D&D General Another D&D pronunciation question - this one's for Grognards

[the Jester]

And when I say "for" Grognards, I actually mean "about". How do you pronounce "grognard"?

I've always mentally 'heard' it as being a very British English pronunciation, Grog-Nard. But when listening to a podcast recently, one of the presenters spoke it with a more continental pronunciation, i.e. Groan-Yard, pronouncing the "gn" much as in "Sauvignon".

I always pronounce it as if it were a French word- "gron-yar", with a nigh-silent "d" at the end.

 

[houser2112]

To be honest, it never occurred to me that it would be pronounced anything other than grog-nard. Considering the definition of the word as context, that pronunciation fits better.

 

[MNblockhead]

I learned the word from reading it and "grognard" isn't included in many English dictionaries. I've only heard it pronounced as rhyming Grog-Nard (rhymes with frog yard).

Oh well, as Strunk and White wrote: "“If you don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud! Why compound ignorance with inaudibility?”

 

[Marc_C]

French being my native tongue, I never gave it a second thought. But even within the English community here, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it GROG-NARD, but I have heard people pronounce the silent « d » at the end.

in French, « GN » is a single consonant, similar to the Spanish « ñ » as in El Niña / El Niño.

Yep! Best description yet.

I'm French too. Never heard grog-nard, even from my English friends, until very recently.

 

[MNblockhead]

Yeah, grognard pronounced to rhyme with frog yard is a US pronunciation. The OED documents five different pronunciations of the term in English:

Pronunciation: Brit. /ɡrɒnˈjɑː/, /ˈɡrɒɡnɑːd/, U.S. /ɡroʊnˈjɑr/, /ˈɡroʊɡˌnɑrd/, /ˈɡrɑɡˌnɑrd/

Also interesting, the gaming meaning of the term was only added last summer (June 2019):

Draft additions June 2019​

In gaming contexts: an expert or long-standing player, esp. of war-games or role-playing games. Sometimes with negative connotations of being resistant to change.
1980 Verbatim Autumn 10/1 In the wargaming hobby, a grognard is ‘a hard-core gamer, one who purchases a dozen or more games a year’.
1989 Introd. Games in rec.games.board (Usenet newsgroup) 17 Oct. To all grognards and other board wargamers: Please attempt a similar exercise with your collection, and then scan your social environment for candidates to teach these gems to.
2018 @greg_oose 19 Jan. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) I should have known you were a D&Der! I'm a bit of a grognard myself. Like to play 1st ed.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Pronouncing grognard the French way gives grognards a strange and inappropriate fanciness.

 

[billd91]

Yeah, grognard pronounced to rhyme with frog yard is a US pronunciation.

Weird. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard it pronounced that way. I’ve heard people pronounce it largely the French way but without swallowing the end of it.

 

[Ancalagon]

I've always pronounced as in French. It never occurred to me to use the different version, but English is not my native language.

Same - French is my first language, but I never even thought that anyone else said something else.

 

[Ancalagon]

Weird. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard it pronounced that way. I’ve heard people pronounce it largely the French way but without swallowing the end of it.

Yes, the D is silent.

Gtw, it comes from the word grogner, which can mean either growling or grumbling, depending on contexts.

So the grognard is this old veteran in a corner, grumbling about kids these days...

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Of all the D&Disms (hard "g" in Sigil?), that might be the weirdest. It doesn't make any sense at all!

Funny story from a game I ran many years ago. We entered a room with two doors. The first door had a red X painted on it, while the second was covered in strange sigils.

Now, when I see an unfamiliar word I tend to pronounce the letter-i as a long 'e', as in the word 'see'. That, and a hard 'g' made the word sound somewhat like 'seagulls', which raised a lot of eyebrows at the table.

Needless to say, I learned that day how to pronounce the word sigil according to the generally accepted convention.