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Pronouncing the names of the characters?


Felguy

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Some are obvious, Robb, Robert, Eddard.

Arya could be argued, do you say it with an rolling R, like exotically, or just the blunt R.

Sansa is straightforward.

Ramsay... Do you say Ramsie or do you actually say RamSAY.

Cersei can be said as either Cer-sei or cersie.

Brienne I pronounce it as they say on the show, but the audiobook narrator is saying it as, and I kid you not 'Bryien'. Cringe


Aerys maybe as Aries or Aris.
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http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Pronunciation_guide

The pronunciation of names in the Known World is variable. Unlike the academic J.R.R. Tolkien, who claimed to have written The Lord of the Rings series primarily for the joy of fleshing out the invented languages of Middle Earth,[1] George R.R. Martin has stated that "I don't have [Tolkien's] gift for languages";[2] that he "came to not care much about pronunciation" during college;[3] and that "you can pronounce [the names of the characters] however you like."[3][4]

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Since the Common Tongue is (or seems to be) English, you can pronounce them like an English speaker would. Even Valyrian names are pronounced that way, to some extent.

If you pronounced Daenerys the Valyrian way, the Dae would be like the English word "die", more or less.

 

As to Ramsay, I say Ram-SAY. Like it's written.

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I did pronounce a lot of them differently in my head for years but watching the show has changed it all for me. Almost all of them I now pronounce in show fashion rather than how I originally thought it.

 

The only exception is Cersei. I always have and always will pronounce it with a hard K sound at the start rather than a soft S.

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Some are obvious, Robb, Robert, Eddard.

Arya could be argued, do you say it with an rolling R, like exotically, or just the blunt R.

Sansa is straightforward.

Ramsay... Do you say Ramsie or do you actually say RamSAY.

Cersei can be said as either Cer-sei or cersie.

Brienne I pronounce it as they say on the show, but the audiobook narrator is saying it as, and I kid you not 'Bryien'. Cringe


Aerys maybe as Aries or Aris.

To my knowledge there are no rolled R's in the story.

 

I say RAM-see because it's easier.  I alternate between SER-see and SER-say (the author uses the latter).

 

GRRM calls her Bree-EHN-ee.  I say Bree-EHN.  

 

AIR-eez

 

For the record, GRRM doesn't care how we pronounce them.  Which is good because I will never be able to get used to Lie-anna Stark or Tyrion's first wife TISH-uh.

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To my knowledge there are no rolled R's in the story.

 

I say RAM-see because it's easier.  I alternate between SER-see and SER-say (the author uses the latter).

 

GRRM calls her Bree-EHN-ee.  I say Bree-EHN.  

 

AIR-eez

 

For the record, GRRM doesn't care how we pronounce them.  Which is good because I will never be able to get used to Lie-anna Stark or Tyrion's first wife TISH-uh.

Why, Lyanna and Tysha are easy imo :P

 

Also is it Jaym or Jaymie?

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The letter "J" is pronounced like the "H" in English. But that's only the beginning. I don't really know how to explain it. Jaime is pronounced "Hi-me".

 

I've been saying "hi' • may" to my buddy for years. Just asked him and he prefers the way you wrote it. D'OH!

 

I was shocked to hear the show pronounce the names the way I'd been saying them in my head after being ribbed by the people who urged me to read the books about it. 

 

Arya: ar' • ree • yuh

Ramsay: ram' • zay

Brienne: bree • en'

Cersei: sir' • see

Aerys: ae' • riss

Arys: ah' • riss

Varys: vah' • riss

Daenerys: deh • nay' • riss

Melisandre: mel • lih • sahn' • druh

 

I am of the same opinion as authors like George and Orson Scott Card: I don't give a damn how people pronounce it. It's interesting to me to hear how people say things.

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I'm embarrassed to admit on my first read, I was thinking Pet-ee-er for Littlefinger and realized with the show that it's pronounced like Peter (duh!).

 

I read them wrong a lot too. For example, I saw Bryden not Brynden and Allister not Alliser.  

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