[OB] Poll: How do you pronounce Stormlight names?

[Llarimar he/him]

I wanted to see how people pronounce Stormlight names, because I've noticed that I say them differently from some of my friends!  I've put together some of the most controversial names, to see what the consensus is.  Remember, there are no right answers and Brandon himself has said that you can pronounce the names any way you want!  That being said I've made this poll anonymous, just because some people are sensitive about the way that they pronounce the names.  Also, feel free to pick "Neither" and add another suggestion in your post if you say them differently!  

I'm also going to post a Part 2 so make sure to vote on that one too!

Edited May 25, 2018 by Llarimar

[+robardin he/him]

Jazz-nuh Ko-linn. Queen Regnant of Alethkar!

[Llarimar he/him]

5 minutes ago, robardin said:

Jazz-nuh Ko-linn. Queen Regnant of Alethkar!

This pronunciation hadn't occurred to me when I made the poll, but I wondered right away when I saw that someone voted they pronounce Jasnah differently if some people pronounce her name with a "z" sound.  I find it so interesting that people can read the same names and hear them so differently!

[Solant he/him]

I always read it as yaz-nuh with the Z sound, like jasmine. You can hear it if you listen to any WoB where he says her name.

[Llarimar he/him]

27 minutes ago, Solant said:

I always read it as yaz-nuh with the Z sound, like jasmine. You can hear it if you listen to any WoB where he says her name.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that Brandon does pronounce her name with a "y" sound.  Which confuses me a little, because he could have just spelled her name with a "y" - Yasnah.  That would remove a lot of ambiguity for sure.  I've always pronounced it JASS-nuh, which if you're right about Brandon pronouncing her name with "z" - YAZZ-nuh - then it would make me removed from Brandon's pronunciation by two consonants.  Which is fine, of course, since there's no "right way" to say these names, as Brandon has said.  But I do feel kind of vindicated in my pronunciation because, welll... JASS-nuh is a much more phonetic reading of the word "Jasnah" than YAZZ-nuh is.  At least in English spelling. 

[RShara she/her]

Because Alethi is based a bit on hebrew, so J's are pronounce like Y's.

KAL-a-din

SHALL-ahn

YAS-nah but the s is very close to a z

Edited May 25, 2018 by RShara

[Zelly]

I also do the Jazz-nuh, like in Jasmine.

[Subvisual Haze]

13 hours ago, robardin said:

Jazz-nuh Ko-linn. Queen Regnant of Alethkar!

I usually just shorten it to "Jazz" and imagine Uncle Phil throwing her out the front door.

[Angsos]

Since I listen to the audiobooks, I just pronounce it like Michael and Kate do.

[RShara she/her]

Pronouncing Paladin like Pal uh din hurts me.

[Llarimar he/him]

2 hours ago, RShara said:

Pronouncing Paladin like Pal uh din hurts me.

You say Kal-uh-deen?  I'm pretty sure that's how Brandon says it, which is why I'm surprised only one person voted for that pronunciation so far.  

Edited May 25, 2018 by Llarimar

[CrazyRioter she/her]

I know Jasnah is pronounced Yasnah in universe and Brandon pronounces it that way but I can't manage to remember to pronounce it like that.

My brain is slow to adjust sometimes.

[Calderis he/him]

Shallan's name is based off of Shallash's... And her nickname is Ash, which implies shuh-lash... I've never understood the shall-in pronunciation... 

[Llarimar he/him]

38 minutes ago, Calderis said:

Shallan's name is based off of Shallash's... And her nickname is Ash, which implies shuh-lash... I've never understood the shall-in pronunciation... 

So you say her name "shuh-LAN"?  Like "the-LAND?"  That's an interesting pronunciation, and it makes sense if her name is based on Shallash.  

I think the reason why I say "SHALL-in" is because, for one thing, the beginning of her name is "Shall," which reminds me of the word "shall."  And it only makes sense to say "-in" after "Shall."  SHALL-awn, SHALL-ann or anything else just sounds weird.  Plus the spelling of her name is similar to some words in English with a "Shall-in" pronunciation, such as  "gallon," "talon" and the name "Allan" (that spelling of Allan is exactly the same as her name, just without "Sh" at the beginning).  

