Pronunciation

[capuga]

Some of mine, many of these I know I don't pronunce correctly but I prefer just to think of them the way I have read them for the last 16 or so years and don't make an effort to change them:

 

Egwene - Egg-win

Moiraine - More-rain

Nynaeve - Nie-neve

Cairhien - Car-hine

Aiel - Ale

Taim - Tame

Seanchan - Shawn-chan

Suian - Used to be Sue-ann but this was one the glossary got me to change to Swan

Leane - Lee-ann

Cadsuane - Cod-swan-A

Logain - Low-gain

[Sid]

At least Rand, Mat, and Perrin are pretty straightforward...

 

My pronunciation was way off on a lot of the names and places, and a fair amount of that stems from how I read them. A lot of times when I'm reading I see the first few letters and the approximate length of the proper noun and don't bother looking at it further. And then came some chapter in LoC where Elenia and Enaila were both in the same scene or near enough and I'm thinking 'what the hell is going on???' So I looked a lot closer at the names themselves and came up with a few changes to Egblahblah, Aviendblah, Semirblahg, etc. Then I looked in the glossary and they were still all wrong anyway.

[Jblaylock]

At least Rand, Mat, and Perrin are pretty straightforward...

 

 

I always thought it was pronounced "Rahnd", "Mate", and "Pee-ryne"

 

 

 

 

 

j/k

[A. Pseudonym]

Some more:

 

Aes Sedai = Ace Seddee

 

Damane = Dam-Ann

 

Myrdraal = Meer-Draal

 

Aybara = Eye-Bara

[coolpool]

i love the fact that everyone cause taim, tame.. but come on teh-eem?? :blink:

 

like i have tried to change some of my pronunciations but it is hard (even though i have only been reading them for 6 months..) and you thought yours was bad look at some of mine... they are appauling!!

 

nynaeve - nay-veen

 

Myrdraal- mid-dral

 

Aes Sedai - as sigh-dee

 

Cairhien - Care-hee-an

 

Aiel - alee

 

Damane - Dam (though i do now say dam-an-ee just like the glossery says now)

 

Cadsuane - cawed seen or cawed soon sometimes i change between the too

 

siuan - sue-ee-an

 

seanchan -sea-chan (but now saw-chan which is a bit closer to the glosserary verion..)

 

semirhage - semridge

 

and many more.. :S

[RyanDuranGeiger]

Always curious to hear how other people pronounce names and objects in the world of Randland.

 

A few of my favorites that I refuse to pronounce like the glossary says, first is mine, second glossary:

 

Amys (AIMS), (a-MEES)

Birgitte (Burr-GEET), (Burr-GEET-ey)

Cairhien (Care-in), (KEYE-ree-EHN)

Ogier (Oh-gear) <-- Also how it was in glossary in tEotW (Oh-gerr)

Morgase (More-gahs), (More-GAYZ)

ta'veren (Tah-veh-ren), (Ta-veer-en

Rhuidean (Rue-eh-din), (RHUY-dee-ann)

Taim (Tame), (Tah-EEM)

Logain (Logan) (Lo-gain)

Elaida (Ee-lay-dah), (Eh-lie-dah)

Demandred (Deh-man-dread) (DEE-mahn-dread)

Saidar, Saidin (Say-dahr)/(Say-din), (sah-ih-DAHR)/(sah-ih-DEEN)

 

And finally, my biggest pet peeve, (I really hate the way this one is pronounced properly)

 

Aiel (ALE), (Eye-EEL)

 

 

 

I have a lot of pronunciations that I'm trying to correct as well. I began this series 10 years ago, and reeaaaalll early (4th grade) so I read too fast and couldn't pronounce things properly... After years of saying it that way it's hard to change. In the process of changing...

 

Aes Sedai (Ey-Sed-ay)

Amyrlin (Am-rill-in)

Myrddraal (My-droll)

Trollocs (Trow-locks)

 

Yeah, I would just skip letters and work it around to however I felt like it. Damn kids. Also used to pronounce Aviendha as (Ah-vehn-dah)

 

So, that's me, how about you?

 

 

Amys (AIMS), (a-MEES) I always said Aim-E's

Birgitte (Burr-GEET), (Burr-GEET-ey) Bridgette

Cairhien (Care-in), (KEYE-ree-EHN) Care-hein

Ogier (Oh-gear) <-- Also how it was in glossary in tEotW (Oh-gerr) Ogier

Morgase (More-gahs), (More-GAYZ) Second one for me.

ta'veren (Tah-veh-ren), (Ta-veer-en) Second one for me.

