Lit The Official "How do I say that?" Thread

A friend was telling me the other day about how annoying he thinks Tahiri is. But when he said her name he pronounced it, Ta-hiri while I always thought it was Tuh-hiri.

Post all of your questionable pronunciations here, and we will try to agree on how it is pronounced.

 

Thought this was pertinent:

Wookieepedia List of Known Pronunciations.

It's pretty cool, actually.

edit: It is, however, strangely incomplete.

A current pronunciation debate is over the name "Lumiya." The audio books apparently say Loo-MY-uh, but it according to some reports the people at Del Rey were confused when asked a question concerning Lumiya, unsure of who the person asking the question was referring to until he said "Shira Brie." Most people on this board seem to agree on Loo-MEE-uh.

 

I can't decipher any of the pronunciations on the wookieepedia. It looks like greek to me. I feel like a dumbass.

Also i always pronounced it Loo-MY-uh.

 

I've always gone with Loo-MY-uh myself, but I call "Hoth" "Hoe-th" so I'm not one to trust in these matters.


I recently got into an arguement over Tycho's name, though. A friend of mine was talking about a "Tie-ch-oh" and I was completely baffled about who that was until she mentioned X-wings. I always thought it was "Tie-koh"... right?

 

I used to say Tie-ch-oh, but as of late I've been pronouncing it Tie-koh. I think it really depends on if the reader wants to say the Earth version of the name, or if they want to say it how it is spelled.

I am still unsure how to say Utapau. I can never remember if it is a "you" or an "oo" sound at the beginning...

 

This is from the Betrayal thread over at the official site forums.

Here's the link--- this is from June 30th of last year.

Literature is a wonderful thing. It allows you to imagine your own pronunciations, particularly for complex names you find in Sci-Fi and fantasy. For me, a pronunciation usually comes into my head the first time I read something. When you find out otherwise, it's really hard to part with your own pronunciation, though. For example, I know that it's most likely wrong, but I don't think I'll ever be able to start saying SAW-Buh Suh-BOT-ye-nay. It sounds soooo much better than "SEBBA-tine."

I have been able to change the ways I pronounce names in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, though, after consulting the glossary at the back. Even after three books.

Utapau is pronounced in the film. Then again, so is "Princess Lee-uh" by Jan Dodonna.

 

Kun.

It's spelled like Gun, so it should sound like Gun. It's not spelled like Goon. It shouldn't sound like Goon.

 

Certain users seem to like removing pronunciations. I've put ones up there that were removed later.

Most languages pronounce "u" as "oo".

 

I wasn't aware of that. Interesting.

WFT

How about this: Low-bot or Law-bot?

I've always gone with the latter, but I have the feeling it might be the former.

 

You're talking about how to pronounce "Lobot"?

I'm actually a bit baffled as to how you can read it as the latter.

 

But however they say it, I can never remember

Lobot is definately "Low-bot" IMO...

 

Well, when I'm translating DLOTS from Spanish, I'll pronounce it that way, but as long as I'm reading the English version, I'll be pronouncing it like a similarily spelled English word.

 

Honestly, I've never read it as anything but "koon". It doesn't look like English, so I don't pronounce it like English. I didn't realize anybody thought it was "kuhn" until I came to these boards.

 

QFT

 

Hey, I'm not the only person who does this! The reason it came to my mind was because I was talking about him the other day with another chap who calls him "Law-bot," and then some super-canon fanboy came over and got miffed that we were mispronouncing his name. His arguement was pretty much the same as yours, which makes sense.

 

Well, yeah. "Lo" never really makes the sound "law." Then again, there's no real way to read "Jacen" as "JAYK-in" but some people do it anyway.

 

here's my personals:

Hoth=Hawth

Lumiya=Lum-I(short i sound)-yuh

Lobot=Lowbot (whoever came up with something different...d'oh)

Kun=Kuhn

Tahiri=Tuh-hear-ee

Leia=Lay-uh (I have a cousin named Leia, and if anyone ever calls her anything but Lee-ah, she flips, for this reason)

Utapu=OOtapaw

Bothan=Bawthan (heard someone say bOthan one time)

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, not that it really matters.

 

I used to pronounce all three of the "Y"s in Kashyyyk. I thought it was "kashee-yik." COurse, I had never heard it any other way except for George saying "kashook" which didn't make a damn bit of sense. Since Ep 3 I know better.

And I always pronounce Kun as "kuhn" and Lumiya as "loo-my-uh." They just sound better that way. Koon sounds like pure stupid. Sorry, Plo.

 

Most of those you posted were actually pronounced in the movies. Hoth and Bothan are basically right, and so's Leia. Utapau is wrong, at least on the last syllable - according to RotS it's OO-tuh-pow. Lobot is, presumably, correct. I think I agree with you on Lumiya and Tahiri. Kun is, officially, Koon, and as has been pointed out, many languages pronounce the "u" that way.

 

Okay, how about this one:

AT-AT


For the first time in my entire life I heard someone call it "aht-aht" this year. Then some other folks told me that was the "official pronunciation." I always thought it was "A-T-A-T." Because then how do you pronounce AT-ST? "Aht-Sst"?

 

Kashyyyk:
I've always pronounced it Kah-SHEEK. I think i remember hearing it pronounced that way in an X-wing game. But in KotOR Bastilla pronounced it KAH-shick. Both pronunciations sound pretty good to me...but only the former seems to somewhat validate the use of a tripple "Y".

Exar Kun:
I much prefer "Koon". And whoever said they pronounce it like an English word just because they're reading an English book is a little misguided. If you applied that philosophy to everything you read....well....i just hope you never have to give an oral presentation on anything. It might be a little embarrassing.

 

Good point. I always assumed "aht-aht" was in-universe slang. But its a military designation, i think A-T-A-T is proper.

 

Yeah, I don't think there's a conflict there, either. It's official designation is All-Terrain Armored Transport, which is shortened to AT-AT. For brevity's sake, most people just say "atat"

 

Well, when Basic is the English Analogue of the SW universe, and so much else seems to be pronouncable just fine with English Phonetics, I think it's not too odd to be surprised when one thing that makes perfect phonetic sense is pronounced like it would be if it had a completely different vowel.

Other languages may not necessarily pronounce their U's like English does, but unless I'm reading a book translated from Basic to English via one of those languages, it seems pretty odd that they wouldn't translate it to an English Phonetic pronunciation when they're clearly translating it to an English audience. Thus, Kun should be spelled Koon if we're to read it as such, IMHO.

 

So if Kun is Koon, is Yun from Jedi Knight Yoon?