The worst is when you read a book or series when you're young and pronounce it in your mind one way. Then they make a movie or something and it's pronounced very different, and you end up just staying mad about it every time you hear the other version.
I read the first few Wheel of Time books, then got the audio books for the next 8 or so, and when I first made the switch, I spent a good quarter of a book having to re-learn who all of the characters were, since I'd been mentally mispronouncing so many of them.
I read the books 4ish times. 1st time, RJ died so I took a few years off and read it start to finish on my 2nd attempt. Another couple years pass, and I got to book 10 and couldn't do the hunt for Falie again. Stopped. My last attempt was last year. I got to book 4, and then my kid got a PS5 for christmas. I was a real gamer back in the day, and I read all day at work, so I just stopped. I don't read recreationally at all now. It's kind of like how the last thing a chef wants to do when they get home is cook.
Anyway, there's no way in hell that I'd ever pronounce the names right. Some of the more intuitive ones, maybe, but the rest? I'd probably blunder.
Arguably the worst book in the series is 10. I got slagged for 4 years at that point until surrendering to the audiobook. It felt like a disjointed midpoint with nowhere to go. So, feel you on just abandoning joy because quitting wasn’t an option.
Damn, I've gaslit myself with the movie pronunciation that I forgot how high school me would've pronounced. Maybe back then I was just giddy to see a book I loved reading on the silver screen.
My personal favorite is when you think your brain is pronouncing a coherent guess at it until the first time you try to say it aloud and realize your folly.
No such problems, when your native language uses phonetic alphabet! Is the pronounciation like the author intended then? Likely not, but you can still pronounce every word, without having to think.
I've heard that people who were born completely deaf can read much faster than hearing people, because they don't have to pronounce the words in their head in order to process them.
I find this weirdly sad. I always tried to understand the name of the character and how it may be pronounced (I'm seriously going to include a glossary with IPA for all proper nouns if I ever produce anything for real publication). To me it's a part of the world-building and I almost recoil at just replacing it with nonsense.
I'm French Canadian and we used to read Archie as a bathroom rag and I'd rather not say how I pronounce Jughead and Weatherbee even still to this day.
On another note I remember being happily surprised Drizzt had a cameo in the original Baldur's Gate ii game. My friend said you could scum save and roll stealing his very powerful swords. Never took the time to do it though (wasn't a thief).
Coriolanus, CORIOLANUS?? illegible and like come on, the author ended the name with ANUS and was like yes that’s perfect?? My daughter read the whole book before she realized his name wasn’t Cornelius cause her brain auto corrected it to a real name
Timothy Zahn has Lucas's flair for naming. But he really doesn't give a damn if you can say it out loud or not. At least he's self aware enough that the last one is canonically unpronounceable to most beings of other species.
I've always read it as "Drizzit Doe-urden", but that second "i" is pretty much silent. Though I suspect it might be "oorden" instead of "urden", or maybe even "yourden".
69 replies
The worst is when you read a book or series when you're young and pronounce it in your mind one way. Then they make a movie or something and it's pronounced very different, and you end up just staying mad about it every time you hear the other version.
Hogfather.
Teatime.
Pronounced:
"Teh AH tim eh."
Terry took the time to type that.
The actor in the movie? (Marc Warren)
"Tee a TIME ay"
He and the movie are otherwise quite good, Michelle Dockery is excellent, but it irks me.
I was like this with 'aes sedai' in Wheel of Time. Apparently the 'aes' is meant to be pronounced as "eyez", but for me it's "ace" 🤷
Get out of my fucking head.
Ah yes, Menzobananazan
A surface dwelling dark elf society that’s established a sizeable banana empire in the tropics of Faerun.
There's always money in the Menzobananazan, Michael
You have no idea how hard it was to end up here and not there. No idea, Michael.
toddlers have it figure it out, just call them nana and move on
I listened to the audio books, so I can pronounce it but I can't spell it
I read the first few Wheel of Time books, then got the audio books for the next 8 or so, and when I first made the switch, I spent a good quarter of a book having to re-learn who all of the characters were, since I'd been mentally mispronouncing so many of them.
I read the books 4ish times. 1st time, RJ died so I took a few years off and read it start to finish on my 2nd attempt. Another couple years pass, and I got to book 10 and couldn't do the hunt for Falie again. Stopped. My last attempt was last year. I got to book 4, and then my kid got a PS5 for christmas. I was a real gamer back in the day, and I read all day at work, so I just stopped. I don't read recreationally at all now. It's kind of like how the last thing a chef wants to do when they get home is cook.
Anyway, there's no way in hell that I'd ever pronounce the names right. Some of the more intuitive ones, maybe, but the rest? I'd probably blunder.