Rhuidean (Rue-eh-din), (RHUY-dee-ann) Second one, for me.

Taim (Tame), (Tah-EEM) Tame, and gonna stay Tame.

Logain (Logan) (Lo-gain) Started as Logan, now it's Lo-gain.

Elaida (Ee-lay-dah), (Eh-lie-dah) Ee-lay-dah here, too.

Demandred (Deh-man-dread) (DEE-mahn-dread) Same here, and will continue.

Saidar, Saidin (Say-dahr)/(Say-din), (sah-ih-DAHR)/(sah-ih-DEEN) When I started, it was Saidin-ar and Saidin.. I dislike Saidar, but I like Saidin, so I just added an "ar" to the end of it..

Aiel (ALE), (Eye-EEL) Always did it eye-eel

Aes Sedai (Ey-Sed-ay) Definitely one of my worse ones.. When I started it was like.. Es sed-E (Been learning Spanish.. the i's sound like an E)

Amyrlin (Am-rill-in) Exactly the same.

Myrddraal (My-droll) My-a-draal

Trollocs (Trow-locks) Troll-oc

 

 

Now, the ones that were bad..

Thom - I refuse to call him Tom.. Been THom for the last 6, gonna stay Thom.

Artur Hawkwing - Used to think it was Arthur.

Thought Gareth Bryne's last name was Bryan for a while.

Thought Juilin Sandar's name was Julian..

Thought Olver was Oliver..

[BLKNIGHT18]

Amys Ay-miss

Birgitte Burr-JIT

Cairhien Care-hayn

Ogier Oh-jur

Morgase More-GAYZ

ta'veren TAH-veh-ren

Rhuidean Rue-ID-ee-in

Taim Tame

Logain Lo-gain

Elaida eh-LAY-dah

Demandred Deh-MAN-dread

Saidar, Saidin sigh-DAR)/ sigh-DIN

Aiel ay-ELL

Aes Sedai AY-es-seh-DIE

Amyrlin AM-er-lin

Myrddraal Murr-DRAW

Trollocs Trow-locks

Aviendha as Ah-vee-EN-dah

Egwene eh-GWEEN

Moiraine muh-RAIN

Siuan suh-WAN

[crm2442]

I pronounce all the names properly. I also cringed when first listening to the podcasts. Eggweeen?? If the author explains how to pronounce something, that is how it should be pronounced, and if you say it differently, unfortunately you are wrong.

[Myrenna]

As someone quite interested in language, a couple of the official pronunciations just make me cringe.

The worst is Tua'athan. We know the word's inspired by Gaelic, and reading naturally for me, and logically for me knowing its origins, surely it MUST be pronounced "too-a-han" but the official pronunciation says the th isn't silent and it's just horrid! D:<

 

I pronounce Egwene "egg-win" or "egg-wane" ... no, I don't choose which depending on my opinion of her at the time. :P

 

"Ta-EEM" is just unnatural. Nobody would ever say that. Ever.

 

Aes Sedai, Moiraine, Nynaeve and Rhuidean gave me huge problems in the beginning, but feel perfectly natural now. I can't pronounce the difference between Aelfinn and Eelfinn.

 

 

 

Oh, and I say "demand-red" rather than "demon-dread." Probably because it's so similar to Damodred. And the fact that a baddie with both "demon" and "dread" in his name sounds to me like something straight out of Harry Potter. Sorry. :(

Edited January 10, 2011 by Myrenna

[Exy]

Oh, and I say "demand-red" rather than "demon-dread." Probably because it's so similar to Damodred. And the fact that a baddie with both "demon" and "dread" in his name sounds to me like something straight out of Harry Potter. Sorry. :(

It does. And I forgot that one, I don't think I ever broke my habit of pronouncing it wrong.

[IMeMin]

About four pages in, I immediately thought Aes Sedai was "Eyes Su-Dee", and even though I looked it up really early on, I never really stopped hearing it the wrong way in my mind.

 

So anyway I'm glad I'm not the only one who had issues with this. Some of the glossary stuff helped, especially since I somehow thought it was "EGG-ween", and "CARE-yen", I'm glad I thought to look those two up. The one that's actually driven me most nuts is "Gawyn". I know there's "Sir Gawain" and all that, but I just see the word "Gawyn" and figure there's no way to pronounce that that doesn't sound "off" somehow. Fessing up, though, after a while I got out of the habit of looking these up. I didn't realize the Taim thing until now.

