Drizzt Pronunciation

[Samba Mentality]

A friend of mine and I were having a debate about this recently. He was pronouncing Drizzt "drits", and I was pronouncing it "drizzt". Is either correct?

[tomandtish]

Per the author, your friend is correct.

At 2.23 in the clip

[Kaptin Keen]

Well ... some human child in one of the books pronounces it Drizzit. From drunkards and children shall ye know the truth, and that always settled the debate for me. It's Drizzit, and Salvatore can't run away from it now :p

[Imbalance]

Why do we even have an alphabet, Brett Farve? I guess Salvatore is actually pronounced Travalsore, too? Hi, guys, I'm Nalmibace. Meh. I'll stick with how it reads.

[username1]

Per the author, your friend is correct.

At 2.23 in the clip

Ha! I was right!

[Mr Beer]

Why do we even have an alphabet, Brett Farve? I guess Salvatore is actually pronounced Travalsore, too? Hi, guys, I'm Nalmibace. Meh. I'll stick with how it reads.

Yep this.

Not like I often use it in a sentence, but when I do, I will continue to say, "No you may not play a drizzt clone".

[Porcupinata]

Drizzle. Fo' shizzle.

[Faily]

As heard in the video above, and in the Demon Stone videogame, it's pronounced "Dritst". So it seems like the name follows the rule of two Z's becoming a "ts" sound (like in pizza and mozzarella).

So "Drits-t".

Well ... some human child in one of the books pronounces it Drizzit. From drunkards and children shall ye know the truth, and that always settled the debate for me. It's Drizzit, and Salvatore can't run away from it now :p

So the child probably said "Dritsit", which makes sense as children usually have a harder time of pronouncing words, especially if they use sounds they're not familiar with.

[Kaptin Keen]

So the child probably said "Dritsit", which makes sense as children usually have a harder time of pronouncing words, especially if they use sounds they're not familiar with.

Nopes. Drizzt tells the kid his name, and the kid runs off shouting precisely what he heard - 'mom, dad ... it's a drizzit!' Or something so similar as makes no difference. No takesy-backsies, Salvatore!

[Malifice]

I believe the correct pronunciation is 'Maaree-Soo'.

[Deophaun]

I believe the correct pronunciation is 'Maaree-Soo'.

This board needs a "Like" button.

[Hackulator]

Per the author, your friend is correct.

At 2.23 in the clip

Who cares what that ******* says, he killed Chewbacca.

[Draconi Redfir]

i always thought it was like "dry zits"so roughly "Dri-ZIT"

[Imbalance]

I believe the correct pronunciation is 'Maaree-Soo'.

I literally lol'd at this for its truthiness.

[lightningcat]

Who cares what that ******* says, he killed Chewbacca.

He dropped a moon on Chewbacca. That death had meaning and resonance. Now if they would have just let the younger character take over and let the movie character fad into the background I might have actually cared about the later books of the New Jedi Order.
The death of Anikin was an utter waste.

[Maelynn]

it seems like the name follows the rule of two Z's becoming a "ts" sound (like in pizza and mozzarella).

So "Drits-t".

While technically a double z is always followed by a vowel, I think this is a good explanation for the pronunciation. I've always pronounced is as 'dritst' (although with a softer t, more like a d) because it felt that way, but never really stopped to think why.

[Consensus]

Theres a guy I know named after the character. People say it the way that it rhymes with schist.

[Tanarii]

Everyone I know at local game stores pronounces it Driz-zit. So clearly that's correct.

[NRSASD]

Everyone I know at local game stores pronounces it Driz-zit. So clearly that's correct.

That's how I've always pronounced it, but honestly, if Drizzt doesn't rhyme with Bzzzzzt! you're missing out

[Kaptin Keen]

Everyone I know at local game stores pronounces it Driz-zit. So clearly that's correct.

That's also what the boy in the book said ... it's indisputable! =)

[hamishspence]

Nopes. Drizzt tells the kid his name, and the kid runs off shouting precisely what he heard - 'mom, dad ... it's a drizzit!' Or something so similar as makes no difference.

Drizzt does try to correct the boy's pronounciation when he pronounces it with two i's "drizz-it".

Which would suggest that the extra i is a mispronunciation.

[Kaptin Keen]

Drizzt does try to correct the boy's pronounciation when he pronounces it with two i's "drizz-it".

Which would suggest that the extra i is a mispronunciation.

Shh! :p

Well, obviously you're correct, and I had silently hoped no one but me remembered the scene in question. My take is that the boy is close enough for jazz - that what Salvatore is trying to say is that elven vocal chords and human ears don't necessarily align perfectly.

[Solamnicknight]

You had to bring it up! Funnily enough I'm re-reading the Drizzt novels for fun right now. I remember coming across this webcomic that shows just how blasted hard his name is to pronounce. http://www.weregeek.com/2011/08/11/ FYI this is part of why I prefer the Dragonlance books when it comes to cheesy 80s D&D novels, at least I can pronounce the names in that. Raistlin, Tanis, Sturm Laurana and Tasslehoff are a lot simpler than those word salad drow names Salvatore came up with. However I will say Salvatore is really good at describing action scenes.

[RedMage125]

For what it's worth, in Baldur's Gate, the only TSR-official source that had a voice for him, pronounced it phonetically, which, with my Midwest accent, sounds a lot like "drizsdt".

Drizzle. Fo' shizzle.

This reminds me of 8-Bit Theater...

Fighter: Guys, we've been captured by the dark elf, "Driz'zle".

Black Mage: I hope he doesn't evolve into Trop'kal St'orm.

Thief: You guys know, in Elven, "Driz'zle" means "the relentless scourge"?*

Black Mage: Yeah, the relentless scourge of having a really stupid name.


*Fun fact: According to the old Dragon Magazine article that had a table for drow names, this is true. The table can be found on the internet. For what it's worth, "Driz'zt" means "relentless hunter".