I think it comes down to whether the emphasis is on the first or the second syllable.  If the emphasis is on the first syllable, then "SHALL-in" makes the most sense.  If the emphasis is on the second syllable, then you could get "shuh-LAWN" or, as you suggested above, "shuh-LAN".

[Calderis he/him]

Nah, I say shuh-LAWN, emphasis on the second syllable. 

Vorin names are based on symmetry. Shallan's is "near perfect" so I think that would include the sounds as well. 

shuh-LAWN and shah-LASH

[RShara she/her]

3 hours ago, Llarimar said:

You say Kal-uh-deen?  I'm pretty sure that's how Brandon says it, which is why I'm surprised only one person voted for that pronunciation so far.  

No, I said earlier, I pronounce it KAL-a-din. It's saying uh instead of ah that hurts me

Nope, Brandon says Kaladin like Paladin too. That's part of where the name came from.

[Llarimar he/him]

14 minutes ago, RShara said:

No, I said earlier, I pronounce it KAL-a-din. It's saying uh instead of ah that hurts me

Oh yes, I missed where you said that earlier.

When I read "ah" I read it like the "a" in far... and when I read "uh" I read it like the "u" in fun.  To me, "uh" is definitely the sound in PAL-uh-din and KAL-uh-din... I can't make myself pronounce them with the "ah" in far... unless the emphasis is the middle - pa-LAH-din, ka-LAH-din (kind of like "salami" - sa-LAH-mi).  Maybe we're just reading the vowels differently... 

Edited May 26, 2018 by Llarimar

[RShara she/her]

I pronounce both A's in Kaladin's name the same way, if that helps. Like calla lilies. Or the first and last syllables of California. Hearing A pronounced as Uh is a

[Llarimar he/him]

4 minutes ago, RShara said:

I pronounce both A's in Kaladin's name the same way, if that helps. Like calla lilies. Or the first and last syllables of California. Hearing A pronounced as Uh is a

Yes, that makes sense.  I'm pretty sure we pronounce his name the same way because I also say "Kaladin" like "calla lilies" - I think we're just writing it out differently.

[1st of Lunch he/him]

8 hours ago, Angsos said:

Since I listen to the audiobooks, I just pronounce it like Michael and Kate do.

Same here, because, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading!

[Llarimar he/him]

10 hours ago, Angsos said:

Since I listen to the audiobooks, I just pronounce it like Michael and Kate do.

1 hour ago, 1st of Lunch said:

Same here, because, Michael Kramer and Kate Reading!

But don't they sometimes pronounce the names differently from each other?  I haven't listened to the audiobooks, but I've heard that Michael and Kate both pronounce "Sadeas" differently, for example.

 

Edited May 26, 2018 by Llarimar

[Angsos]

Maybe a little sometimes but not that much.

[Fatling he/him]

I’ve always thought of Shallan as Shawl-un and Jasnah as Jass-naw, but neither of those seem like very popular pronunciations. Btw, why is this in the OB spoilers?

[Llarimar he/him]

12 minutes ago, Fatling said:

Btw, why is this in the OB spoilers?

Just so people are free to mention any OB spoilers if they want.  The OB Spoiler area also seems to get more traffic so I thought it would be a better place to post it.  

[ljósmóður she/her]

I say Kaladin to rhyme with Paladin and Jasnah, as YAZZ-nah.

Shallan - I say it with two flat 'a's (as said earlier, like the name Allan). I assumed this might have to do with my own dialect. I'm from the North of England (Geordie, if anyone has a clue what one of them is!) and we say most words with 'a' in them like that, compared to American English which seems to extend vowel sounds far more often than we do. I suspect Adolin will crop up in a later poll so I'll not add much about that, except to repeat that I almost always use the 'a for apple' sound in names.

Edited May 26, 2018 by ljósmóður
Clarity