Amph Pronouncing/deciphering names in a book can be a pain in the butt!!!

I love reading, but sometimes the authors of certain books drive me crazy with how they pronounce names, or just how the come up with some of the names for their characters. Alot of times it can be a distraction for me. The Wheel of Time Series is a great example. Love the series, but some of the names either, aren't spelled as the author would have them pronounced, or they seem to be a direct rip off of other fantasy characters with a couple of vowels added in. Does this bother anyone else?

 

I can't say I've noticed tbh. I know that JK Rowling added something about the pronunciation of 'Hermione' to one of the books because people kept getting it wrong.

 

For me,it's not the characters names, it's the place names that do it.

 

Oh yes. In fact, Wheel of Time was what I thought of when I saw this thread

Sometimes I know I'm pronouncing things wrong, but I do it anyway because it's just in my head rather than speaking. Less confusing for me.

 

I've had to do that as well, where I just pronounce it the way I want. It's the only way I can get past it.

 

I usually just come up with my best guess when reading them. Even if I know it's wrong, I will still say it like I "think".

dkt

 

I've always been more frustrated with the fans that mispronounce names, and even after being enlightened to the actual pronunciation, still persist in saying names incorrectly, even when speaking to the author/creator.

Lumiya of Star Wars fame comes to mind. It pronounced Lew-Maya (just like it's spelled) but a ridiculous number of fans refuse to call the character by her proper name and instead say Loo-mee-yah or Lomi-I-ya or other ridiculously inaccurate names. There's also those who say Jacen as Jake-en. The problem isn't limited to Star Wars, unfortunately. You get people saying Tobias as Toby-yazz or Tob-I-ayeus (which is even more unfortunate given that Tobias is a real name)

/sigh

 

I say Loo-mee-yah Never actually heard it spoken. And I've always pronounced Jacen the same way as Jason (Jay-sen)

 

I've actually screwed up both Jacen's and Hermione's names at one time.
Certain LOTR names tripped me up as well.

However, I hold myself to be king of screwy names. They've sent people babbling.

If you want to take a whack at them just let me know.

 

haha, i used to pronounce Hermione as Her-mone because i was young and dumb.

really the only names i ahve trouble deciphering are the Wookiees in Star Wars and the Ents in LOTR. everything else ain't too bad.....

 

I get that a lot with sci-fi and fantasy books.

 

Unless the author tells me how to pronounce the names, I pronounce them the way they're spelled or the way that sounds best to me. So at first I pronounced Hermione Her-me-own. As for Jacen, I took that to be a variation of Jason, and pronounced it accordingly.

 

I'm fairly sure that Jacen is pronounced as Jason.

 

Remember Father Estevão's nickname in the Ender's Game series?

Quim?

Guess how that's pronounced. Go on, guess.


King. That's right. King.

 

Forgotten Realms novels do that alot.

 

The thing is even worse considering we all speak different languages. Try talking to someone with a different mothers language about book characters! "Pronounce as spelled! Pronounce as spelled!" Harder done than said!

I have these problems with Gaelic / Welsh names like Shioban or Saoirse

 

I know what you mean! There seems to be no logic to the spelling of those names!

 

They're awful to propounce/spell, but they're really cool names

 

This immediately leads me to think about WoT, mainly because the pronounciation help in the glossary corrected almost every place name after I read them for the first time. Unfortunately, I never check the pronounciation until i've finished the book and by the time you get through a novel worth of saying something wrong it's very hard to change it in your head. I still can't quite get around Cairhien as KEYE-ree-EHN or Seanchan as SHAWN-chan, they just don't sound right to me, but I suppose at least with WoT you get all of the correct versions instead of having to guess some.

Also there are times when you know you're saying things wrong, but it sounds better in your head so you ignore it, like Hapes for example, I just can't bring myself to make it rhyme with grapes.

 

I've always pronounced Hapes to rhyme with grapes. What other way is there?

I think most of us like our own ideas best. I guess it's just human nature.

 

I say Loo-mee-yah, because when I first saw the name, I linked it to the Croatian suffix -ija, which is pronounced -ee-yah It just doesn't occur to my brain that the letter 'i' can be elongated very often

 

Imagine that you're not an English native speaker. Now that's a pain in the butt.

 

I've always said it Hay-pees.

I agree we all like our own ideas, whatever you think the first time you see a word sticks quite often, and at the end of the day when you're reading a book it hardly matters which way you pronounce it.

 

I just tend to go with what sounds right to be. I remember reading Manda Scott's Boudica series (eh, no one even knows how to pronouce that name right is it Boud-IKA or is Boud-ah-see-ah?)

The Welsh/Irish/Celtic names in that are a pain, because you always insist on saying or thinking them on how they're spelt in relation to English. Well, there was one character in that called Ban (has an accent over the a), and the why it's supposed to be pronouced is Bon, but you keep on thinking Ban anyway. While I was doing some voluntary work at a local animal farm, there was this highland cattle calf that had been hand reared which had a Celtic name.

When I first stared reading Star Wars novels, I thought Jacen was Jaken, but later I figured out it was different. But still, not as bad as Ooryl Qrygg, the Gand from Rogue Squadron.

The worst names I've ever come across are from the aliens in Zahn's Conqueror's Trilogy.

 

Which do you like better: when the author tells you how to pronounce the names, or when the author leaves that up to you?