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Vaarsuvius_Prime
2005-10-11, 01:06 AM
I can pronounce Greenhilt, Starshine, Redcloak, etc, but can't Vaarsuvius, Xykon....Could The Giant give us a pronounce guide?

Thanks.

Grey Watcher
2005-10-11, 01:52 AM
Well, I always figured Vaarsuvius was pronounced like Vesuvius, jsut with an "ar" in place of the initial "e". And Xykon I always thought was "Zie (rhymes with die or fly)- Kon (rhymes with pawn or gone)"

Nikolai_II
2005-10-11, 05:43 AM
EE-lin
HAY-lee
vahr-SOOV-ee-us
DUHR-kon
ROY
BELL-karr
ZYE-kon
NAIL
sa-BEEN
THOG
YIK YIK
ZIZ-di-tree
HILL-gee-ya
DOOR-oo-kon

If anyone has any other names I forgot, let me know.


[...]

Vaarsuvius_Prime
2005-10-11, 06:24 AM
Thanks ;D

Buzzfloyd
2005-10-11, 07:44 AM
"EE-lin"? I've been pronouncing it wrong all along! I thought it was "ay-LAN" or "ay-LAHN", as in the actual word:

é·lan
n.
Enthusiastic vigor and liveliness.
Distinctive style or flair

I thought it a very bardly name.

ref
2005-10-11, 12:44 PM
I read that as SHY-can. Also, bar-SOO-byoos.

Midnight Son
2005-10-11, 01:05 PM
Hmmm. That doesn't really help. I have almost all of them right, but I'm still not sure for Roy and Thog.

The Giant
2005-10-11, 02:43 PM
Assuming that wasn't sarcasm, "Roy" rhymes with "boy" or "toy", and "Thog" rhymes with "hog" or "smog" or "bog".

chrek
2005-10-11, 02:52 PM
...Ok, before I look like a moron, you've got to clarify whether you're kidding or not...those are pretty easy pronunciations.

Yay! I wasn't the only one that thought he HAD to be kidding...

Flak_Razorwill
2005-10-11, 07:10 PM
"EE-lin"? I've been pronouncing it wrong all along! I thought it was "ay-LAN" or "ay-LAHN", as in the actual word:

é·lan *
n.
Enthusiastic vigor and liveliness.
Distinctive style or flair

I thought it a very bardly name.

I still like eh-laan better. To each his own.

Sothicus
2005-10-11, 07:19 PM
I've always pronounced Elan as Rich has, ee-lin. That is because my actual name is very close to his. My name often gets confused and is often pronounced with an "el-" instead of an "ee-".

I believe in the English language, ee-lin is the correct pronounciation of the letters in a strict sense. Obviously, when it comes to names, people have different pronounciations for the same letters and rarely stick to the supposed "correct" pronounciation.

I believe In order for Elan's name to start with "el-" the spelling would have to be ellan and in order for it the be "é-" it would have to be spelled that way (i.e. élan) or with an "ei-".

Just my two cents.

Midnight Son
2005-10-11, 07:44 PM
That wasn't sarcasm, but it wasn't serious either. I was pointing out that, in the pronunciation guide, Roy and Thog are ROY and THOG, where all the others have a difference for phonetic purposes. It just amused me. Thanks for the clarification though Giant.

In truth, the only one I have been pronouncing different is Elan. I say it, "Ee-laan."

Buzzfloyd
2005-10-13, 05:03 AM
I believe In order for Elan's name to start with "el-" the spelling would have to be ellan and in order for it the be "é-" it would have to be spelled that way (i.e. élan) or with an "ei-".

Just my two cents.


Elan is a French word, and capital letters don't normally take an accent in French, even if they would when written lower case.

Anyway, I'm going to keep pronouncing Elan's name my way in my head, and YOU CAN'T STOP ME!! Mwahahahaha! ;)

Arian
2005-10-13, 07:14 AM
Anyway, I'm going to keep pronouncing Elan's name my way in my head, and YOU CAN'T STOP ME!! Mwahahahaha! ;)

I do too. :)

I know, "it's not the word, it's his name", but naming a character with the same ... string of letters as make up a common word, and then expecting people not to pronounce it the same way *as* the word?

What next - "This is my fighter Tough, pronounced 'Towg'." ?

Dark
2005-10-13, 08:22 AM
It's always been EE-lan for me. I don't know how the Giant expects me to get the i in "EE-lin" :)

I'd like to introduce you to my barbarian, Ghoti-head.

Midnight Son
2005-10-13, 10:10 PM
I'd like to introduce you to my barbarian, Ghoti-head.I think you should have him marry an Elf princess. There's a fish out of water story if I ever saw one.

