How do you pronounce "Drow"?

[Wolf72]

drow: chose both ways ... it makes everyone's life easier.

 

[Psion]

Nearly. It's more like by-LETT with the y like in "mystic" and not like in "by"

There's not much to discuss about it, either, because the pronunciation of letters in French is fixed, unlike in English, where this doesn't really follow rules.

Right, but at least in English, where the rules are mixed, it's because we ripped off another language. "ETTE" does not may an "ay" sound in any language I know of. My impression is that someone looked at "ETTE" and thought of the French "et" and pronounced it that way, which is WRONG WRONG WRONG. French uses the "ette" construct a lot, but it's not pronounced the same as the "contrary to English" "et" sound.

 

[fredramsey]

My name is spelt 'Luxury Yacht' but it's pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove.

 

[painandgreed]

Yes. The Americans have this weird idea that foreign languages, especially French, stress the last syllable of words. The syllables of melee should get equal stress.

We just do that to let others know we're speaking the American variant of the word rather than actually trying to use the foreign version.

 

[glass]

I agree with the list's interpretation. But AFAIAC:

Bulette: boo-LAY

Makes the whole list suspect.

IIRC, boo-LAY was the official pronunciation in the 2e days, it said so right there in the MC. Which doesn't make it any less silly.

The 3e designers obviously agreed, because it is now pronounced boo-LET (again, IIRC, right there in the MM).


glass.

 

[Driddle]

"Luxury Yacht"

 

[The_Universe]

For years, it was drow(oh), and I didn't like drow(cow) at all (don't ask me why,it's pure feeling). But then I played hordes of the underdark (NWN) and gotten used to hearing drow(cow) that I kinda switched.

here's a proposition: why not use drow(oh) for a single drow and drow(cow) for the plural?

Anyhoe, drow will allways be drow (until you meat Drizzt, and start to ask "How do you pronounce Drizzt????") - Can of worms anyone?

(btw: I pronounce drizzt as drist(mist), while ome of my buddies insist on driz'zt or even drizit... go figure)

I'm a "how now brown drow" for the race.

For the infamous ranger, if I'm being careful, I try to say, "Dritst" as a one syllable word. If I'm being less concerned about such things, I just say "Drits."

 

[woodelf]

Official? Well how about the D&D FAQ on the WotC website:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDArchives_FAQ.asp

Arquebus: AR-keh-bus
Bardiche: bar-DEESH
Chimera: ky-MAEE-ruh, or ky-MAIR-ruh (rhymes with "care of")
Chitin: KITE-in
Cuirass: KWEE-rass
Falchion: FAL-chun
Halberd: HAL-berd, (not HAL-bread)
Herb: ERB
Lycanthrope: LY-kun-throhp, LY-kan-throhp (like lichen rope/my tan rope)
Lycanthropy: ly-KAN-thruh-pee
Mage: MAGE (as in age), *not* MADGE (as in badger)
Melee: MAY-lay
Scythe: syth (rhymes with tithe)

Am i the only one that finds it a bit wierd to include a whole bunch of words that'll be in any dictionary? At least, for all those, they got the pronunciation right.

 

[Turjan]

Right, but at least in English, where the rules are mixed, it's because we ripped off another language. "ETTE" does not may an "ay" sound in any language I know of. My impression is that someone looked at "ETTE" and thought of the French "et" and pronounced it that way, which is WRONG WRONG WRONG. French uses the "ette" construct a lot, but it's not pronounced the same as the "contrary to English" "et" sound.

Oh, I agree with you on this. I just wanted to express that the French pronunciation is clear, because there are definite pronunciation rules. "-ette" is the female form of "-et" and pronounced as you said. As the word "bulette" screams "inspired by French", I'd never have the idea to pronounce it "boo-LAY". The double "t" is there for a reason .

Then again, I'm not really surprised by any American use of foreign words anymore. I still remember the first time when I went into an American restaurant. I took the menu and was desperately trying to find a main course, though I was surprised about the vast selection of starters they had .

 

[woodelf]

The French pronunciation of bulette is something like boolett -- bulet would be boolay.Yes. The Americans have this weird idea that foreign languages, especially French, stress the last syllable of words. The syllables of melee should get equal stress.

I dunno who these "Americans" are of which you speak, but i've never heard anything but the proper pronunication of melee in RL, and the dictionary certainly knows how it's pronounced ("mei'lei").

Oh, and my tongue-in-cheek characterization of French is pretty much just the opposite of that: i sometimes joke that the secret to pronouncing French words is to just completely ignore the last syllable, because it's silent.