D&D 5E D&D Beyond - Some Entries Now Include Pronunciations

[pukunui]

And it's DOUR-gar not DER-gar (Duergar)

I personally prefer "DWAIR-gar".

I wonder if they are changing pronunciation due to what they hear from player's usage (cons, streams etc) rather than sticking to what history has given. Fighting public usage of language is a losing war!

That could well be part of it.

 

[bid]

Sa-lay-yeh?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Heh, I ran through some of the monsters with less-obvious pronunciations, and found a few (most notably otyugh) that I was totally wrong on. But I was good for the vast majority of them at least.

Marisha seems to be having fun pronouncing "rakshasa", while Matt enjoys saying "tarrasque"...

 

[see]

Good thing I've been pronouncing it correctly all these years. And the new folks also got Otyugh wrong, as well. Honestly, how hard would it have been to look up the correct pronunciations in Dragon and get it right?

Well, to look it up, you would have to know a pronunciation guide was published in Dragon thirty years ago. If you were ignorant of that and made up pronunciations on your own, you could then decide to "help" people by telling them to pronounce it the way you made up.

 

[pukunui]

Well, to look it up, you would have to know a pronunciation guide was published in Dragon thirty years ago. If you were ignorant of that and made up pronunciations on your own, you could then decide to "help" people by telling them to pronounce it the way you made up.

There's also this small pronunciation guide from the D&D 3.0 FAQ in WotC's archives:

How do you pronounce...?

Here are some commonly mispronounced words and their dictionary pronunciations where they are available and common-practice pronunciations or TSR rulings where they not. For more general pronunciation help, see the article "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" by Frank Mentzer in Dragon #93 (Jan. 1985). For help pronouncing words and names specific to the Forgotten Realms setting, see the Forgotten Realms box and the trilogy of Forgotten Realms deity books. For help pronouncing the names of the various tanar'ri and baatezu types, see MC8 Outer Planes Appendix.

Aarakocra: a-rah-KO-krah
Arquebus: AR-keh-bus
Baatezu: bay-AH-teh-zu or BAH-teh-zu
Bardiche: bar-DEESH
Bulette: boo-LAY
Catoblepus: kuht-OH-bleh-puhs, also kah-TA-ble-pus
Chatkcha: CHAT-k-cha (thri-kreen throwing weapon)
Chimera: ky-MAEE-ruh, or ky-MAIR-ruh (rhymes with "care of")
Chitin: KITE-in
Cuirass: KWEE-rass
Drow: DRAU (as in drowsy; rhymes with now and how)
Dweomer: DWEH-mer (rhymes with "hem her"), or DWIH-mer; sometimes DWEE-mer
Falchion: FAL-chun
Geas: GEE-ass, or GYASS (both with a hard "g")
Gygax: GY-gaks
Halberd: HAL-berd, (not HAL-bread)
Herb: ERB
Ioun: EYE-oon
Iuz: YOOZ or EE-uz
Ixitxachitl: iks-it-ZATCH-i-til or ik-zit-zah-chih-tull
Lich: LITCH (as in ditch), *not* LIKE or LICK
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
Otyugh: AHT-yuhg
Sahuagin: sah-HWAH-gin
Scythe: syth (rhymes with tithe)
Svirfneblin: svirf-NEB-lin
Tanar'ri: tah-NAHR-ree
Tarrasque: tah-RASK
THAC0: either THAK-oh, or THAKE-oh
Vargouille: var-GWEEL
Vrock: vrahk
Wyvern: WIH-vern (as in did learn), or WHY-vern
Zaknafein: zack-NAY-fee-in

 

[Imaculata]

Why-VERN! I approve!

There's also this small pronunciation guide from the D&D 3.0 FAQ in WotC's archives:

Bulette: boo-LAY

In Beyond they pronounce this creature as "Bull-ET".

Heh, I ran through some of the monsters with less-obvious pronunciations, and found a few (most notably otyugh) that I was totally wrong on.

I'm happy to know that I've always pronounced Otyugh correctly.

Frank Mentzer said it was DEW-ur-gar in Dragon Magazine. So I guess PronunciationGate will continue forever!

I've always pronounced it as DEW-er-gar, which is almost the same. I put more emphasis on the "errr" sound.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Why-VERN! I approve!



In Beyond they pronounce this creature as "Bull-ET".

Yeah, I noticed that. I suspect that my French player will wince at that one.

A fair few of these are not the way I pronounced things - I went for Dwer-gar, and for Otyugh I just sort of made a farting sound for three seconds and ended with 'uh'. On the one hand, I'm a strong independent DM and I don't need to conform! On the other hand, it's a lot easier to adopt these - if I make heavy use of DNDBeyond then we'll all become very used to these pronunciations, and it's not a hill worth dying on.

The benefit of playing D&D is that you have the most support imaginable as a RPG GM; more resources, more forums, more tools. That support comes with constraints, like this, that curtail your creative freedom, and which increasingly inclines you to stick to the 'norm' of the game: it is easier to run the same modules, with the same rules, as everyone else. However, those constraints can also make things easier, letting you worry instead about the worthwhile stuff, like plot.

 

[Imaculata]

and for Otyugh I just sort of made a farting sound for three seconds...(...)

Thats how I pronounce drow.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Thats how I pronounce drow.

Hah! Sadly, Drow are hidden behind the paywall for the moment, so I wasn't able to hear their interpretation on it. I'm not sure that I'm ready to have that particular assumption attacked!

 

[Imaculata]

Hah! Sadly, Drow are hidden behind the paywall for the moment, so I wasn't able to hear their interpretation on it. I'm not sure that I'm ready to have that particular assumption attacked!

Yep, so I noticed.

In all seriousness though, I've always pronounced it as Ow! or Kapow!