[Jimvzyl]

Because of my language background english/afrikaans - some things do come out a little weird ;)

 

Moiraine - Mooi-rain (mooi meaning pretty)

and then Seanchan should be picked up - its basically assuming the name - Sean; which can be spelt Shaun, Sean and in a number of different ways.

so it becomes Shawn-chan

 

What i do a lot by accident is fall into the dh - th problems from reading LOTR too many times :(

So Aviendha - becomes - Aveen-tha(soft)

 

But various book pronounciations are always fun.

My friends and I infuriate each other with our differences hehe.

[Xader]

I just remembered another off pronunciation.

 

My friend who introduced me to WOT pronounced Myrddraal like "Murder All".

 

Y'know, it fits...

[idiostock]

Thom - I refuse to call him Tom.. Been THom for the last 6, gonna stay Thom.

 

That's illogical and obstinate.

 

Do you say the name "Thomas" without the silent 'h'?

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

kramer and reading don't pronounce a lot of the proper nouns correctly. i would know this even if i hadn't heard that it annoyed RJ, because they constantly change some pronunciations, often in the same books, and even more from book to book. since they're made up names, and RJ was not particularly clear in the glossaries, i just pronounce them how i like. no cad-swan-ays for me, thank you.

 

the names that are derived from more familiar names like guinivere (apologies for my spelling which has nothing to do with audiobook listening), arthur, merlin, etc., i tend to pronounce closer to the source.

[Blasph]

Ok so what is the final official, RJ approved pronunciation of Semirhage?

At first I pronounced it much the same as the latter part of hemorrhage but then saw at least two other ways to pronounce it and wasn't certain any more.

 

EDIT: Excuse the thread necromancy, I probably had a brain hemorrhage not noticing that 2011.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Blasph

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Ok so what is the final official, RJ approved pronunciation of Semirhage?

At first I pronounced it much the same as the latter part of hemorrhage but then saw at least two other ways to pronounce it and wasn't certain any more.

 

EDIT: Excuse the thread necromancy, I probably had a brain hemorrhage not noticing that 2011.

 

 

That's how I did it too, thinking it was pretty badass. In the audiobooks, it's more like Sem-er-hahg, which is pretty badass too.

[dawnflower8]

Some of my pronunciations that I think are different from the book ones:

 

Nynaeve: (Nigh-nave)

Egwene: (Egg-ween)

Amys: (Aim-is)

Seanchan: (Sawn-chan)

Ta'veren: (Ta-vehr-an)

Ogier: (Oh-ge-air) 

Cairhien: (Car-highn) This one is because I used to think it was spelled Cairhein, not Cairhien. 

Moghedien: (Moh-geh-dien)

Siuan: (See-u-on) 

Thom: Thom. Not Tom.

Semirhage: (Sem-eer-haj)

Aiel: (Isle)

Gawyn: (Gay-win)

Asmodean: (As-moh-deen)

[Nick Trano]

Birgitte = Bur-jit. Sorry. I just can't do Burrgeetay.

[dawnflower8]

The book pronunciation of Birgitte is horrible...

 

If anyone besides RJ pronounces it that way, I'd be surprised. 

[jack of shadows]

@dawnflower,

i used to pronouce nynaeve's name nina-eve lol,

it's nigh-neev by the way.

i like the way you pronounce semirhage's name.

Edited May 7, 2014 by jack of shadows

[dawnflower8]

I've heard people pronounce her name:

Nigh-nave

Nigh-neev

Nin-aev

Nin-ive

Nigh-nave-ee

 

And once, I heard someone pronounce it Nineveh. 

[Barid Bel Medar]

I think the worse one for people has to be Taim. 

 

I mean, come on, everyone reads it as TAME. 

 

Ta-eem is too awkward. 

 

I also read Egwene as Egg-ween not Eg-wain. 

 

and Seanchan - Sen-chan not Shawn-chan. 

 

Apart from them, I am cool with the pronunciations I think. 

[NeverTame]

I think the worse one for people has to be Taim. 

 

I mean, come on, everyone reads it as TAME.

 

...Well, actually... :D

 

I always read it as "time", because that's the Finnish pronunciation.

Edited May 7, 2014 by NeverTame

[Blasph]

I also always read it as Tame.

I think if the supposed pronunciation was TA-EEM, then it should have also been written as Taeem to avoid problems like this.

Taim will always be the same as Tame to me.

 

Same for Egwene. I always read it as Eg-ween, not Eg-wane.

Only now after I've finished reading AMoL, I suddenly find out things aren't as obvious as I thought.