Phonetic misrepresentation of writing in names

[Springwatch]

18 hours ago, Willam Stark said:

I don't think it is relevant to take rhymes into account.

You should. Theon hammers it home about twenty times. Also the Reader (and if the name, 'the Reader' doesn't make you sit up and take notice, what does?) There are more, if I could think of them. Here's an odd one:

Quote

The white knight. The captain frowned. Ser Arys had come to Dorne to attend his own princess, as Areo Hotah had once come with his. Even their names sounded oddly alike: Areo and Arys. Yet there the likeness ended. [...]

I mean, really??? And if that's how the world works, maybe Arya will get a princess to protect too.

[Walda]

There's Jon

Quote

Septon Cellador drank some wine.

(ADwD, Ch 29 Jon VIII)

and there's Jeor

Quote

“You may take your vows here at evenfall, before Septon Celladar and the first of your order.”

(AGoT Ch 48 Jon VI)

Before Jon becomes a brother of the Night's Watch, he knows the name ends in 'ar'. He hears Jeor (a northerner) pronounce it 'ar'

Ever since he joined the wildlings, Jon thinks of the Septon as merely a drunkard, even when he is sober or absent. Jon is the only one who says the word as a mocking homonym for 'cellar door' (well, him and the appendices after ASoS.)

Melisandre gives the man his correct name, showing no contempt for his human failings,  does not mock the officer or his office as mortal envoy of the false gods.

.

Jaime and Tyrion both first think of the oldest Kettleblack as "Ser Oswald". Perhaps remembering the Kingsguard used to have knights like Ser Oswell Whent, before the rise of Ser Osmund Kettleblack.

When Tyrion asks if Cercei met Penny in Braavos, Penny tells him 

Quote

“She never … it was a man who came to us, in Pentos. Osmund. No, Oswald. Something like that. Oppo met with him, not me. Oppo made all of our arrangements.

(ADwD, Ch 33 Tyrion VIII)

This could be GRRM retconning an unfortunate slip of the ASoS pen into an ADwD plot point.

Who did Oppo meet?  The Kingsguard knight, or his father? And who does Tyrion think he met? I would guess, the wrong one.

Tyrion misremembers the son's name and doesn't know the father exists. Or that they are both quietly allied to Petyr Baelish.

.

As well as PoV characters remembering names after their own fashion, there are names that are deliberately close rather than the same in spelling, used to indicate kinship to more illustrious people, without causing offence. 

 

Quote

Lannisport teems with Lannys, Lannetts, Lantells, and lesser Lannisters, and half of them have that yellow hair.

(AFfC, Ch 21 The Queenmaker)

Quote

“Can’t throw a stone in Duskendale without you hit some Darke or Darkwood or Dargood, but the lordly Darklyns are all gone.

(AFfC, Ch 14 Brienne III)

Then there are people like Rennifer Longwaters and his ancestors

Quote

I am not one to boast, but there is royal blood in my veins. I am descended from a princess ... the fairest treasure of the Maidenvault. Lord Oakenfist the great admiral lost his heart to her, though he was married to another. She gave their son the bastard name of ‘Waters’ in honor of his father, and he grew to be a great knight, as did his own son, who put the ‘Long’ before the ‘Waters’ so men might know that he was not basely born himself.

(AFfC Ch 8 Jaime I)

Oakenfist was the legitimised Velaryon bastard who was known in his lifetime as Alyn of Hull. Bastardry is stigmatising, no inheritance, suspicions of bad blood. But a bastard name means ones noble sire acknowledges the blood is his own. Or at least, some noble family has claimed the child.

So a bastard name implies an education, in letters and in arms, and patronage. Jon Snow was likely groomed for command because Winterfell would support him. Just as Benjen probably became head ranger because his brother would heed his plans.

We know how people like Ser Hugh of the Vale and Ser Duncan the Tall get their names, created with their knighthoods. Disguising the absence of a surname or eliding one that would shame him.

Although it seems odd to me that Jon Arryn's squire had no family name he wished to guild with glory, nor any desire to attach himself to the Arryns or King Robert, who both liked him well enough to knight him.  I can understand the opposite situation better: no mother ever called her child Kegs or Spare Boot. But they were not sent to the wall for the honour of their father's name.

And then, there's what happens when High Valyrian names are pronounced in the Valyrian of the Free Cities or Slaver's Bay, or the regional accents of the common tongue of Westeros. 

The only example I can think of is 

Quote

“Nymeria,” she said. “Only she called me Nan for short.”

(ASoS Ch 47 Arya IX)

The Sandsnake is given the diminutive Nym, not Nan, so that might be a sign that Northerners pronounce it differently.

In English, Nan is a diminutive of Anne, which is a very common name. Exactly the sort of thing one would call a servant. Possibly even if they were not named Anne (in the same way that carriage drivers would be referred to as "James" regardless of who drove the carriage).

The Valyrian and the Ghiscari have glyphs (they might even be the same glyphs). From what Tyrion can read of Benerro's fire glyphs, each one (or at least, each one he can decipher) represents a word rather than a syllable or a sound. Which means the written language would be no guide to pronunciation.

The unsullied can read Ghiscari glyphs, at least so far as remembering their name requires them to. Presumably they can also pronounce the names in Astapori Valyrian, to avoid being "culled".

But those names can also be correctly pronounced in as many different languages as the unsullied speak.

It reminds me of when the Astapori named Dany 'Mhysa'

Quote

"Maela,” some called her, while others cried “Aelalla” or “Qathei” or “Tato,”

(ASoS Ch 42 Daenerys IV)

So Serra/Seara and Dalla/Daella.  being really the same names is a very reasonable interpretation. (Unless you are claiming that Mance's wife lived 236 years and is Daella Targaryen. But you aren't.) 

GRRM does so much with names, revealing and erasing identities, it is almost certain, if he meant the names to be the same, he would have the characters quite different, and the outcome of their story.