Name mispronunciations

[Terrisman]

4 hours ago, Bridge_Four said:

Sadeas was Sadie + the "es

This is wrong??????

On 12/15/2024 at 8:25 AM, Treamayne said:

Elantris Pronunciation Guide

Long vowels for Aons, short vowels everywhere else. Therefore:

Elantris - Aon Ela - Long E, Long A

Elantris = EE-Layn-tris

(I still say EE-Lan-Tris)

Is there a pronunciation guide for all characters?

[Bridge_Four she/her]

7 minutes ago, Terrisman said:

This is wrong??????

At least according to my friend (who just goes off of the audiobook pronounciations, which can be wrong). I don't listen to the audiobook, I use paper copies, so I was talking about the book and he corrected me on the pronouncation, saying "it's SAD-eas because he makes you very sad" He said it a while back and I still remember that everytime he is mentioned 

[Treamayne]

55 minutes ago, Terrisman said:

This is wrong??????

44 minutes ago, Bridge_Four said:

At least according to my friend (who just goes off of the audiobook pronounciations, which can be wrong). I don't listen to the audiobook, I use paper copies, so I was talking about the book and he corrected me on the pronouncation, saying "it's SAD-eas because he makes you very sad" He said it a while back and I still remember that everytime he is mentioned 

Here is Peter's "lesson" on Alethi letters:

Spoiler

Argent

In English, "N" is articulated the same way "T" and "D" are - on the alveolar ridge (as all three are nasal alveolar). It seems like in the women's script "N" belongs to a different family from "T" and "D". The former is a "left facing arrow" while the latter two are "right facing arrows", to use some very basic description of the symbol shapes. Why is that?

Isaac Stewart

Peter might have a better explanation for this, but because of the three sizes, we had to group things in ways that didn't always make sense. The N was a fourth letter in a set (TDL), so looking back, maybe we should've grouped N with TD instead of the L, but then that has a cascading effect, so this was the best we could do in the time we had. But we don't know exactly how the Alethi speak. There's always a chance that the Alethi Z sounds more like "dz," and the Alethi "S" sounds more like "ts" (like the German Z), in which case the SZN grouping makes a lot more sense. But that's just conjecture.

Peter Ahlstrom

The symbol sets are all based on historical place of articulation (and articulating tongue part), and there have been some sound changes over the centuries so they don't currently all line up exactly. The t/d/r/th/l group (historically alveolar) is articulated with the tip of the tongue, and the s/z/n/sh/h group (historically postalveolar) is/was articulated with the blade of the tongue.

The modern h sound (like h in English) used to appear only in the palindromic locations, and was written only with the diacritic. This diacritic is mirrored on the top and bottom of the character. Some writers may use only the top or bottom because lazy. Also, sometimes the diacritic can be left out entirely and people just know to pronounce it as h because it's a very common word or name.

The h character used to stand for a weakly-voiced postalveolar non-sibilant fricative. This later shifted backward to a velar fricative (first weakly-voiced, later voiceless) as in Kholin. In modern times the h character is usually for the same h sound that we have in English. Sometimes kh is written using a combination of the k and h characters, and sometimes it's written just as h for historical reasons. Different regional dialects also shift the pronunciation one way or another.

The L sound has also shifted. It used to be a voiced alveolar lateral fricative, and this is still seen in names like Lhan. It's now a regular L sound.

The final group, k/g/y/ch/j, used to have dual articulation, similar to velarized postalveolar. Now the articulation has separated, with some velar and some postalveolar.

Currently y and j are pronounced the same or differently based on class and regional dialect. So, a darkeyes name like Jost or Jest will be pronounced with a regular j sound, while with the upper class it has merged with y so that Jasnah and Jezerezeh are pronounced with a y sound. Historically they were always separate sounds.

Miscellaneous 2017 (Oct. 12, 2017)

So, most likely IPA: sə dɛ əs (US: Să dĕ ăs) - but there are not many references on Alethi Vowels

IPA Chart

Brandon's Note:

Spoiler

JoyBlu

Do you have a pronunciation guide anywhere?

Brandon Sanderson

<snip>
And so, in your head, your version of the character names are canon to you, and there is no right pronunciation, really. I can give you the one that I think is closest to how they would say it in-world, but that doesn't--, I don't even always say them right.
<snip>

Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 (June 11, 2016)

Brandon Sanderson

As a writer, I believe that i am not providing the whole story for you. I provide a screenplay, a script, and you are the director of this story, and that as you read it and imagine it - that's when its completed. Its not done until you have done that. Its a participation and you have the right to change, in your version, whatever you want. Your pronunciation is correct in your version of the story.

Lucca Comics and Games Festival (Oct. 28, 2016)

 

55 minutes ago, Terrisman said:

Is there a pronunciation guide for all characters?

Nope. Consonants are largely like English (remaining consistant with the Long and Short Vowel transitions - so if a long vowel would alter the consonant next to it, that should remain true for Aonic). There is also the Elantris Glossary which gives more examples, adn shows which words use the Aonic pronunciation. 

