Pronunciation key for the Realms? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Pronunciation key for the Realms? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
BlueDove
12-05-06, 05:19 PM I'm starting a campaign in Faerun and I'm hoping that since this realm is so popular, I would be able to find some key to pronouncing proper names of cities, major characters and whatnot... but no such luck yet.

Anyone have an idea of where to find such a thing?
Faraer
12-05-06, 06:26 PM I don't know of a guide, but pronunciation of Realms names is fairly regular. Throw a few at us.
Weiser_Cain
12-05-06, 06:50 PM Drow
BlueDove
12-05-06, 07:14 PM Well, how about Faerun for instance. Is it Fay-roon or Feh-run or something else?

I ask this because I've met up with different pronunciations before. When you must speak aloud names that generally just read, you get discrepencies. My players will know the world of Toril and have their own way of pronouncing things. When this comes up I'd like to have something to refer to so we can know the correct way to pronounce it.

I agree that, for the most part, pronunciations are fairly regular. Evermeet, Waterdeep, Myth Drannor, etc. are easy enough. But what about names like Scyllua and Fzoul. Or Mielikki, Chauntea, Ubtao, and Eilistraee. Run too many vowels together and everyone will pronounce it differently.
Faraer
12-05-06, 07:27 PM Chauntea: chawn-TEE-ah
drow: drow
Eilistraee: EEL-iss-TRAY-ee
Faerūn: fay-ROON
Fzoul: fzool
Mielikki: my-LEE-kee
Scyllua: sill-LOO-ah
Ubtao: oob-TAY-oh

['ow' denotes the sound of cow, etc.]

'au', 'ei', 'ae', 'ou', etc. are always pronounced the same way in regular Faerūnian words.
Lord Karsus
12-05-06, 07:38 PM -Let your players pronounce things differently. Being from New York, I have no clue what's going on when a naitive Georgian (the state) starts talking. Or, I laugh as those from Boston incorrectly pronounce 'Coffee', 'Chowder', and 'Nomar'. Faerūnians have accents too...
Ramenth
12-05-06, 08:08 PM On the topic of Faerun's pronunciation...

Don't bother looking for the Voice Actors in the games; It's pronounced differently in each one.

(Fey Rune, Fey Run, Ferun, ect)
BlueDove
12-05-06, 09:44 PM Chauntea: chawn-TEE-ah
drow: drow
Eilistraee: EEL-iss-TRAY-ee
Faerūn: fay-ROON
Fzoul: fzool
Mielikki: my-LEE-kee
Scyllua: sill-LOO-ah
Ubtao: oob-TAY-oh

['ow' denotes the sound of cow, etc.]

'au', 'ei', 'ae', 'ou', etc. are always pronounced the same way in regular Faerūnian words.

Now here is a great example of what I mean. I would say:
Chauntea: shawn-TEE
Eilistraee: I-liss-TRAY-ee (like the name Eileen)
Faerūn: Fair-un (like Faerie, also the ^ symbol that appears over the u is supposed to mean a u sound like in the word curl, if it's used as a pronunciation guide)
Fzoul: fzool (this I agree with)
Mielikki: my-LEE-kee (this too)
Scyllua: Skill-oo-ah
Ubtao: Ub-tow(not like toe, but like cow)

*sigh* I just wish I could know what was correct
Faraer
12-05-06, 09:49 PM I told you what was correct! I should have been clearer that those are the real pronunciations, not just how I say them.

I agree this isn't all self-evident. Though marking a long vowel is the most common use of the circumflex.
BlueDove
12-05-06, 11:57 PM I told you what was correct! I should have been clearer that those are the real pronunciations, not just how I say them.

I agree this isn't all self-evident. Though marking a long vowel is the most common use of the circumflex.

Ok... how do you know those are the correct pronunciations?
Max the Immortal
12-06-06, 05:49 AM According to Faits and Pantheons:
Eilistraee: eil-iss-tray-yee
Chauntea: chawn-tee-ah
Mielikki: my-lee-kee
Ubtao: oob-tay-oh

As for Faerun: I've always pronounced it "Fay-roon". In the game Neverwinter Nights 2, the actors all pronounce it "Fair-un", but I suspect that they were mistaken. After all, the word Faerunian rolls off the tongue most easily when pronounced "Fay-roon-ee-un". The pronunciation "Fair-un-ee-an" doesn't sound right to me.

