Pronunciation Mishap?

[Psion]

OK, so I, unlike a lot of people, really try to pronounce everything correctly.  I read the glossary before reading the books, to make sure I pronounce everything right.  I say nine-eve, egg-wain, ta-eem, etc.  But all my life (well, since like 9th grade when I started reading), I have said sah-ih-deen and sah-ih-dar, because that is what the glossary to tEotW says.  

But then the other day I was going through the questions of the week, here http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcjspjqg_50gfjzbbdr , and Jordan was all like, "This is how you say all this stuff: sigh-deen and sigh-dar.  

 

And I was PISSED.

 

So is this a misprint, or did he change his mind, or was he just on crack for the question of the week? I don't mean any disrespect, really, and I know he isn't on crack, but I was seriously pissed.

[Dreamwalker]

OK, so I, unlike a lot of people, really try to pronounce everything correctly.  I read the glossary before reading the books, to make sure I pronounce everything right.  I say nine-eve, egg-wain, ta-eem, etc.  But all my life (well, since like 9th grade when I started reading), I have said sah-ih-deen and sah-ih-dar, because that is what the glossary to tEotW says. 

But then the other day I was going through the questions of the week, which by God I cannot find today or else I would quote it, and Jordan was all like, "This is how you say all this stuff: sigh-deen and sigh-dar. 

 

And I was PISSED.

 

So is this a misprint, or did he change his mind, or was he just on crack for the question of the week? I don't mean any disrespect, really, and I know he isn't on crack, but I was seriously pissed.

 

I always pronounce them the tEotW way too, I hope that's not wrong! I too always try to "think" all the names the right way when I read, but I've only got the glossaries to go off of. Does anyone know how they're pronounced on the audiobooks? I'd think they'd have consulted Jordan on pronunciation for those...

[Psion]

Actually when I was reading the Question of the Weeks, I remember one (I think it was the same one) where he said not to go off the audio books because they stopped consulting him like part-way through the first one or something.

[ed2funy]

I always used sigh-ih-dar and sigh-ih-deen too.

WTH...

o.0

[Disco]

say-den and say-dar for me... coz i pronounce it the way that i want to and couldn't care less about the books or RJ. i mean i am only saying them in my head right? whose gonna stop me? you?

 

^ please note the above is tongue in cheek

[Azrael Maravaile]

hopes the tongue in the above post is in their own cheek and not someone else's ;)

 

I actually had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day who was at my house and saw my copy of TGS and immediately proceeded to ask "You're a Robert Jordan Geek too?" this was followed by an hour long discussion on the books where we came to realize that we pronounced almost every name and non-obvious word differently. Different strokes for different folks I guess

[ed2funy]

lmao..I wish some of my friends would read WoT...they are too stupid though. :D :P

[Taura-Tierno]

I've always produced it sigh-din and sigh-dar. I've actually never looked at the pronunciation guide for those words, they kind of just came naturally ... or maybe it I heard some friend say them like that. Either way, that's how they sound to me, and even if it's wrong, I don't think I'll be able to change how they sound after this long :P

[ed2funy]

The first read through...I sort of skipped the names...

The second time...I read the glossary and tried to follow the right pronunciation.

[OptimusPrime]

I say Say-din and Say-dar. Is that wrong? Also, for Nynaeve I always said Nina-Eve.

[ed2funy]

I said the same thing for Nyn!

[firstfishman]

I pronounce everything so wrong its sick. When I first see a name/word in a book, it stays the way I said it in my brain forever. I  know I am sounding it out wrong now, but its the way it is. I sound out Moiraine's name as Mori-anne... LoL

I think thats the worst of them. Some I got pretty close, if not bang on.

[OptimusPrime]

I think MWAraine sounds almost as crap as Ta-eem. Sorry, but I will continue to get those names wrong. Morrain and Tame. Deal with it

[dholm]

I mispronounced Taim before I learned it was incorrect. I've always striven to pronounce everything correctly, though.

 

The difference between sigh-deen and sah-ih-deen is miniscule -- it's like the difference between nine-eve and ny-neeve. In other words, both are correct.

 

Pronunciation isn't that strict.

[rubbernilly]

I was probably on my 8th or 9th read-through of the series before I bothered to look at the glossary. At first I was avoiding spoilers. After that, I just didn't have a question about anything (until i came onto forums like this one and people asked questions that made me think). All of the sudden, everyone is pronouncing these things wrong.

 

I mean, it's clearly nuh-NAVE, and it's clearly EGG-wen, swee-ANNE, mo-g-HEAD-ee-en, de-MAN-dred...

 

So many people were so wrong. :D

 

Then I listened to the audio books, and though the readers were consistent (Michael Kramer and Kate Reading), the pronunciations of names would be different between books for the same reader. Sometimes they would even be different within the same book, and not just from Kramer to Reading... sometimes from Reading to Reading.