Jotoco
2005-10-14, 12:16 AM
I always pronounced ELAN as é-laan. But that is just because I'm from Brasil (yes, with an "s", we write it that way).

And XYKON, was ty-kon in my head

Sothicus
2005-10-14, 12:54 PM
Elan is a French word, and capital letters don't normally take an accent in French, even if they would when written lower case.

Anyway, I'm going to keep pronouncing Elan's name my way in my head, and YOU CAN'T STOP ME!! Mwahahahaha! ;)

Oh, absolutely... you can pronounce it as "John" for all I really care. We were just talking about pronouniations of their names in general and I was assuming an English translation.

And I agree with you, that the name wouldn't have the accent-au-gauche (er, wait... droit? I forget... been to long) due to the fact that it is a capitalized name.

However, in the English language, we often add that mark to recognize it as a non-English name. Since it didn't have that mark, I assumed the only thing that I could with regards to which language names came from.

Just to be clear, I also understand that Miko is pronounced "Mee-ko" and not "My-ko" for two reasons. One, that I understand Japanese pronounciation (as I do French) as well as the fact that Roy brought up the question about JApanese name (to which she answered, "What is Japan"). However that put in my mind that it is intended to be pronounced as a Japanese name, not as an English name.

Gobbo_in_the_Boots
2005-10-14, 02:47 PM
well, for me it was

Xy-con like Xylophone and Convention
Vaarsuvius like Vesuvius and a Dutch-sounding a
Elan like Alan, just the vocal a bit lighter
Haley like Hail-ey
Roy like Royal
Zz'dtri like ZZ like Bee sounds and then d-tri, the d spoken like as it is spelled
Belkar like bell-car
Dorukan like I would pronounce it in German, what would sound like "Doh-ruuh-khan"
that's it from me (*creating posts*)

Nixie
2005-10-14, 02:58 PM
i always pronouced E-lahn, i suppose that just me...
and Miko was always Mee-co...
It's interesting to know i've been pronocing Varrsuvius right though ;)

Sylvius
2005-10-14, 06:39 PM
Elan is not an uncommon name, though I'll admit I've never before seen it on a male.

ə-LAN

Xykon I always thought was pronounced like Xyklon, the German word for cyclone (and a rather infamous gas).

Sylvius
2005-10-14, 06:41 PM
Okay, so the board doesn't like phonetic symbols.

Jothki
2005-10-15, 02:34 AM
I always pronouced the name as ell(L)-awn

Taelas
2005-10-28, 05:35 PM
I believe in the English language, ee-lin is the correct pronounciation of the letters in a strict sense. Obviously, when it comes to names, people have different pronounciations for the same letters and rarely stick to the supposed "correct" pronounciation.
No, that would be 'ee-lahn'. In the strictest sense. Seeing as it's an A and not an I.

Of course, there are no hard rules for pronounciations in normal English--you have to use phonetic symbols for that. There's absolutely nothing wrong with 'ee-lin'.


I believe In order for Elan's name to start with "el-" the spelling would have to be ellan and in order for it the be "é-" it would have to be spelled that way (i.e. élan) or with an "ei-".
English words rarely have accents. In fact, I can't think of any.

Flak_Razorwill
2005-10-30, 09:27 PM
Melée is one that's been grandfathered in.

Here we go: eh-lahn is the way, I guess.

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/elan.html

manscatha
2005-10-31, 05:05 PM
It's so hard not to pronounce elan like the French word... because he *does* have so much elan.

Taelas
2005-11-07, 06:06 PM
Melée is one that's been grandfathered in. *
Actually, that's "mêlée". You can also write it "melee" with absolutely no difference (aside from the pronounciation).

Bogardan_Mage
2005-11-07, 07:34 PM
English words rarely have accents. In fact, I can't think of any.
Well you can write "cafe" and other French-originating words with accents if you want, but nobody really cares.

Some_Guy
2005-11-09, 12:51 PM
I do too. :)

I know, "it's not the word, it's his name", but naming a character with the same ... string of letters as make up a common word, and then expecting people not to pronounce it the same way *as* the word?I, personally, thought it was like the word, but in all fairness, it's not really that common a word, is it?

In english speaking countries, I mean.

xaourcav
2005-11-09, 06:37 PM
Naming characters after words has happened before (bilbo) and I have always prononced elans name as ee-Lahn.

Asfrith
2005-11-28, 09:56 PM
Well, seems I've been spot on with most names, except Elan. Might be because I'm Norwegian, but I've always pronounced his name EH-lahn.

(And I will continue to do so... :))

Iuris
2005-11-30, 06:34 AM
About the -lin in EE-lin (golly, this sounds like assembler...), I think the -lan/ -lin is actually rather mute, like the a in Ian.

thegnome
2005-12-10, 02:34 PM
Hi,

as there are no strict pronounciation rules in Engilsh, especially not for names, does anybody of you have an idea how the giant's family name is pronounced correctly? How he pronounces it himself; wants to hear it by others?

