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Pronunciation Key!


ThePrincess

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I think GRRM's attitude is right. It's fantasy, it's not like a historical novel with Welsh or Latin pronunciations,

IceWolf

Nope. It doesn't wash at all in light of his attitude towards fanfic. It's borderline hypocritical, actually.

How do people pronounce names like "Varys," "Arys," etc.? I pronounce them "VAIR-iss" and "AIR-iss," respectively, but I was wondering how many folks prefer "VAHR-iss" and "AHR-iss." It occurred to me at some point that it might well be the latter, because I'm assuming that "Aerys" is pronounced like a cross between "AIR-iss" and "EAR-iss," and GRRM may not have intended for the "aer-" and "ar-" sounds to be so close.

I made a conscious decision to pronounce the -ys suffix as "knees", otherwise the books have a character whose name sounds disturbing similar to "Anus", and I can't imagine GRRM sounding that out in his head.

I'm talking about Aenys, if it's not obvious.

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I made a conscious decision to pronounce the -ys suffix as "knees", otherwise the books have a character whose name sounds disturbing similar to "Anus", and I can't imagine GRRM sounding that out in his head.

I'm talking about Aenys, if it's not obvious.

I have a similar problem with Euron ("Urine") Grayjoy. After encountering the work of a herr Euler ("Oiler") in math class one day I decided to try to make myself pronounce the "eu" in the German way - Oiron Grayjoy of the Oiron Oilands... nah, it doesn't work for me, plus that makes Dunk's old boss Ser Eustace sound like Ser Oysters. In conclusion, I haven't been able to relieve myself of my Number One pronunciation hangup. :leaving:

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Could this be a somewhat correct representation of the pronunciation? It was collected from two or three message boards, including this one. Comments are most welcome. Note that the words have been transcribed using the Received Pronunciation model (standard UK speech, so to say).

If you know how the author himself pronounces a name or the actors who recorded the audiobooks as well as the TV version pronunciation, let me know.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2i1fvko.png

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  • 4 weeks later...

I didn't actually have the luxury to think too much on the problem with pronunciation as I read the book in my mother tongue (Bulgarian and we write with the Cyrillic alphabet) first and the interpreter did a lot of work for me... I just had to figure out the stress. That problem is new to me and I didn't find it confusing even when I first saw the original spelling. I've studied a fair share of language and I can see where the Bulgarian version came from. (Also 'dai-nee-rees' would sound worse than unnatural here.)

Coming from Latin, I read all 'ae'-s like 'e' and thus Aegon becomes 'e-gon', Aerys - 'e-rees' and Daenerys - 'de-ne-rees'. This is similar to the way they pronounce it the HBO series. I had a hard time with 'Targaryen' but because of the way it sounds in plural (in Bulgarian) I usually put the stress on the last syllable. I also say 'ves-te-ros' just because of the way it was written in the translated books; this should come from German I suppose.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Now that the HBO series has begun airing and I'm also rereading the books, I'm finding myself switching between their pronunciations and my own while I'm reading...trying out what I like best.

Anyway, a petty one that bothers me for some reason is Gendry. The show has it as a hard G, while I always had it as a soft G, I guess as in the word "gentry".

Another thing I have done is to assign vowels different pronunciations according the origin of the name. e.g. anything Valyrian to me has a Latin pronunciation while everything Northern has more of a Germanic sound. That just comes from the aesthetic feelings I get from the different cultures, I guess.

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  • 1 month later...

I would LOVE to see a pronunciation key (i.e. pruh-nuhn-see-ey-shuhn kee)

<snip>

it seems like everyone has a different way of pronunciating certain names.

I would love to see one, too, but I also find that the lack of such a key is part of the fun in reading the story. You can totally make the pronunciation your own like you did above with pronunciating instead of pronouncing. :mellow:

I agree, my boyfriend and I have been arguing over the pronunciationg of Daenerys as we both want to give the name to our next daughter.

In latin, there's a character that represents the combination of the 'a' and 'e' sounds into 'ae'. This is how I pronounce the 'ae' in Daenerys, but this doesn't mean I'm right. I think you'll be fine as long you don't pronounce Daenerys like dull-law-rus or lord-vah-ris. :drunk:

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Both the pronounciation of Aerys and Targaryen was a surprise to me when watching the show. I always pronounced it Air-iss and Tar-gar-yen. I especially don't like the 'Ares' pronounciation of Aerys. Air-iss sounds so much cooler, and if it was Ares why not just spell it Ares?

The Eyrie being pronounced like 'eerie' also surprised me, I always thought it was the same as the regular word eyrie.