Edited March 6, 2025 by Treamayne
Update for quote

[Entr0pic He/him]

I don’t know why, but i always read Amaram as araman. Also, i originally read duralumin as duraluminum. And i read ladrian with a soft A for some reason.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

On 3/6/2025 at 8:34 PM, Treamayne said:

So, most likely IPA: sə dɛ əs (US: Să dĕ ăs) - but there are not many references on Alethi Vowels

Brandon once described them as closed. Also Alethi does not seem to have a reduction to schwa. Frankly there is also no indication that Alethi has /æ/ either. So I'd propose

/sa'deas/ and /xo'lin/

[Qianweilian He/him]

On 3/6/2025 at 4:03 PM, Entr0pic said:

And i read ladrian with a soft A for some reason.

Wait, that's not right? Is it really L-aid-ree-ann? I always though it was L-add-ree-ann.

[Entr0pic He/him]

24 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

Wait, that's not right? Is it really L-aid-ree-ann? I always though it was L-add-ree-ann.

I’m pretty sure it is. Although i may be wrong about me being wrong

[Through the living jeff he/him(straight)]

@Levlakv Shallan as shaylan (Shay-Lin)

 

 

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

On 3/6/2025 at 4:03 PM, Entr0pic said:

And i read ladrian with a soft A for some reason.

Wait, that's not right? Is it really L-aid-ree-ann? I always though it was L-add-ree-ann.

We don't have an official pronunciation for Breeze's real name (or if that stayed consistant or changed by the time Wax inherits the name). What we do know is that Final Empire Names were either French or Germanic inspired (based on region) - but since Ladrian is fiction and not really either, we don;t know if it should inherit French Pronunciation patterns, or Germanic. WoBs:

Spoiler

Quote

Questioner

Are there differences in pronunciation between the different worlds in the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Do you have any record of that?

Brandon Sanderson

So, it depends on the culture and things like that, what it's going to be like. You can kind of bet in Mistborn it's going to be French, if it's from the Central Dominance. So they'll say "Kelsi-ay" and "De-MOH" but where Elend's from is a lot more Germanic so "EE-lend" "STRAHFF" and stuff like that. The other worlds are all going to have their different things. In Roshar you are going to get some of the "YAS-nah kHo-LIN" it's going to be a little more Semitic in its language family.

Firefight Chicago signing (Feb. 20, 2015)

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Vin has a nickname, in a way. Valette. Part of my vision for this series was to get across the 'heist' feel to the book by giving everyone in the crew or related to the crew two names--their real name and their nickname.

Kelsier: Kel

Dockson: Dox

Sazed: Saze (I say his name SAY-zed, by the way. A lot of people say SAH-zed, which is just fine--only the nickname doesn't work as well.)

Elend: El (I say EHL-end, not EEL-end. So, his nickname is pronounced simply like the letter L.)

Ladrian: Breeze

Hammond: Ham

Cladent: Clubs

Lestibournes: Spook

Marsh: Ironeyes

Vin: Valette (Doesn't work as well, I know, but I liked her having another name to keep on theme.)

OreSeur: Lord Renoux

TWG Posts (Feb. 10, 2008)

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Seventeen - Part Two

Sazed calls Breeze by his real name–Ladrian–for the first time in this chapter, I believe. Breeze doesn't like going by this name. You'll see later that he tries to get people (or, rather, Sazed, who is the only one who uses Breeze's real name) to avoid calling him Ladrian.

The reason is simple. Ladrian is the name that Breeze went by when he was growing up. He's actually the only one on the crew who is a full-blooded nobleman. (More on this in book two.) None of the others know this, of course. He's come to the underground from the opposite direction of everyone else–down from the top. He has let some few people know that his real name is Ladrian (mostly on accident, when he was younger) and the name has stuck.

It's a common enough name in the Final Empire, but someone COULD theoretically connect him to one Lord Ladrian who disappeared from noble society some number of years back. He doesn't, of course, want anyone in the underground to know he's actually a full-blooded nobleman, otherwise he would loose credibility–and maybe even gain the anger of people like Kelsier, who hate the nobility unilaterally.

So, he pretends that he finds the name unsuitable for other reasons, and asks people to just call him Breeze. None of this, of course, gets to come out in the book. Otherwise, I wouldn't have just told it to you. I just don't have the chance to develop Breeze as I would like here. So, those of you reading this can feel vindicated in the fact that you've gotten some true insider information! Breeze will, for those of you who are his fans, get some viewpoints in the next book, which will expand his character somewhat.

Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations (Jan. 5, 2007)

 

Personally, I have always used <Læ dree an>
(Like Rocky yelling "Adrian" - but with an L in front)

 

[Levlakv He/What there’s a second part?]

I called Kaladin calyadin Kay-la-din like dinner for a while not until twin souls told me