NWN2 also tripped me up on the pronunciation of Hosttower (of the Arcane). In the game, the actors pronounce it as though it rhymes with "lost tower". I don't see why it shouldn't be pronouced like "host tower".
Lord Karsus
12-06-06, 09:55 AM Ok... how do you know those are the correct pronunciations?

-Because he is Faraer, and is knowledgable on such matters.

:teach:
Faraer
12-06-06, 01:47 PM True at that. As it happens, the ones asked are all direct from the 1987 and 1993 campaign sets and the Faiths & Avatars trilogy, except Scyllua which was posted by Rich Baker at Candlekeep.com.
WizO_Shadow
12-06-06, 09:42 PM Toe-mae-toe
Toe-mah-toe
Mate-er as in Ta-Mahte-er

Poe-tae-toe
Po-ta-toe

Keep it friendly please! :-D

~*~ Shadow
Faraer
12-06-06, 10:25 PM All seems friendly to me.

It's an aid to making up regional pronunciations, if you want to be rigorous about it, to understand the normal sound values and stress patterns.

Most commonly, stress is on the penultimate syllable, so
two syllables: first
three syllables: second
four syllables: third and first

But sometimes long vowels are stressed in favour of short ones (so Jhessail is jes-SAIL, not JES-sail); and schwas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa) are never stressed (so Deneir is de-NEER and not DE-neer).

I'll have to work this up and add it to my Realms glossary.
BlueDove
12-07-06, 12:05 AM Toe-mae-toe
Toe-mah-toe
Mate-er as in Ta-Mahte-er

Poe-tae-toe
Po-ta-toe

Keep it friendly please! :-D

~*~ Shadow

*blink*blink*
I'm being nice, aren't I? I thought I was being nice. I asked how Faraer knows what is correct so that maybe I could know too. And well... I'm new here, and am unaware of anyone's credentials.

I'll have to work this up and add it to my Realms glossary.

That would be sweet! I'd love to have something to refer to in the future. Otherwise I'll just have to bother you. ;)
I really do appreciate the input. Thanks much!
Prendoriasslyth
12-07-06, 04:48 PM According to Faits and Pantheons:
Eilistraee: eil-iss-tray-yee
Chauntea: chawn-tee-ah
Mielikki: my-lee-kee
Ubtao: oob-tay-oh

As for Faerun: I've always pronounced it "Fay-roon". In the game Neverwinter Nights 2, the actors all pronounce it "Fair-un", but I suspect that they were mistaken. After all, the word Faerunian rolls off the tongue most easily when pronounced "Fay-roon-ee-un". The pronunciation "Fair-un-ee-an" doesn't sound right to me.

NWN2 also tripped me up on the pronunciation of Hosttower (of the Arcane). In the game, the actors pronounce it as though it rhymes with "lost tower". I don't see why it shouldn't be pronouced like "host tower".

Faiths and Pantheons is a good source for deity pronunciations, although unfortunately (IIRC), not every deity is listed with one.

I always pronounced it "FAIR-un" until I started hearing it pronounced in some games, the majority of which pronounce it "fay-ROON". (Including, I think, Baldur's Gate, NWN1, Demon Stone, and Dark Alliance).

Funny you should mention the NWN2 pronunciation of Hosttower. I'm pretty sure HOST should be pronounced like GHOST. Their reasoning for saying the 'O' like the 'O' in "cop" is beyond me. It really sounded pretty silly.

Also, a long time ago in the download section of the official Wizards site, they used to have a .zip file containing .wavs of the pronunciation of a whole lot of Planescape-related words, like Baatezu, Tanar'ri, etc. I think I looked through there recently and didn't see it, which is a shame, because it was a great resource. So if anyone has this or knows its current whereabouts, a link to it would be a great addition to this thread :)

And something I just thought of -- Has there ever been a book-on-tape for any Realms novels? If so, that might be a good source for pronunciation, although it may be the reader's take as well.