Arguably the worst book in the series is 10. I got slagged for 4 years at that point until surrendering to the audiobook. It felt like a disjointed midpoint with nowhere to go. So, feel you on just abandoning joy because quitting wasn’t an option.
Eye of the World as an audiobook sounds horrible. I've always assumed Jordan brought books 1-3 to a publisher and that's how the series got published.
And then you listen to the audiobook and realize it's just a super fucked up way of spelling steve
Her-me-own
"Oh you mean hermi-one?"
Hermes One to Hermes Actual, do you read me?
This is ground control to Magus Tom
The first time I tried to pronounce 'Hermione' outloud, I somehow ended up with 'Her-Moyn'.
Damn, I've gaslit myself with the movie pronunciation that I forgot how high school me would've pronounced. Maybe back then I was just giddy to see a book I loved reading on the silver screen.
This is the proper pronunciation.
Heck this is me, but I added an extra -ee to the end too
My personal favorite is when you think your brain is pronouncing a coherent guess at it until the first time you try to say it aloud and realize your folly.
No such problems, when your native language uses phonetic alphabet! Is the pronounciation like the author intended then? Likely not, but you can still pronounce every word, without having to think.
haha I'm the same with Hungarian :) Finno-Ugric high five!
When you talk with someone about that book you've both read and realize that you both have a very different pronunciation of a character's name.
I've heard that people who were born completely deaf can read much faster than hearing people, because they don't have to pronounce the words in their head in order to process them.
I find this weirdly sad. I always tried to understand the name of the character and how it may be pronounced (I'm seriously going to include a glossary with IPA for all proper nouns if I ever produce anything for real publication). To me it's a part of the world-building and I almost recoil at just replacing it with nonsense.
All the elvish in the appendices couldn’t save Gary the Eagle.
I really appreciated Christopher Paolini including dictionaries in the backs of his books.
Thom.
Is it "tom" or do I make a TH sound, so it sorta sounds like "thumb?" 🤔
I read through Wheel of Time twice and still don't know whether to pronounce the th in Thom. Thank you Robert Jordan
Me and my friends all had different ways of pronouncing Egwene.
I feel like the author just misspelled Ewgene trying to make it a fantasy version of Eugene.
Apparently her name came from Guinevere from the legends of King Arthur (also al'Thor = Arthur)
Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor
You're just an airsick lowlander
Is that Rock?
yea
I'm French Canadian and we used to read Archie as a bathroom rag and I'd rather not say how I pronounce Jughead and Weatherbee even still to this day. On another note I remember being happily surprised Drizzt had a cameo in the original Baldur's Gate ii game. My friend said you could scum save and roll stealing his very powerful swords. Never took the time to do it though (wasn't a thief).
zhu'khei?
I can't even speculate on Weatherbee haha.
Coriolanus, CORIOLANUS?? illegible and like come on, the author ended the name with ANUS and was like yes that’s perfect?? My daughter read the whole book before she realized his name wasn’t Cornelius cause her brain auto corrected it to a real name
Anus as in an Romanus - belonging to. Corioli was a town
The mining gnomes are the worst. And no I won't attempt to spell them.
svirfneblin
Bless you
Borsk Fey'lya
Ysalimir
Mitth'raw'nuruodo
Timothy Zahn has Lucas's flair for naming. But he really doesn't give a damn if you can say it out loud or not. At least he's self aware enough that the last one is canonically unpronounceable to most beings of other species.
You know, I sometimes forget I'm not the last of SW EU fans living.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
(said with six upvotes over the root comment)
(there are some)
Tserendolgor, Prepotente, and Kamakanamakamaemaikalani
[Huge thanks to Jeff Hays]
TIL that I've been blazing over his name for years. In my head, he's always been Preponte (and probably always will be).
I pretty much only do audiobooks. Looking up characters from Sanderson books or DCC can be… challenging
Not sure if I’ve ever related to a post this much and I’ve been on the internet since dial up.
Recently read a book about chernobyl, and this was at least 50% of the Russian names for me
I started a comment about old Russian novels and patronyms and nicknames and got so confused by my own examples I erased it.
Poles: Hold my wódka
Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz
He had to be localized with "r" and "zz" interchanged in Russian due to "drist" root being related to diarrhea.
(But not unpronounceable)
https://xkcd.com/483/
Let go of ma buddy Drizzle Fo'Shizzle!
I don’t know who it is or from what story, but that would be aliased as Dristo Durden in my mind.
I've always read it as "Drizzit Doe-urden", but that second "i" is pretty much silent. Though I suspect it might be "oorden" instead of "urden", or maybe even "yourden".
That's not far off.
If you said it fast most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
I can't think of any character like that off the top of my head, but yeah, I've done that
Slartibartfast
I told you it wasn't important.
Harkonnen?