Pronunciation Guide

[Finallity he/him]

Brandon has stated that he doesn't really care to much how exactly the names or terms in his books are pronounced, but when my little brother started pronouncing Kaladin as Alladin with a K in front, I started to care. How do you guys pronounce certain words, and which ones are you still unsure about?

[Chaos he/him]

I pronounce Kaladin like Paladin, but with a K.

[CrazyRioter she/her]

I'm not sure about Szeth, though I've heard it's supposed to be like "Seth".

And I pronounce Kaladin the same way Chaos does.

[leinton]

I pronounce Szeth "Zeth".

[Puck he/him]

I'm not sure about Szeth, though I've heard it's supposed to be like "Seth".

And I pronounce Kaladin the same way Chaos does.

ditto

ditto

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

Ditto for Kaladin, but Szeth I kinda do a little ss but mainly zz sound to start the name.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Kaladin is like Paladin for me. Though I will admit I probably pronounce Szeth (suh-ZETH but not quite two syllables. There's a small pause though) wrong. My sister complained that It sounded very similar to the way I pronounce Sazed (sah-ZED). I read Brandon's books aloud to her, so I've become very concious of the way I pronounce things.

Kelsier (KEL-see-ur)

Elend Venture (eh-LEND vin-CHUR)- I know his last name is probably supposed to be pronounced like the actual word "venture" but I can't bring myself to abandon the iambic!

Tindwyl (TEN-dwul)- though I did read it like "Twindle" on my first read-through. Oops.

Allriane (ALL-ree-ahn)

Dalinar Kholin (DAL-in-ar CO-lin)

Jasnah (JASS-nah not JAZZ-nah)

Rock's Real Name (Noo-moo-hoo-ko...) *tongue breaks*

[Link Von Kelsier Harvey he/him]

What, have trouble saying Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor? (Yeah, I did that from memory.)

[CrazyRioter she/her]

What, have trouble saying Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor? (Yeah, I did that from memory.)

But can you pronounce it?

For some reason I pronounce "Kelsier" as "Kel-SHUR" which is totally wrong.

Edited March 30, 2011 by CrazyRioter

[Joe ST he/him]

hehhe I pronounced Kelsier as 'Klei-ser' >.> as in Klein bottle ...

[leinton]

I'm pretty sure I remember Brandon once saying that names in the Central Dominance were French sounding in his head, making Kelsier "Kel-see-ay". Ever since I realized that there are loads of connections between Mistborn and the French Revolution, I've been pronouncing it as such.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Ooh! I like Kel-see-ay! I love speaking French and recognized that some of the names were French. Demoux is Deh-moh not Deh-mohks, same for Renoux, but I never thought to Francify Kel's name!

I did do it in Wheel of Time accidentally. For the longest time I pronounced Ogier as "Oh-jzee-ay" much to the amusement of my friends. I've changed to "Oh-jzee-er" finally but I can't bring myself to really pronounce that "g".

And CrazyRioter, I've pronounced Kel's name as "Kel-syur" before, which isn't all that different.

The name that really gives me trouble is Sarene. As much as I try to read it "Suh-ray-nay" I always just see "Suh-reen"

[Silus - Shard of Flame he/him]

Kel-see-ay isn't nearly as cool as Kel-seer.

I pronounce Sarene as Saer-een. Kinda like Sarah.

[SOM1else he/him]

for me its

Kelsier, Kell-zee-uhr

Demoux, Duh-moo

lestibornes, less-duh-born-ez

Dalinar Kholin, Dall-in-are Co-lin (Co as in Coworker)

Jasnah Kholin, Jazz-nuh Co-lin

Jezrien, Jez-air-ee-an

Kalak, Kal-Ack

Talenel'Elin, Tail-nehl el-in

Just a note, I have the audiobook of TWoK and they read the names with "j" making a "y" sound, so Jasnah is pronounced Yahs-nuh and Jezrien is Yez-ree-in. I kind of like it but the pronuciation I gave them is stuck in my head

[Pat Brooks]

I guess I just go with phonetics most of the time. On a side note, if a name looks Greek, I'll pronounce it as Greek or if it looks French, I'll pronounce it as French, etc. Szeth though, who knows?

