How do you pronounce "dweomer"?

[JohnSnow]

I'm in the minority "Dway-oh-mer" camp.

I first encountered the word when I was about 8, and puzzled its pronunciation out for myself.

If I was guessing now, I'd say "Dwoh-mer."

That's stealing from 3 older english words I now know...

"Dwarf"
"Yeoman" (pronounced "Yoh-man", not "yim-man" or "yem-men"
"Glimmer" (end sound is "MER" not "Mair")

As an aside, my Old English reading brother informs me that "Yeoman" would have been spelt "geoman" in OE. And "Geoffrey" (as in Chaucer), would be pronounced "Yeffrey."

That strange "J" sound appears to have been appropriated from French, and applied irregularly to English words formerly started with a "J" "I" "G" or "Y" and all pronounced as we currently think of "Y."

Compare:

English "John" = "Jahn"
Welsh "Ioan" = "Yo-un"
Scottish "Ian" = "EE-un"
Irish "Sean" = "Shahn"
German "Johan" = "Yo-hahn"
Dutch "Jan" = "Yahn"

 

[Conaill]

A short fun read:
http://phrontistery.info/disq6.html

Nice find! Very interesting...

Oh, and I pronounce it like the Supertramp song:

Dweomer, you know you are a dweomer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dweomer...

 

[Megatron]

LOL
none of these options are right.

 

[Huw]

Like how I pronounce Worcestershire sauce, I murmur the word quickly, "dwmrr."

Worcestershire is pronounced "Woostesher". English ain't the most phonetically rendered language, but it's even worse when it comes to place names.

But I like the concept of "Doomer". Makes the word sound more serious.

BTW, Leicester is "Lester", Reading is "Redding", Derby is "Darby", Beaulieux is "Byoolee", Loughborough is "Lufbrer" and Salisbury is "Solsbry".

 

[Ry]

As a comprimise, allow me to suggest "boo-lay"

 

[Xyanthon]

For whatever reason, I say it like Dew-oh-mer. For some reason, I can't wrap my mind around any other way to say it.

 

[pawsplay]

Dwem-er. I certainly don't start the second syllable with an M.

 

[Hussar]

Pawsplay, actually, in English, you have to start all syllables with a consonant, so, it should be started with the "m".

Then again, being Old English, I'm not sure how it would be pronounced. I always used Dwee- mer.

 

[Draloric]

"Dwimmer" was the Old English. "Dweomer" the earlier Saxon. The "dw" really represents a sound no longer found in English. So if you pronounce it as "d eliding (kind of like sliding but not really) into w" you're not even close enough for horseshoes and handgrenades. The "e" modifies the previous sound, with the "o" being the next truly distinct vocalization.

Not to be pendantic, but the Old English (i.e., Anglo-Saxon) word was dwimor. Despite what the OED implies, dweomer is not an attested Old English spelling of the word. (This that doesn't mean it was not a possible spelling of the word; rather that it doesn't survive in the written record, and we'll likely never know). The Toronto Dictionary of Old English defines dwimor as "apparition, phantom" or "delusion, that which gives a false idea." Sometimes the word is specifically associated with the power of the devil or magic, sometimes it's much more pedestrian in usage. When it is associated with the devil or magic, it usually describes illusory (i.e., delusional) magic. It sometimes glosses Latin fantasia, "fantasy" and fantasma, "phantasm."

Dweomer, as we have it in our favourite game, is almost surely lifted from early Middle English dweomer-cræft as attested in Layamon's Brut and mentioned in the article <http://phrontistery.info/disq6.html>, which someone mentioned earlier. As far as pronounciation is concerned, OE dwimor would probably be be pronounced "DWEE-mor," while the early Middle English version would probably be pronounced "DWEH-oh-mair."

Best,

Kris

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Dwoh-mer for me.

AR