Might be easier for me, to promote Oots at my game sessions, without the awkward moment of "...the guy's called Rich B.. Bur, ... well Giant".

Ayago22
2005-12-10, 07:06 PM
I had them all right in my head except for Elan as well.
I went with the popular people (Eh-Lahn)

Gralamin
2005-12-10, 07:16 PM
HAHA I've been pronucing them all right!
for the record
Pompey is pronouced Pom-pay
fruit pie the sorcerer is pronuced Fruit Pie The Sor-cer-er
Larry Gardener is Lar-e Guard-en-er
Miko Miyazaki I think is Me-co My-a-zak-e (zak rhymes with sock)

Pensive Pine
2005-12-11, 02:57 AM
Like most folks, I've been reading Elan as Eh-lahn, but my brain took a shortcut and turned Vaarsuvius into VAR-sis, and I never really realized that until today.

Beelzebub1111
2005-12-11, 07:29 AM
I was on the money with all exept Elan. I thought that it sounded more similar to Ellen exept with more of an ahn sound

Flak_Razorwill
2005-12-11, 10:31 AM
I use "Meeko" for Miko, and "Mee-yuh-zah-kee" for Miyazaki.

How do you pronounce Pompey? "Pawm-peeh" or "Pawm-pay." The former is closer to the volcano theme, but the latter points to the famous Roman figure.

Ebon_Drake
2005-12-11, 11:40 AM
How do you pronounce Pompey? "Pawm-peeh" or "Pawm-pay." The former is closer to the volcano theme, but the latter points to the famous Roman figure.
hmm, I was taught to pronounce those the other way around, Pompeii as "Pawm-pay" and Pompey as "pawm-peeh." Anyway, I pronounce it the same way as the Roman General as that's how its spelt and would also match with the slightly-off pronounciation of Vaarsuvius.

gadren
2006-01-27, 10:45 PM
It cracks me up when people ask an author how names are supposed to be pronounced, then decide they rather just continue to pronounce it their way.

Its like R.A. Salvatore and Drizzt vs. Drizzit.

NOTE: I'm not criticizing or making fun of anyone here, just pointing out something that strikes me as funny.

colorlessmidnight
2006-02-04, 08:15 PM
I hate it when you pronounce something one way and then when you look in the pronunciation guide it's different. Luckily it isn't for me.

pita
2006-02-05, 03:40 AM
Me and a friend had a competition.
I just figured out i won it.
All thanks to modern people who are more questioning-ful then i am and as such ask someone who knows.

Allanon
2006-04-02, 11:13 PM
Ee-Lahn
Dor-uh-khan

ElfLad
2006-04-03, 01:04 AM
I was right for all but Zz'd'tri. And even after looking at the pronunciation guide, I'm not entirely sure.

Anybody else find it amusing that the Giant used "boy" and "toy", in that order, to rhyme with Roy?

Adeptus
2006-04-03, 01:31 PM
It's so hard not to pronounce elan like the French word... because he *does* have so much elan.

Exactly. I'm surprised to hear Rich say it's not pronounced like the french word for style. I'd still guess that's where the name came from? Actually I'd be pretty shocked to hear id didn't.

Anyway, since Elan has so much of the thing that is his name, I'll keep pronouncing it right it my head. He's a bard afterall, so I bet he can say it right :D

n11
2006-04-03, 03:05 PM
Keep in mind, when the Giant posts in non-red, he is just posting as another member of the boards (only posts in red are granted authority), so I surmise those were just his opinions on how he would pronounce them.

I suspect he couldn't care less how you pronounce them, as long as you buy his merchandise. Of course, if it would make you feel better, we could declare that each book, shirt, or mug you purchase entitles you to pronounce one name "wrong". ;D

Archonic Energy
2006-04-03, 03:08 PM
i'm sure "ray" would object. ;)

Neopolis
2006-04-03, 03:49 PM
Seems like Zz'dtri was the only one I got wrong. I always pronounced it like ssd-TRI. ::)

wibbly
2006-04-03, 05:49 PM
EE-lan. Rhymes with tea-can.

My problem with "English pronunciation" is that I'm actually English... Few English people would ever pronounce Elan with a long "a" or an "i" sound as a first, or even second guess.

Since its an American comic, I like to consider the way I pronounce it to be valid when the comic is translated into "real" English :P

Aereshaa_the_2nd
2006-04-03, 09:06 PM
I always pronounced them like this:

EE-lan {Bee-Sand}
Z-Z-dree
vAHr-sOOvEE-UHs

Gus
2006-04-03, 09:58 PM
Elan is a French word, and capital letters don't normally take an accent in French, even if they would when written lower case.





