Difficult Names to Pronounce (And their correct pronunciations)

[Maquise]

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]

Wizards put out a (somewhat) helpful guide, which can be found under here 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]

Wizards put out a (somewhat) helpful guide, which can be found under here 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]

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]

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]

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.

[Anonymouswizard]

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]

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]

I see you Xvim and raise you Lord Bob.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

as an American it is my patriotic duty to not understand how French works

Damn straight.

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]

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]

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]

Oht-yug, I would imagine.

I wish I had the IPA on this keyboard.

[Ravian]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

(mostly because it feels like most wyrms would resent being called worms.)

Fairies and faeries?

[Keltest]

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]

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

[GungHo]

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]

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]

Warhammer 40k daemons- are they closer to DnD demons or DnD daemons?

[Talyn]

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]

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.