I've not listened to any of the audiobooks yet (though I intend to at some point in my life), but I've been reading the books since the mid-90's so I'm pretty set in my way of pronunciation. I figure that since it's a book, it was sort of left to the minds of the readers, such as the general view of the characters and the world go (for example, Egwene is described as a short brunette, I always picture an average-height dirty-blonde, for some reason). That said, alot of the names have real-world likenesses. Aes Sedai, for example, looks quite a bit like Aes Sidhe, which is an Old Irish way of referring to the Aos Si, who are the fairies or elves in Irish mythology (it means "people of the mounds"). Whether RJ intended the similarity or not, some people may pronounce things differently from the author's intentions based on real-world things. It can't really be helped, that's just the way it goes sometimes.
I know for a fact that I say some of the names wrong, like Nynaeve. I say nih-neh-veh (best approximation I can spell out without special characters, which I don't care to make at the moment), where I read in the glossary that I'm not even close. I met a girl once whose name was Nynaeve (the way I pronounce it is the way she said it, though I never saw the name written so the spelling could be vastly different) so I base my pronunciation off of that. One day I may change my pronunciations to be closer to the way RJ wanted them said, but for now I'm content with saying the stuff the way I've been saying it for the past 15 years, haha. I mean no disrespect to the man, I simply have my own way of saying the names and words in the books that helps the story flow in my mind as I read.
Also I've always said Taim as in "time". Not really sure why, it just felt right to me. At least most of yours are close to the right pronunciation, mine's off by a good bit. :P
Pronunciation
in Wheel of Time Books
Posted
I've not listened to any of the audiobooks yet (though I intend to at some point in my life), but I've been reading the books since the mid-90's so I'm pretty set in my way of pronunciation. I figure that since it's a book, it was sort of left to the minds of the readers, such as the general view of the characters and the world go (for example, Egwene is described as a short brunette, I always picture an average-height dirty-blonde, for some reason). That said, alot of the names have real-world likenesses. Aes Sedai, for example, looks quite a bit like Aes Sidhe, which is an Old Irish way of referring to the Aos Si, who are the fairies or elves in Irish mythology (it means "people of the mounds"). Whether RJ intended the similarity or not, some people may pronounce things differently from the author's intentions based on real-world things. It can't really be helped, that's just the way it goes sometimes.
I know for a fact that I say some of the names wrong, like Nynaeve. I say nih-neh-veh (best approximation I can spell out without special characters, which I don't care to make at the moment), where I read in the glossary that I'm not even close. I met a girl once whose name was Nynaeve (the way I pronounce it is the way she said it, though I never saw the name written so the spelling could be vastly different) so I base my pronunciation off of that. One day I may change my pronunciations to be closer to the way RJ wanted them said, but for now I'm content with saying the stuff the way I've been saying it for the past 15 years, haha. I mean no disrespect to the man, I simply have my own way of saying the names and words in the books that helps the story flow in my mind as I read.
Also I've always said Taim as in "time". Not really sure why, it just felt right to me. At least most of yours are close to the right pronunciation, mine's off by a good bit. :P