Wait, is it pronounced Ay-Gon or Ee-Jon?

[CrypticWeirwood]

4 hours ago, Lychnidos said:

When I first read a Game of Thrones in 2008 I had no idea how the ae combination is read, so I read it by my mother tongue rules as ˈaɛ.ɡɔn .

That’s exactly how I always said it as well. Alas, that wasn't what Martin was thinking.

[CrypticWeirwood]

On June 30, 2016 at 11:06 AM, SevasTra82 said:

I've heard GRRM himself call him "ay-gone", so that's what I'm going with.

You can hear George Martin pronouncing Aegon as [ˈeɪˌgɑn] here at around 18:54.

I'm sorry to say this, because I know you meant well, but although you may think that you writing "ay-gone" tells us something, it really does not.  That's because everyone pronounces the same words differently, so you can't actually figure out how to say something unless you use phonetic notation. Just with your two parts we have these troubles and more:

• Consider how the word "aye" meaning "yes" is pronounced by sailors or Scots, or how some Australians pronounce "mate" they way an American pronounces "might", and you will see why "ay" is too confusing a notation.
• Similarly some people say the word "gone" with the same vowel as they have in "thought", while others use the vowel they have in "cloth" and still more (especially in California) say it with the same vowel as they use in "father".

So respellings like yours do not actually tell anyone else how you're saying anything. Sorry but it's true. This chart illustrates how the same words, the same spellings, are said differently everywhere.

That's why I used phonetic notation to indicate pronunciations of [ˈeɪgən],  [ˈeɪˌgɔn], or [ˈeɪˌgɑn].  Martin uses the last one but the Brits on the show use the first version because their second syllable has a very short, reduced schwa vowel; just listen to the difference between how Brits pronounce "python" or "photon" compared with how Americans do, and you will hear this happening.

The entire world uses one standard international phonetic notation — except for non-linguists in America. English dictionaries made in England use international phonetic notation, but American ones do not. This is getting better now that Wikipedia uses it, but the general American public without any background in language or languages probably haven’t encountered international phonetic notation before.

This makes it especially hard to talk about sounds with many Americans.

[Lychnidos]

To be fair the general public anywhere hasn't encountered IPA.

[ToTheWolves]

On June 29, 2016 at 0:43 AM, Damon_Tor said:

I've always assumed an "English" pronunciation of the name "Aegon" to sound like "ay-gon" but it occurred to me that the Latin prononciation would make it "ee-jon". For example, the word "Aegis" is pronounced "ee-jis" in Latin.

It would seem to provide an origin for the name "Jon".

Just a random thought I had.

Yes, I know, in the show it's "Aegon" at least when speaking in Andlish. Has anyone on the show spoken about Aegon in Valyrian?

Also i believe Jon is named after Jon arryn . Or that's always been my thinking.

[Kienn]

Gif, not Jiff.

[Aderyn]

For me, it's always been [ˈeɪgən] because I started off with the TV show and was affected by how the British characters pronounced it. My mother tongue uses lots of diphthongs and that's why I prefer the sound of it to 'egg-on'. It also seems logical to me that [ˈeɪgən] would be shortened as ['ɛg] despite the former starting with a diphthong. Languages aren't straightforward and they often find shortcuts, especially when it comes to pronunciation. Hence, the skipping of one sound.

Thanks to CrypticWeirwood for all the etymological info I do love this topic! If you ever feel like doing more research on the names of Ice and Fire and publishing it here (assuming it hasn't been done already), you've just found one curious reader.

Ending with an off-topic note: after realising that Aemon and Eamon are basically the same name, I remembered that I once knew an old Irish guy named Eamon who was white-haired and very fond of telling stories of old Celtic origin. Now I cannot help but see some similarities between him and my favourite maester.  

[StarkofWinterfell]

I think it's pronounced like "Eye-Gon" because in Latin that is how "ae" is pronounced.

[Manderly's Rat Cook]

@CrypticWeirwood wow your Jon is actually Aemon theory is really interesting! I think it might well be possible. 

I see one flaw in your argument though,  maester Aemon is not a second son. He was the third son and Aegon was his younger brother,  which is why Aemon took the black,  so nobody could use him against his younger brother.