Edited August 30, 2011 by Pat Brooks

[Argent he/him]

For some reason, the one name I pronounce unlike everyone else is Elend's last name - Venture. For some reason, since the very first time I read it, I've been reading it something like "ven-TU:-err" (the last part is pronounced like the word 'err'). I don't know. The note about the names in the Central Dominance being French-like probably adds a little weight to my instinctive pronunciation, but it still weirds me out to hear it like it's a word in the English language.

Good call on TWoK audio book's 'J' though - I wondered whether Jezrien would actually be Yezrien (some other nation's version of the name tipped me off), but it never occurred to me that Jasnah would fall under the same category. It makes sense though.

And lastly, Szeth is the one I have absolutely no idea about. I don't think it's Seth, because it wouldn't have such a strange spelling if it was. Sseth / Zzeth is the closest I can get to it, where I try to pronounce both 's' and 'z' distinctly. So I guess it turns into something similar to FeatherWriter's "suh-ZETH."

[Pat Brooks]

A bit off topic but @ Som1Else: best signature ever, made you look, love it!

[Syborae she/her]

Don't encourage him!

I'm glad Brandon doesn't care about pronunciation, I had to totally change how my brain said Egwene and Nynaeve when I heard the "proper" way and it was hard and annoying!

[Leviathan]

Don't encourage him!

I'm glad Brandon doesn't care about pronunciation, I had to totally change how my brain said Egwene and Nynaeve when I heard the "proper" way and it was hard and annoying!

I just looked up how you're 'supposed' to say both of those.

o.O

Yep, definitely different to how I pronounce them in my head! But then, I pronounced a lot of it 'wrong' anyway (I think Stargate actually set me right on "Sa'Angreal").

Kaladin certainly sounds like Paladin with a K to me, but I can see how someone would pronounce it like Saladin (ie Sal-ah-deen) with a K.

[SirZelig he/him]

I not gonna tell you how I pronounce anyones name. In the book I have read. Usually if I can't pronounce it, I just make up a new one. Like, Bob or Sara.

[Chachel she/her]

Though Brandon doesn't really care about pronunciations, he specified at a signing that Jasnah is pronounced like the Greek or Hebrew "J" as a "Y" sound. So: "YAHS-nah". Also, when he says it (transcribing interviews teaches you these things ) it's "KAL-uh-din", not Aladin with a K in front. And he says Szeth as "Szeth". Not sure how else to explain it. It starts with an "s" sound but turns to a harder "z" sound in that same syllable. None of this is earthshakingly crucial to know, but, hey! There you have it.

[Aashyma she/her]

So I'm the only one who pronounces Kaladin as Kull-A-din?

[Transmuter]

Szeth shouldn't be too hard to pronounce, since /s/ and /z/ are pronounced with the same mouth/tongue position. The only difference is that /z/ is voiced while /s/ is unvoiced. (Try just going back and forth between /s/ and /z/, you don't have to move your mouth!) Therefore, start by pronouncing /s/, then add voicing to turn it into /z/. You'll be voicing the vowel anyway, so just start the voicing a little earlier.

I pronounce Kaladin like Paladin. I pronounce the various Mistborn names as they are pronounced in the audiobooks, as that's where I first "read" them. I do put the stress on the second syllable of Kholin, /ko'lIn/ (that's a lowercase L followed by a capital i), which seems to be a minority, though if it's Greek/Hebrew-inspired, maybe I should pronounce it /ko'lin/ instead.

That's really cool about Jasnah pronounced like "Yasnah" /'jazna/. I think I'll switch to that right away!

[pmj812]

The one that I'm still arguing with myself over is SAH-zed or SAY-zed. My instincts say SAH-zed, but the diminuative is "Saze," which I can't help but read as SAYZ

[CrazyRioter she/her]

Brandon said it "SAY-zed" when signing my book, so I guess that's the official pronunciation, though Brandon's said that he's not picky about how fans pronounce his words.