D&D terminology pet peeves

[Jdvn1]

Huh, I've never heard this mispronunciation. I suppose it is common enough among non-role players, but I've never heard a gamer mispronounce it.

One of my friends misspelled "Rogue" on his character sheet. That character never could get away from his nickname from then on. "Hey, Rouge..." or "Hey, Red..."

 

[reanjr]

What is the reasoning for this? I've always pronounced it TARE-uh-skew myself.

Can you find an English word ending in -sque that is pronounced -skew? If so I will retract my next question. What is the reasoning you pronounce it -skew?

 

[reanjr]

For pronounciation peeves, Webster.com has audio bites of the proper English pronounciations for words with every definition. Just go to the site, look up the word, and click on the little red 'speaker' icon next to the word... A fellow with a pleasant voice will speak the word for you.

NYJM, for example, is wrong about guisarme... It is not, 'gwee-zahrm', it is just 'gih-zarm' (like Quasqueton's second suggestion), and it does rhyme with 'arm'.

It doesn't QUITE rhyme with arm. The French "r" is quite a bit different than the English one.

 

[Aeric]

Apparently some people pronounce "Gygax" like "Jyjax." Both the Gs are supposed have the same sound as the one in Gary.

He did a personal appearance at my FLGS many years ago, and explained how his name was pronounced: "Gah-gi-goo-goo. Gygax."

 

[pogre]

and its drizzt (like dri-ts) not drizzit!, ask the author if your confused.

You know, drizzit has a certain Snoop shnizzle and dri-ts sounds like a military disease. If the author were cool he would go the Snoop route.

 

[Jdvn1]

If the author were cool he would go the Snoop route.

If the author were cool, he wouldn't write D&D books.

 

[reanjr]

we were playin RTTTOEE and we were attacked by some (dms words) mine o taurs, here I was sitting racking my brains trying to think of some underground subrace of the minotaur, until one player pointed out (after the Dm had said it 5-6 times) that it was pronounced minotaur. Then it all made sense. Ive been attacked by minitaurs and minnowtaurs but that was my first incounter with a mineotaur.

I tend to favor that pronunciation due to its etymology (Minos)

 

[PrinceofLowLight]

My friend always says "skimmytar", but that's because he's a prick.

 

[Jdvn1]

Oh, that's like how a friend of mine says 'splosion.

 

[reanjr]

The "coup de grace" problem is solved by pronouncing it killing blow (see also melee). How did all this French get into the game?

French and English were used side by side for quite some time with the aristocracy primarily speaking French, and the commoner speaking English. Since you will rarely find a commoner speaking of weapons and combat in such detail, most words were just borrowed from the French that the military would have used. This is seen all over the place in the English language; you'll find more French the higher caste the term is used in.

Though, then there's the food thing. If you eat it, it's French (pork, beef, poultry), if you raise it, it's English (pig, bovine, chicken). I never quite learned why this is. Maybe it became distasteful among the elite to refer to their food as animals so they borrowed French again.