would be dro. I've never met anybody who doesn't try and pronounce D&D names phonetically.

The one that still gets me is the fact that Americans pronounce Wally as Waldo, which makes talking to my half-american friend confusing at times.

The best mispronunciation I ever heard was 'wampire', which made me think of a chibi count Dracula.

Ive never heard an American "pronounce" Wally as Waldo, theyre just two separate names (or shortenings of a larger source name). And living in America I think I may have a larger sample size than you.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-05, 05:49 AM
Ive never heard an American "pronounce" Wally as Waldo, theyre just two separate names (or shortenings of a larger source name). And living in America I think I may have a larger sample size than you.

I'm joking, I'm talking about the 'Where's Wally' books. There was no need to change the name on those books. It also makes people fail to get my were-wally joke (on a full moon you become invisible, as long as you're in a crowd).

hewhosaysfish
2015-06-05, 06:55 AM
Since I'm italian, I tend to pronounce things as written, which oddly enough, according to WotC, makes me use the correct pronounciation for most of those weird monster names, except "drow". Here in Italy I don't know anyone that doesn't pronounce it "drow", with the "ow" sound identical to the verb "own", sometimes skipping the "w" sound entirely and producing something like "drò".

I know on an intellectual level that "drow" should be pronounced to rhyme with the English "throw" rather than like the English "cow" because it is apparently derived from Scandanvian folklore and the word "trow" which is also the origin on word "troll"....

...but I'd been playing DnD for years before I heard that etymonlogy and I had already internalised drow-rhymes-with-cow. So that's still how I pronounce it even though I know that it's incorrect.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2015-06-05, 07:19 AM
Also, I don't speak French, but I was under the impression that "grognard" is pronounced "GRAWN-yar

Close, but in French you always without exception stress the last syllable of a word. You can be speaking perfect French but stressing the first syllable and you'd end up sounding like an American tourist.

Lord Torath
2015-06-05, 07:42 AM
We already had the Drow pronunciation discussion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?386804-Drow-like-snow). Spoiler: It rhymes with "Bow". :smalltongue:

GungHo
2015-06-05, 10:17 AM
Warhammer 40k daemons- are they closer to DnD demons or DnD daemons?

Neither, really. I guess if you have to relate it to something, WH daemons are closer to Obryths, which are a demon subtype. WH daemons are Things that Should Not Be that drive chaos and insanity wherever they go. They have a lot less physicality than D&D demons have taken on in recent editions, and them being able to take on physical form in Realspace is a Bad Thing.

Kalmageddon
2015-06-05, 02:04 PM
We already had the Drow pronunciation discussion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?386804-Drow-like-snow). Spoiler: It rhymes with "Bow". :smalltongue:

In the FAQ of D&D Advanced they say it's pronounced like "dràw"... Unless I misread...

Maglubiyet
2015-06-05, 06:00 PM
What about djinn and djinni? I have always said them like JIN and GENIE.

Anonymouswizard
2015-06-05, 06:04 PM
What about djinn and djinni? I have always said them like JIN and GENIE.

Jin and jin-ee is what I've always heard, although I can see an argument for jin-ni or ji-ni.

BootStrapTommy
2015-06-05, 06:46 PM
DDO taught me how to pronounce sahuagin.

It's sah-WAH-gwin.

Here's a question. How is "Gwynedd" pronounced? Or "Penddraig"?

ddude987
2015-06-05, 06:55 PM
"Daemon" can be used as an alternative spelling of "demon" in English, and it's pronounced the same. It also by itself refers to a guardian or guiding spirit, rather than an evil one.

Not necessarily. At least in the computer field for Unix based systems "daemon" is the term for a service and is pronounced DAY-mon and the word comes from daemon as in demon

VoxRationis
2015-06-05, 08:45 PM
DDO taught me how to pronounce sahuagin.

It's sah-WAH-gwin.

Here's a question. How is "Gwynedd" pronounced? Or "Penddraig"?

Those are from Welsh. I'm not sure about w and y (I think they have vowel values, but I'm not sure what they are), but dd is the voiced interdental fricative, the same sound that begins "thy" in English. Double-l is another one that ends up pronounced differently than one might think, but again, I don't know that off the top of my head.

Maglubiyet
2015-06-08, 11:26 AM
This one looks easy on the surface, but I've heard it different ways: WYVERN.

Is it WHY-vern or w'VERN? Or something else?

Keltest
2015-06-08, 11:54 AM
This one looks easy on the surface, but I've heard it different ways: WYVERN.

Is it WHY-vern or w'VERN? Or something else?

I believe both are technically correct, depending on who's talking. I pronounce it WHY-vern myself.

Maglubiyet
2015-06-08, 12:16 PM
Here's a question. How is "Gwynedd" pronounced? Or "Penddraig"?

"Gwynedd" is pronounced Gwyneth, like Gwyneth Paltrow.

"Penddraig" is Pen Thraig.


I believe both are technically correct, depending on who's talking. I pronounce it WHY-vern myself.

Yeah, I always say w'VERN.

Lord Torath
2015-06-08, 12:29 PM
This one looks easy on the surface, but I've heard it different ways: WYVERN.

Is it WHY-vern or w'VERN? Or something else?I've always said it like WEAVE-urn. <shrug>

VoxRationis
2015-06-08, 12:50 PM
'wI.vern

Sigh. I wish I had IPA on this computer. I pronounce it with the emphasis on the first syllable, the first vowel a lower-close front unrounded vowel (like in "sick"), and the second one a schwa.

GungHo
2015-06-09, 08:51 AM
I usually pronounce it wi-vern (short I). I know plenty of people who pronounce it why-vern. I don't think it matters, though Wikipedia seems to indicate it's why-vern, if I am reading the pronunciation guide right. Ultimately it's a made up creature. It's not like you're messing with someone's name and calling some dude named Blake Bah-LAH-kay. If the wyverns are upset, they're welcome to #faeworldproblems. There are some things though that do sound a little strange... like if you're pronouncing dragon as dray-ghun, but wyvern seems to be one of those things that it's okay to vary on and no one really gets upset about. The drow thing, though, I have seen fights around that.