143 replies to this topic

[Summer Storm]

I saw a topic recently about typos that we notice and are annoyed by in the books. It made me think of how I pronounce character names, specifically how I used to say them in my head before I ever heard them said aloud! There were quite a few that I was saying completely wrong so I thought it would be fun to share them, and see whether anyone else has had simillar experiences.

Ok, so here are mine (some of them are shameful!)

Jaime - Jayme (like Jayne...)
Targaryen - Tar-ga-rhyen (I can't even explain the sound of this in my mind, I knew it was wrong the whole time)
Dany - Day-nee (instead of Danny, I still read it like that now tbh)
Viserys - Vis-erus

[Chelly]

The biggest mispronouciation for me was Ygritte. For some weird reason I heard it as Vi-gret, even though there is no "V" in that name.

[Im no Ser]

Damphair = "Damp Hair" not "Damfair"

That took me a lot longer than it should have.

[y ddraig]

I still say Jilly and Jendry. I can't guess which language rules GRRM wants me to break. Daenerys looks like the emphasis should be on the first syllable, but the name doesn't really flow well that way.

I still don't know if Elia is supposed to be EEL-ya or e-LIE-a. Roy Dotrice says it both ways.

[Child of Spring]

I'm still confused about the pronunciation of Tyrell. Is the ty- pronounced like in Tywin or like in Tyrion? I think in the show we heard both versions (first one from Renly and the second one from Loras, but I might be wrong).

I also appreciated the merchant's lesson for Daenerys about the pronunciation of Qarth in the show .

[Mr Motte]

Child of Spring, on 06 August 2012 - 12:45 PM, said:

I'm still confused about the pronunciation of Tyrell. Is the ty- pronounced like in Tywin or like in Tyrion? I think in the show we heard both versions (first one from Renly and the second one from Loras, but I might be wrong).

There were three pronunciations of Tyrell in the show. There was "Teer-ill," "Ta-rell" and "Tie-rell"

So I have no idea how to pronounce it.

[Child of Spring]

Mr Motte, on 06 August 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

There were three pronunciations of Tyrell in the show. There was "Teer-ill," "Ta-rell" and "Tie-rell"

So I have no idea how to pronounce it.

Ha, I knew I wasn't mad. I was (and still am) so confused! But I always think of it as Tie-rell.

[Im no Ser]

Mr Motte, on 06 August 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

There were three pronunciations of Tyrell in the show. There was "Teer-ill," "Ta-rell" and "Tie-rell"

So I have no idea how to pronounce it.

It's really sloppy TV when the Tyrell siblings pronounce their last name differently from one another.

[The Mother of Dragons]

I always thought of Tyrell as Ta-rell, or Teerell. Tie-rell doesn't sound right to me. Also, GRRM or one of the show runners said that they allow some leeway with the pronunciations. For example, I remember Stannis was getting his propaganda made and Davos' son read it aloud and said Cer-say not Cer-see while Tyrion, Robert, Sansa, etc. say Cer-see. I also believe some people have said Vaaa-rys and some have said Varr-ys.

On topic, I used to pronounce...
Jaime as Jayme til about halfway through AGoT
Balon as Baaa-lon and not Bay-lon
Varys as varies until the end of AGoT
Ygritte as Ig-grit
Dany as Day-nee not Danny
Khal as Kal
Melisandre as Melisander
Damphair as Dam-phair
Aerys as Ares

[Lady Katherine]

I was the worst

Ygritte: "Ya-greet"
Catelyn: "Kate-Lynn"
Cersei: "Sir-Say"
Arya: "Area"
Petyr: "Petty-er" (hey, that Y really threw me off!)

[Daevyd Targaryen]

for a long time i pronounced Jaime [Hy-May] as this hispanic pronunciation was the only time i had seen Jaime before

incidentally, "Balon as Baaa-lon and not Bay-lon"

GRRM pronounces it this way in his reading so it would seem that you were right and the show is wrong

[AsoiafFTW!]

i pronounce most names as if them were spanish words so tyrion sounds tee-rion (but tywin was always tai-win) on my mind.

[rmholt]

y ddraig, on 06 August 2012 - 12:45 PM, said:

I still say Jilly and Jendry. I can't guess which language rules GRRM wants me to break. Daenerys looks like the emphasis should be on the first syllable, but the name doesn't really flow well that way.

I still don't know if Elia is supposed to be EEL-ya or e-LIE-a. Roy Dotrice says it both ways.

I have "heard" Hard G Gendry and soft G Gendry.  The Hard G Gendry was from Arya who I cant understand half the time - I have to wait for episode 17 (?) to rerun now that I have CC turned on to see what she says to Tywin with her mouth full.

In most cases of disagreement I presume the TV people got it wrong <G> after all these are MY PEOPLE.  Mostly we agree. However, Tyrell, I had as tie RELL and tuhRell seems better.

[The Mother of Dragons]

Daevyd Targaryen, on 06 August 2012 - 01:26 PM, said:

for a long time i pronounced Jaime [Hy-May] as this hispanic pronunciation was the only time i had seen Jaime before

incidentally, "Balon as Baaa-lon and not Bay-lon"

GRRM pronounces it this way in his reading so it would seem that you were right and the show is wrong

I didn't even realize. I guess some people feel it's easier to say Bay-lon because of their accents or just the way it looks in their head. Like I said, the show runners allow leeway with pronunciations. I'm just glad no one is saying "Day-neries" or "Vie-series" or God forbid, Catelyn as Caitlyn. That just makes my skin crawl.

[rmholt]

Im no Ser, on 06 August 2012 - 01:07 PM, said:

It's really sloppy TV when the Tyrell siblings pronounce their last name differently from one another.

I submit the Steven Colbert family - some chose the English pronunciation and some the French.

[The Mother of Dragons]

y ddraig, on 06 August 2012 - 12:45 PM, said:

I still say Jilly and Jendry. I can't guess which language rules GRRM wants me to break. Daenerys looks like the emphasis should be on the first syllable, but the name doesn't really flow well that way.

I still don't know if Elia is supposed to be EEL-ya or e-LIE-a. Roy Dotrice says it both ways.

I always thought of it as EEL-ia or ELL-ia

Edited by The Mother of Dragons, 06 August 2012 - 01:33 PM.

[Silver Spearwife]

GRRM has said that he doesn't really care about pronunciations, and he prefers not to deem any one right or wrong, so I guess there aren't any "mispronunciations" per se.

Although I'm still 99% positive that I mispronounce maester (I always pronounce it just like "master". As far as I know, I'm the only one who does this).

[nutella23]

"Dam-phair" definitely, lol.

This one is really sad -- when I was just starting AGOT before I started watching the show I thought Tyrion was "Tie-ree-on" (like the "ty" in Tywin). Now that sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, haha.


I'm still not sure about Tyrell, I guess I usually say "tir-ELL" without too much attention to the first vowel sound but sometimes it's more "tie-rell"

And I remember definitely not being sure how to pronounce Daenerys before watching the show. I'm thinking I was probably imagining something like "DAY-ner-is".

Also, I of course pronounced "Catelyn" with the long A at first.

[StannisBamfatheon]

My girlfriend while watching GOT cannot shake pronouncing Gendry "Jen-dry"  


HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU ITS A SOFT G!!!!!

[nutella23]

you mean hard G, soft is J   

I always said Gendry and Gilly with the hard G sound.


I usually say "EE-lee-a" for Elia but every once in a while I think "e-LIE-a"