Oh, absolutely... you can pronounce it as "John" for all I really care. We were just talking about pronouniations of their names in general and I was assuming an English translation.

And I agree with you, that the name wouldn't have the accent-au-gauche (er, wait... droit? I forget... been to long) due to the fact that it is a capitalized name.

However, in the English language, we often add that mark to recognize it as a non-English name. Since it didn't have that mark, I assumed the only thing that I could with regards to which language names came from.


in fact, in French, capital letters should be accentuated as lower-case, because accentuation does bear a meaning in the word (in that it differentiates it from the same unaccentuated word, if it exists). however, traditionally, it was tolerated to omit them, but thanks to computers, there is now no more excuse to omit them, and they shouldn't.
as for how they are called:
é is an "accent aigu" (acute accent) and è is an "accent grave" (grave accent).

Albion
2006-04-04, 08:42 AM
My version of Elan is HEN-LAMP-NICE. And will so remain ;)

Hen, lamp, nice? How does my mind work?

LordOfNarf
2006-04-04, 11:11 PM
i alwary pronounced zz'dtri as zi (long i, like in hit) di(same i sound) tree

redmind0
2006-04-05, 12:11 AM
well, for me it was

Xy-con like Xylophone and Convention
Vaarsuvius like Vesuvius and a Dutch-sounding a
Elan like Alan, just the vocal a bit lighter
Haley like Hail-ey
Roy like Royal
Zz'dtri like ZZ like Bee sounds and then d-tri, the d spoken like as it is spelled
Belkar like bell-car
Dorukan like I would pronounce it in German, what would sound like "Doh-ruuh-khan"
that's it from me (*creating posts*)


The best Ive seen

Soniku
2006-04-05, 06:27 AM
wow, I say Elans name totally different to everyone else >.> Apart from albion! ;D yeah, Im almost unique... now just to stab albion in the eye...

twerk_face
2006-10-07, 12:16 PM
hm.....for me it's

Xycon= ZI (like the letter I) cawn (rymes w/ lawn)

Zz'dtri= zuh (rymes with the U in mUd) DEE (like tree) tree (like....tree ;))

Elan= well, i know someone named elan, and his name is pronounced: uh (rymes with duh) LAWN (rymes with..... lawn ;))

in my mind, elan kinda rymes with baton.

well, thats my opinion. :)

TinSoldier
2006-10-07, 08:29 PM
Elan will always be EE lawn to me.

Borris
2007-05-21, 04:01 AM
Astonighing. I've been pronouncing every name correctly, except for Zz'dtri and Elan. And English isn't even my first language. For some reason, I think that helped though. I just read the names as a French speaker thinks they would sound like in English. Except for Elan, where I just thought of how it would be pronounced in French but with an English accent. That didn't work so well. As for Zz'dtri, well, I still don't know how to pronounce (or even spell) Drizz't. I have no idea if I wrote that right.

EllysW
2007-05-21, 06:01 AM
I'm thinking that the 'i' in the pronunciation of Elan is more of a schwa, really, that indeterminate vowel sound that it's hard to write with any specific letter. At least, that makes sense of it being written 'i.'

Not that I didn't always pronounce it with a short a, rhyming with man, in my own head. Not very graceful that way, though.

Tolkien_Freak
2007-05-21, 06:38 AM
I'm thinking that the 'i' in the pronunciation of Elan is more of a schwa, really, that indeterminate vowel sound that it's hard to write with any specific letter. At least, that makes sense of it being written 'i.'

You write it with 'ə'.

For me, these are them:
‘e.lən
‘hei.li
var.’su.vi.əs (or sometimes var.’su.vi.us)
roi
‘dɹ.kɔn
‘bel.kɔɹ
neil
‘sei.bin
ɵɔg
‘zai.kɔn
‘do.ru.kan
‘li.ri.an
sun
‘mi.ko
‘ʃo.dʒo
‘hin.dʒo

oh, and ‘z:.dtri (try that one!)

If you have no experience with IPA, here. (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa.htm)

PsyBlade
2007-05-21, 08:32 AM
Jaw drops. Thread Necromancy.

Rhyeira
2007-05-21, 01:49 PM
Well, things like that do happen... and in fact I just found that I could add something too, like the fact that for me, 'Hinjo' will always be pronounced with a 'j' as in 'yellow', although I know that in English it would normally be a 'j' as in 'job'.

I usually stick to the English pronunciation, but in this case, I somehow prefer the version my own language would use.

Drolyt
2010-01-01, 06:21 PM
I've been pronouncing Sabine wrong...

The Dark Fiddler
2010-01-01, 06:27 PM
Umm... wow. 3 year thread necromancy. :smalltongue: