Pronunciation Guide

[masterdaorin]

Has there ever been any attempt here to create a pronunciation guide for some of the harder to pronounce words in BR?

[Fizz]

Has there ever been any attempt here to create a pronunciation guide for some of the harder to pronounce words in BR?

The original boxed set had a card that explained the sounds of Anuirean.

Elvish of Cerilia is based on Welsh, so if you follow those rules you can pronounce it properly. (for example, w is an "oo" sound, d sounds like "th". etc.)

Rich Baker put out a number of pronounciation examples as well; part of his "Lost Files" that came out several years back.

-Fizz

[masterdaorin]

Those I have. Not all of the words are covered (in Brechtur, Khinasi, Rjurik, or Vosgaard), however.

Like, how do you pronounce Dzhl? That one is probably easy, but there are others... Like Mesire... I'm not sure how to tackle that one. I want to say me-SEER, but its probably me-SIRE.

Should we post these words here and the community can hash them out...?

[Fizz]

Those I have. Not all of the words are covered (in Brechtur, Khinasi, Rjurik, or Vosgaard), however.

Like, how do you pronounce Dzhl? That one is probably easy, but there are others... Like Mesire... I'm not sure how to tackle that one. I want to say me-SEER, but its probably me-SIRE.

Should we post these words here and the community can hash them out...?

Not all languages are covered no. So you can pronounce those words however you want. Whatever works for your game!

That said, since the nations have real-world analogs, i'd just make the language match that. Brechtur is primarily based on Hanseatic Germany, so the language would sound heavily germanic, maybe with a bit of Dutch mixed in. Rjurik would be based on scandanavian languages, and Vos based on something slavic, such as Ukrainian or Russian (maybe with some Finnish). Khinasi is a bit trickier to my ear. They are loosely based on Moorish Spain, so perhaps a mix of Arabic with some Egyptian and maybe other north African influences.

So for me, i just consider how it'd sounds to the real-world analog, and go with that. No doubt i'm not perfect with it, but no one has ever complained.


-Fizz

[masterdaorin]

So for me, i just consider how it'd sounds to the real-world analog, and go with that. No doubt i'm not perfect with it, but no one has ever complained.
-Fizz

We do too, but I was just wondering if the community here has ever attempted it.

The problem, too, is that the game doesn't follow its own "rules" sometimes either. For example, I'm pretty sure Anuireans should be pronounced an-UR-EE-ans, like the audio file suggests, but I belief some other canon source says it's supposed to be: an-WEER-ee-ans.

It would just be nice to have some sort of consensus, I was thinking. I had the thought yesterday all of a sudden: how would you pronounce Aftane?

One of my players has always pronounced it: AHF-tain. But as I had that thought, it suddenly struck me that it's probably more like: ahf-TAN-eh. [edit: actually, < that is right, according to Google translate - lol]

Google translate isn't all that helpful with most of these words either... and since I don't speak any of the analog real-world languages... just curious if some of the community members who do speak those real-world languages could help...

[Sorontar]

The problem with any attempt to define an accent is that there will often be local variations. For instance, you may be familiar with an American or French or English or German accent, even though you don't live there. However, there is more than one American/French/English/German accent, so your knowledge is probably not precise enough. Different regions will have different accents. A local accent from Cornwall is different to one from Liverpool and one from Manchester. Likewise, Swiss German and Bavarian German and Belgian German are quite different, even though they are still all speaking German.

Furthermore, some languages also require intonation or syllable accenting to be incorporated. It is not just what sounds you say but the length, pitch/es and stress you place on those sounds.

Most of these things are not discussed, except by linguists, interpreters and translators.

So yes, Anuireans speak the same language but they won't always say thinghs the same way. Likewise for elves and dwarves from different realms. Even the halflings in the Burrows might have terms and slight differences in how the locals from each province speaks, or what terms they use for certain foods and produces.

Sorontar, linguist

[masterdaorin]

I agree, Sorontar, but I think it would be helpful to have some sort of guide for the community.

We've been pronouncing Aftane wrong all these years! LoL. At least, according to Google translate, using the Arabic version of Aftane...

Mesire (if Turkish), is pronounced me-SIGH-ah... I think... it was hard to understand through my tinny laptop speakers... sigh.

Meh, whatever. I suppose there's not much interest from any here. But I might just slog through all the place names and add a helpful pronunciation (--) indicator to my Atlas document, just like the canon documents do for certain words (i.e. tighmaevril).

[AndrewTall]

I'm sure that people would be interested if you did a wiki page on pronunciation, if you aren't sure how to wiki text, you could post what you come up with in the forum or upload a word doc and Sorontar or I will then put it on the wiki.

[masterdaorin]

Ok, you got it! It may take me several weeks...

[Witness3]

I love how much language helps in creating a mood and a sense of diversity. My players are currently waging war in Mieres, I've decided that Mierese people do not speak anuireian but a weird mix between andu, rjuven and high brecht, called post imperial or adurian, which is Esperanto in reality, since there is little communication between Mieres and Anuire after the fall of the empire, so Mieres kinda evolved their language indipendently.

I think that a pronunciation guide, even as simple as an entry inside every realm page, would be a wonderful thing. And I would love to help if possible.

I think it would benefit everyone from all the world if we use the IPA alphabet to explain pronunciation, insted of the english/american rules, I think that english phonetic pronunciation actually makes pronunciation more obscure for non native english speakers (at least I can directly check out that phonetic symbol directly in my language).