Blue Dove: If you can think of any other Faerunian names or titles you're curious about, let us hear them. As others have said, I'm sure you'll find that most are generally agreed upon by the long-time readers and followers. As for myself, not only am I a long-time reader of Realms lore, but I also have a knack for linguistics and pronunciation based on regions, which I often use when facing new words like those in the Realms.

Ack...ANOTHER new thought. In the recent Last Mythal novel trilogy by Richard Baker, there is a glossary at the end of each book showing the pronunciation for most of the names and places used in the book (although a lot of times I decided I liked my pronunciations better, hehe -- like for the character Ilsevelle (official was "ILL-sev-el", I think, though I pronounced it "Ill-SEV-eh-lee", which sounded more Elven to me :P)
Faraer
12-07-06, 05:20 PM aer can be one or two syllables, like air or ayer, and the latter is given for Faerūn in the Old Grey Box and is how I say it, with stress on both first and third syllables. Doesn't the Baldur's Gate intro have it 'FARR-un'? The videogames really are no guide.

As I recall, elven words use the same sound values (more or less) but the stress pattern differs.
Get_that_leprechaun
12-07-06, 05:38 PM Pronunciation is hard. I mispronounced "drow" for about twenty years before I played Baldur's Gate on the computer. I'm assuming the voice actors knew how to pronouce the names. There are some pronunciation guides in the Forgotten Realms hardcover, as I recall.
Prendoriasslyth
12-09-06, 07:26 PM I've never taken something like a game at face value when it comes to pronunciation, at least not right away. It's only because so many of the games pronounced it the same way that I took that as my own.

