How to pronounce D'naa

[Smallpox]

Got the book yesterday and finished it today. Got to say that despite the book's problems it's my 3rd favorite from Brandon after WoK and WoR.

I had just one big problem while reading the book, I had no Idea how to pronounce the name of one of the main characters. Please help.

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by Smallpox

[Weltall]

Welcome to the Shard!

Brandon hasn't given us pronunciation hints like with Elantris or Stormlight Archive so we're kind of on our own. I tend to pronounce it Duh-naa, the first part being like the D in Deer by itself, and running the two halves of the name together. Be curious to see if others read it the same way or have a different intuitive interpretation.

[Smallpox]

Thanks for your input. I'm not a native English speaker so I literally had no inkling on how to try and say it in my mind. For me she was shshshshsh.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Smallpox

[Calderis he/him]

A double a tends to be pronounced as a long ah sound. 

In my head the apostrophe makes the beginning a quick crisp D without an associated vowel. 

So the closest spelling to how I say it would be Dnah 

[Sparkrunner he/him]

almost a t for the d sound, but like calderis said.

[KidWayne he/him]

I figured it was a creative way to spell Dinah. I pronounced it like Dee-Nah.

The others posting above are probably correct, though. D'artagnan is pronounced Dar-tan-yun and not Dee-art-an-yun.

[Stark he/him]

On 8/1/2017 at 3:25 PM, Ookla the Hatter said:

The others posting above are probably correct, though. D'artagnan is pronounced Dar-tan-yun and not Dee-art-an-yun.

Minor point here.  D'Artagnan is a french contraction of De Artagnan, meaning from From Artagnan.  So you would pronounce the D as a softer 'duh' sound.  That would modify versus the hard 'D' sound from D'naa.

 

Annnd just noticed how necro this is.  apologies all.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Stark

[Naurock]

8 hours ago, Stark said:

Minor point here.  D'Artagnan is a french contration of De Artagnan, meaning from From Artagnan.  So you would pronounce the D as a softer 'duh' sound.  That would modify versus the hard 'D' sound from D'naa.

 

Annnd just noticed how necro this is.  apologies all.

Lol, don't worry! I kinda wish these were a little more active.

This story was very interesting, it has good bones. If Brandon were to put some new effort in this story, change some things he's cannibalized for other stories, fix the ending and this is a solid Cosmere novel.

[Stark he/him]

9 hours ago, Naurock said:

This story was very interesting, it has good bones.

Agreed.  I had fun reading it until the false ending.  I think that is a foreshadowing issue more than anything else.  Or something they need to start to figure out just before the last battle, at the point it becomes unavoidable.  So you still have the tension of the climactic battle, but don't have the let down of realizing it is not over - they start to figure it out.  The other fix is the Shakespearen mistaken identity.

 

I enjoyed the mistaken identity plot.  But it strained credulity. I could have bought into it more if say, the government realized quickly about the switch, but due to the political interactions with neighbouring states, and the advent of the midnight force, could not afford to appear weak.  So less trying to keep appearances for his own government, and more for allies.  I think that would have made more sense.  And it would have added an interesting layer of complexity in his interactions with the government members, walking the line between being a puppet for their machinations, and actually trying to do the right thing without pissing them off enough that they reveal the duplicity.

 

But that is a heck of a delicate balance to write and maintain.

 

[Podman]

I pronounce it pretty similar to Calderis, but I always think it would be funny if it was actually supposed to be pronounced DNA.

[Naurock]

5 hours ago, Stark said:

Agreed.  I had fun reading it until the false ending.  I think that is a foreshadowing issue more than anything else.  Or something they need to start to figure out just before the last battle, at the point it becomes unavoidable.  So you still have the tension of the climactic battle, but don't have the let down of realizing it is not over - they start to figure it out.  The other fix is the Shakespearen mistaken identity.

 

I enjoyed the mistaken identity plot.  But it strained credulity. I could have bought into it more if say, the government realized quickly about the switch, but due to the political interactions with neighbouring states, and the advent of the midnight force, could not afford to appear weak.  So less trying to keep appearances for his own government, and more for allies.  I think that would have made more sense.  And it would have added an interesting layer of complexity in his interactions with the government members, walking the line between being a puppet for their machinations, and actually trying to do the right thing without pissing them off enough that they reveal the duplicity.

 

But that is a heck of a delicate balance to write and maintain.

 

There were times I thought someone in the government or a General did know! Really agree, that if someone other than his brother knows it can be suspenseful and doesn't feel so strained as you say. I liked the magic, just wish everything wasn't totally vague. For example I talked about this in a previous post, but it seems like the twins were given a bud from a different source. His Amberite was too weak to be split and grow a new bud, he was significantly weaker than his brother (which some people have suggested it could be explained away as a weak bond/incompatible). The false ending is a big issue to everyone. But these seem like nitpicking when you come down to it. I feel Brandon could resurrect this story and it could be a strong Cosmere novel.

[Smallpox]

On 5.12.2017 at 8:13 PM, Stark said:

Minor point here.  D'Artagnan is a french contraction of De Artagnan, meaning from From Artagnan.  So you would pronounce the D as a softer 'duh' sound.  That would modify versus the hard 'D' sound from D'naa.

 

Annnd just noticed how necro this is.  apologies all.

Even though its kinda late, I still appreciate the input.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Smallpox

[Subvisual Haze]

I just kind of hummed the old Sportscenter theme to myself when I saw the name.  D'naa (na)!  D'naa (na)!