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

[QuentinGeorge]

Just don’t get started on coup de grace!

Hint: it’s not the same as Mardi Gras. In spelling, meaning, or, importantly, pronunciation.

Yeah, but it's not actually 'cou de grah', even in French, which trips a lot of people up.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, but it's not actually 'cou de grah'

That’s what I said.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

That’s what I said.

Yep, looks like I managed to completely misread your post. Whoops.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

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...

Probably where the English word groan comes from.

As an aside, it drives me nuts when people say "bulette" is pronounced "boo-lay, like in French!" - it just makes me roll my eyes. As anyone remotely familiar with French knows, the t is pronounced in the feminine. It would only be boo-lay if it were spelled bulet.

I had a martial arts instructor once try telling me that a katana was pronounced, and I quote: "It's not ka-TA-na, it's kata-NAAAAAH." (It's not either of those. To an English speaker, the first one is natural, if incorrect. The second one is stupid to everyone. In Japanese, it's ka-ta-na, with no syllable having any particular stress over the others).

 

[Ancalagon]

Probably where the English word groan comes from.

As an aside, it drives me nuts when people say "bulette" is pronounced "boo-lay, like in French!" - it just makes me roll my eyes. As anyone remotely familiar with French knows, the t is pronounced in the feminine. It would only be boo-lay if it were spelled bulet.

I had a martial arts instructor once try telling me that a katana was pronounced, and I quote: "It's not ka-TA-na, it's kata-NAAAAAH." (It's not either of those. To an English speaker, the first one is natural, if incorrect. The second one is stupid to everyone. In Japanese, it's ka-ta-na, with no syllable having any particular stress over the others).

Syllable stress is a very annoying part of the language...

 

[Mannahnin]

Another one is 'geas'.

Apparently it rhymes with 'flesh'.

Irish has a number of dialects; "gaysh" is how I learned it. My mother teaches Donegal dialect.

 

[Mannahnin]

Apparently the 'boo-lay' thing was Gygax and Co. making fun of French pronunciations (which is why it doesn't make sense as a French pronunciation), and 'landshark' was in fact a reference to the SNL skit.

Yup. IIRC Tim Kask was responsible for this one.

 

[Istbor]

Grog-nard is what is said in my region of the States.

 

[glass]

Another one is 'geas'.

Apparently it rhymes with 'flesh'.

I thought that too, but I think I read somewhere that that was a mistake. I cannot remember where, unfortunately.

On topic, it never occured to me to use anything other than "frog yard", but then I do not recall every having cause to pronounce it at all.

_
glass.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Everyone I know says grog-nard. We know perfectly well how it's actually pronounced, but it's less fun that way. Also I want to out myself that I never pronounce melee correctly, and probably never will.