Of course, you could always just look at it in terms of dialect. I'm sure even across Faerun, different people will pronounce it differently based on their languages, just as on Earth, different dialects have different sounds for vowels.
Max the Immortal
12-10-06, 03:53 PM For the record, nobody in real life actually pronounces potato as "po-tah-toe"; at least not in native English accents (such as British, American, Indian, and Australian).
Lord Vorendal
12-12-06, 07:38 PM I have a pronounciation question. Is tanarukk tan uh rukk or tanar ukk?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BlueDove 12-05-06, 05:19 PM	I'm starting a campaign in Faerun and I'm hoping that since this realm is so popular, I would be able to find some key to pronouncing proper names of cities, major characters and whatnot... but no such luck yet. Anyone have an idea of where to find such a thing?
Faraer 12-05-06, 06:26 PM	I don't know of a guide, but pronunciation of Realms names is fairly regular. Throw a few at us.
Weiser_Cain 12-05-06, 06:50 PM	Drow
BlueDove 12-05-06, 07:14 PM	Well, how about Faerun for instance. Is it Fay-roon or Feh-run or something else? I ask this because I've met up with different pronunciations before. When you must speak aloud names that generally just read, you get discrepencies. My players will know the world of Toril and have their own way of pronouncing things. When this comes up I'd like to have something to refer to so we can know the correct way to pronounce it. I agree that, for the most part, pronunciations are fairly regular. Evermeet, Waterdeep, Myth Drannor, etc. are easy enough. But what about names like Scyllua and Fzoul. Or Mielikki, Chauntea, Ubtao, and Eilistraee. Run too many vowels together and everyone will pronounce it differently.
Faraer 12-05-06, 07:27 PM	Chauntea: chawn-TEE-ah drow: drow Eilistraee: EEL-iss-TRAY-ee Faerūn: fay-ROON Fzoul: fzool Mielikki: my-LEE-kee Scyllua: sill-LOO-ah Ubtao: oob-TAY-oh ['ow' denotes the sound of cow, etc.] 'au', 'ei', 'ae', 'ou', etc. are always pronounced the same way in regular Faerūnian words.
Lord Karsus 12-05-06, 07:38 PM	-Let your players pronounce things differently. Being from New York, I have no clue what's going on when a naitive Georgian (the state) starts talking. Or, I laugh as those from Boston incorrectly pronounce 'Coffee', 'Chowder', and 'Nomar'. Faerūnians have accents too...
Ramenth 12-05-06, 08:08 PM	On the topic of Faerun's pronunciation... Don't bother looking for the Voice Actors in the games; It's pronounced differently in each one. (Fey Rune, Fey Run, Ferun, ect)
BlueDove 12-05-06, 09:44 PM	Chauntea: chawn-TEE-ah drow: drow Eilistraee: EEL-iss-TRAY-ee Faerūn: fay-ROON Fzoul: fzool Mielikki: my-LEE-kee Scyllua: sill-LOO-ah Ubtao: oob-TAY-oh ['ow' denotes the sound of cow, etc.] 'au', 'ei', 'ae', 'ou', etc. are always pronounced the same way in regular Faerūnian words. Now here is a great example of what I mean. I would say: Chauntea: shawn-TEE Eilistraee: I-liss-TRAY-ee (like the name Eileen) Faerūn: Fair-un (like Faerie, also the ^ symbol that appears over the u is supposed to mean a u sound like in the word curl, if it's used as a pronunciation guide) Fzoul: fzool (this I agree with) Mielikki: my-LEE-kee (this too) Scyllua: Skill-oo-ah Ubtao: Ub-tow(not like toe, but like cow) sigh I just wish I could know what was correct
Faraer 12-05-06, 09:49 PM	I told you what was correct! I should have been clearer that those are the real pronunciations, not just how I say them. I agree this isn't all self-evident. Though marking a long vowel is the most common use of the circumflex.
BlueDove 12-05-06, 11:57 PM	I told you what was correct! I should have been clearer that those are the real pronunciations, not just how I say them. I agree this isn't all self-evident. Though marking a long vowel is the most common use of the circumflex. Ok... how do you know those are the correct pronunciations?
Max the Immortal 12-06-06, 05:49 AM	According to Faits and Pantheons: Eilistraee: eil-iss-tray-yee Chauntea: chawn-tee-ah Mielikki: my-lee-kee Ubtao: oob-tay-oh As for Faerun: I've always pronounced it "Fay-roon". In the game Neverwinter Nights 2, the actors all pronounce it "Fair-un", but I suspect that they were mistaken. After all, the word Faerunian rolls off the tongue most easily when pronounced "Fay-roon-ee-un". The pronunciation "Fair-un-ee-an" doesn't sound right to me. NWN2 also tripped me up on the pronunciation of Hosttower (of the Arcane). In the game, the actors pronounce it as though it rhymes with "lost tower". I don't see why it shouldn't be pronouced like "host tower".
Lord Karsus 12-06-06, 09:55 AM	Ok... how do you know those are the correct pronunciations? -Because he is Faraer, and is knowledgable on such matters. :teach:
Faraer 12-06-06, 01:47 PM	True at that. As it happens, the ones asked are all direct from the 1987 and 1993 campaign sets and the Faiths & Avatars trilogy, except Scyllua which was posted by Rich Baker at Candlekeep.com.
WizO_Shadow 12-06-06, 09:42 PM	Toe-mae-toe Toe-mah-toe Mate-er as in Ta-Mahte-er Poe-tae-toe Po-ta-toe Keep it friendly please! :-D ~*~ Shadow