Other than that I don't recall any pronounciation differing significantly from what I had thought.

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Isn't the regular word eyrie pronounced as eerie? I'm not a linguist; I just always assumed...

I've always pronounced ASoIaF names as...

Targaryen.....Tarr-garr-yenn

Viserys..........Viss-air-ees or Viss-air-iss

Daenerys.......Dann-air-ees

Jaime.............Jay-mee

Cersei............Seer-say (which is probably a mistake, but I think I somehow identify her name with the Greek mythological name Circe, and that's how I've always pronounced Circe)

Tyrion............Tear-ee-on

Sansa............Sann-sah or Sann-suh

Arya..............Arr-yah or Ar-yuh

Aemon..........Ay-monn

Aegon......................Ay-gonn

Aerys............Aireez, or Ares

Brienne.........Bree-enn (sounds French to me)

Rhaegar.........Ray-gar

Rhaenys.........Rain-ees (I'm almost certain that's not right, but I don't know how else to pronounce it, or how the Rh sounds)

Khal/Khaleesi...Kall/Kall-ee-see

Drogo...................Droh-goh (also the name of the father of Frodo Baggins, hobbit hero of LOTR)

Illyrio................Ill-ee-rio

This is how those names sound in my head. I'm not certain that's how GRRM hears them or wants them to be heard...

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Arya tries to repeat it as Rollor in one of her chapters, when she hears this name/word for the first time.

About Day-near-is, I can't really see the connection between that pronounciation and her nickname Dany. Makes me think it's more likely pronounced as Den-yr-is.

It's actually spelled Rulore when she tries to say it (at least in my copy).

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  • 2 weeks later...

In most Lannister, Baratheon, Stark, Tully, Arryn etc. names I try to follow the English pronunciation. Not that there are any rules for pronunciation in English, but you get what I mean.

Tywin: Tie-win

Cersei: Sir-say OR Sir-see

Tyrion: Tier-ian ('Tie' just doesn't sound right here)

Catelyn: Cat-lin OR Cate-lin

Sansa: Sun-suh

Baratheon: Buh-rath-ian

With Targaryens, Tyrells and Martells I stay closer to Latin phonetic pronunciation. I heard that The Reach and Dorne may correspond to France and Spain, this made sense to me so I don't pronounce those names in English.

Loras: Lor-us

Margaery: Marga-rey (as in Margaret)

Doran: Dor-Uhn (stress on 2nd syllable)

Arianne: Ari-Uhn (same as above)

Elia: El-yuh

Targaryen: tar-Gar-yen OR ian

Daenerys: dan-Eris

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Never mind those. How are you expected to pronounce R'hllor?

I tend to say it as 'Ruh-lorr'

I didn't think there was any other way to pronounce Brienne (Bree-en for me) until a friend asked me what character I was talking about. For now I'll stick with Bree-En.

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Dotrice has another stinker pronunciation ... Margery. He pronunces it "Marj-ori" instead of "Marg-ori" ... drives me crazy. I think Roy Avers reading of the books has the best pronunciation of all names.

Yeah I first "read" the books with Roy Avers and I like his pronunciation the best...Though John Lee says Cersei and Brienne really cool-like.

Isn't the regular word eyrie pronounced as eerie? I'm not a linguist; I just always assumed...

I've always pronounced ASoIaF names as...

Targaryen.....Tarr-garr-yenn

Viserys..........Viss-air-ees or Viss-air-iss

Daenerys.......Dann-air-ees

Jaime.............Jay-mee

Cersei............Seer-say (which is probably a mistake, but I think I somehow identify her name with the Greek mythological name Circe, and that's how I've always pronounced Circe)

Tyrion............Tear-ee-on

Sansa............Sann-sah or Sann-suh

Arya..............Arr-yah or Ar-yuh

Aemon..........Ay-monn

Aegon......................Ay-gonn

Aerys............Aireez, or Ares

Brienne.........Bree-enn (sounds French to me)

Rhaegar.........Ray-gar

Rhaenys.........Rain-ees (I'm almost certain that's not right, but I don't know how else to pronounce it, or how the Rh sounds)

Khal/Khaleesi...Kall/Kall-ee-see

Drogo...................Droh-goh (also the name of the father of Frodo Baggins, hobbit hero of LOTR)

Illyrio................Ill-ee-rio

This is how those names sound in my head. I'm not certain that's how GRRM hears them or wants them to be heard...

This seems to be the perfect pronunciation key IMO. But sometimes I like the change in pronouncing certain names, like Daenerys or Catelyn...you could change those names up and I wouldn't mind. OTOH, mispronounce Tyrion or Aegon and it really bugs me.

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