 

One point about sai-i-deen and sai-i-dar... that middle -i- syllable could be lost as a passing glottal stop, much like hearing a native Hawaian pronounce the stop before the last vowel of "hawai'i" or "kaua'i." You can almost lose it, and most people do. All I'm saying is, you might want to listen closely to that recording of Jordan to see if he is pronouncing the -i- as just a pause... a sort of non-vocalized glottal stop. It could be lost on the ear, especially on a recording if it isn't of good enough quality.

 

...or he could have mis-pronounced it. :)

[Psion]

I mispronounced Taim before I learned it was incorrect. I've always striven to pronounce everything correctly, though.

 

The difference between sigh-deen and sah-ih-deen is miniscule -- it's like the difference between nine-eve and ny-neeve. In other words, both are correct.

 

Pronunciation isn't that strict.

 

It might not be a huge difference, but I mean it goes from being two syllables to three, which does impact how I read it in my head.  Although at this point it's like..."Well, I'm never going to see RJ or BS in person, so what does it matter?"

[Stevros]

I mispronounced Taim before I learned it was incorrect. I've always striven to pronounce everything correctly, though.

 

The difference between sigh-deen and sah-ih-deen is miniscule -- it's like the difference between nine-eve and ny-neeve. In other words, both are correct.

 

Pronunciation isn't that strict.

 

It might not be a huge difference, but I mean it goes from being two syllables to three, which does impact how I read it in my head.  Although at this point it's like..."Well, I'm never going to see RJ or BS in person, so what does it matter?"

 

If you consider the worldwide appeal of WoT then people will have hugely different pronucations even following the guide mainly because accents are different, to my mind how I would say them varies very little as even with three syllables they are non distict and sound the same.

 

If anyone asks just say you learnt it with a Seanchan accent!

[Auld Manriva]

There is a whole thread on this subject here:

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,51445.0.html

 

Though it's perfectly fine for one to pronounce anything the way they feel the fact of the matter is that the Audiobook versions are really the best guide if one wishes to have any accuracy. If only due to the most common usage, or most accepted/widely heard usage.

 

Jordan himself listened to the books to determine if what HE meant to say is how it read to others. SO he evidently was satisfied with the pronunciations of Kramer and Reading.

 

 

[dholm]

He also said you could not count on the audio books getting it right, since they stopped consulting him mid-way through the first book.

[Dreamwalker]

I will admit, while I always try really hard to follow the glossaries on pronouncing everything and even correct myself if I started out saying it wrong - I have never EVER been able to bring myself to pronounce it Ta-eem. It's always and will forever be "tame" to me.

[bronnt]

Lol, I was thinking about this the other day.  Usually stuff sticks in my head the first way I read, but I've tried to correct some of it in my head.  As a result, I end up with odd mixtures of correct/incorrect.

 

For example, Saidar, I always hear as Sigh-ih-dar (correctly).  But Saidin is always Say-din.

 

Siuan I think is correct (Swahn), but Cadsuane is CAD-swahn to me instead of CAD-soo-ain.

 

It took me forever to settle on a pronunciation for Sammael, but now I'm stuck with an emphasis in the wrong place: Sahm-MAY-ehl.

 

If you ask me, the hardest name in the entire series is Moghedien.  Back in college, my roommate used to say "MOH-geh-deen."  I think I've got it right in my head now, but sometimes I still read her name differently.

[Auld Manriva]

He also said you could not count on the audio books getting it right, since they stopped consulting him mid-way through the first book.

 

Did he now? Did he actually say that or do you simply wish he had. Personally I do not care. All I'm saying is that the MOST publicly used, widely heard, generally accepted as accurate versions are those in the audio books. And RJ listened to them ALL and never complained about pronunciations to the readers or production staff. If they weren't accurate and it mattered don't you think he might have?

 

The crux of the biscuit is simply; One can pronounce things however one bloody well wishes to. Ignore the most accepted use or not. It makes no difference unless one is trying to claim THEIR way is the correct way.

[Carteeg_Struve]

I was horrible with pronunciations. The worst one I did for the longest time was Aes Sedai:

 

A.S. Sed A.E. (Yep... five syllables)

 

It wasn't until it botched up a rhyme in a song that I realized I was off.

 

 

My second worst transgression was Nynaeve:

Nin-ah-eev.

 

 

As for Moiraine, once while I was reading I realized that Cairhien was French in nature, the 'Mwa' sound was retroactively put in by head and I never looked back.

 

 

At least I believe that maybe 80% of us get 'Rand' right. ;-)

 

[Dreamwalker]

 

At least I believe that maybe 80% of us get 'Rand' right. ;-)

 

 

Haha. Now I'm curious how one even would mispronounce Rand?

[Arath Faringal]

RAW-na-da?