Faraer 12-06-06, 10:25 PM	All seems friendly to me. It's an aid to making up regional pronunciations, if you want to be rigorous about it, to understand the normal sound values and stress patterns. Most commonly, stress is on the penultimate syllable, so two syllables: first three syllables: second four syllables: third and first But sometimes long vowels are stressed in favour of short ones (so Jhessail is jes-SAIL, not JES-sail); and schwas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa) are never stressed (so Deneir is de-NEER and not DE-neer). I'll have to work this up and add it to my Realms glossary.
BlueDove 12-07-06, 12:05 AM	Toe-mae-toe Toe-mah-toe Mate-er as in Ta-Mahte-er Poe-tae-toe Po-ta-toe Keep it friendly please! :-D ~~ Shadow blinkblink I'm being nice, aren't I? I thought I was being nice. I asked how Faraer knows what is correct so that maybe I could know too. And well... I'm new here, and am unaware of anyone's credentials. I'll have to work this up and add it to my Realms glossary. That would be sweet! I'd love to have something to refer to in the future. Otherwise I'll just have to bother you. ;) I really do appreciate the input. Thanks much!
Prendoriasslyth 12-07-06, 04:48 PM	According to Faits and Pantheons: Eilistraee: eil-iss-tray-yee Chauntea: chawn-tee-ah Mielikki: my-lee-kee Ubtao: oob-tay-oh As for Faerun: I've always pronounced it "Fay-roon". In the game Neverwinter Nights 2, the actors all pronounce it "Fair-un", but I suspect that they were mistaken. After all, the word Faerunian rolls off the tongue most easily when pronounced "Fay-roon-ee-un". The pronunciation "Fair-un-ee-an" doesn't sound right to me. NWN2 also tripped me up on the pronunciation of Hosttower (of the Arcane). In the game, the actors pronounce it as though it rhymes with "lost tower". I don't see why it shouldn't be pronouced like "host tower". Faiths and Pantheons is a good source for deity pronunciations, although unfortunately (IIRC), not every deity is listed with one. I always pronounced it "FAIR-un" until I started hearing it pronounced in some games, the majority of which pronounce it "fay-ROON". (Including, I think, Baldur's Gate, NWN1, Demon Stone, and Dark Alliance). Funny you should mention the NWN2 pronunciation of Hosttower. I'm pretty sure HOST should be pronounced like GHOST. Their reasoning for saying the 'O' like the 'O' in "cop" is beyond me. It really sounded pretty silly. Also, a long time ago in the download section of the official Wizards site, they used to have a .zip file containing .wavs of the pronunciation of a whole lot of Planescape-related words, like Baatezu, Tanar'ri, etc. I think I looked through there recently and didn't see it, which is a shame, because it was a great resource. So if anyone has this or knows its current whereabouts, a link to it would be a great addition to this thread :) And something I just thought of -- Has there ever been a book-on-tape for any Realms novels? If so, that might be a good source for pronunciation, although it may be the reader's take as well. Blue Dove: If you can think of any other Faerunian names or titles you're curious about, let us hear them. As others have said, I'm sure you'll find that most are generally agreed upon by the long-time readers and followers. As for myself, not only am I a long-time reader of Realms lore, but I also have a knack for linguistics and pronunciation based on regions, which I often use when facing new words like those in the Realms. Ack...ANOTHER new thought. In the recent Last Mythal novel trilogy by Richard Baker, there is a glossary at the end of each book showing the pronunciation for most of the names and places used in the book (although a lot of times I decided I liked my pronunciations better, hehe -- like for the character Ilsevelle (official was "ILL-sev-el", I think, though I pronounced it "Ill-SEV-eh-lee", which sounded more Elven to me :P)
Faraer 12-07-06, 05:20 PM	aer can be one or two syllables, like air or ayer, and the latter is given for Faerūn in the Old Grey Box and is how I say it, with stress on both first and third syllables. Doesn't the Baldur's Gate intro have it 'FARR-un'? The videogames really are no guide. As I recall, elven words use the same sound values (more or less) but the stress pattern differs.
Get_that_leprechaun 12-07-06, 05:38 PM	Pronunciation is hard. I mispronounced "drow" for about twenty years before I played Baldur's Gate on the computer. I'm assuming the voice actors knew how to pronouce the names. There are some pronunciation guides in the Forgotten Realms hardcover, as I recall.
Prendoriasslyth 12-09-06, 07:26 PM	I've never taken something like a game at face value when it comes to pronunciation, at least not right away. It's only because so many of the games pronounced it the same way that I took that as my own. Of course, you could always just look at it in terms of dialect. I'm sure even across Faerun, different people will pronounce it differently based on their languages, just as on Earth, different dialects have different sounds for vowels.
Max the Immortal 12-10-06, 03:53 PM	For the record, nobody in real life actually pronounces potato as "po-tah-toe"; at least not in native English accents (such as British, American, Indian, and Australian).
Lord Vorendal 12-12-06, 07:38 PM	I have a pronounciation question. Is tanarukk tan uh rukk or tanar ukk?