Dee or Die!! Do you say dee-6 or die-6?

[Gez]

It's either wolves, elves, dwarves, smurves; or wolfs, elfs, dwarfs, smurfs. There is no middle ground.

 

[Desdichado]

If daemon is "deemun," how do you say demon?

The exact same way, of course. The two are just alternate spellings of the same word, after all.

Lately I've been using daemon moreso than demon in my campaigns, but maybe that's the Warhammer influence creeping in...

 

[Desdichado]

You mean like a pack of wolfs? Or two halfs make a whole? The cow has two calfs?

What do you mean "correct grammar?" According to Merriam Webster, its elves and either dwarfs or dwarves, whichever you prefer.

Sorry if this sounds rude, but I'm very much a descriptive, rather than proscriptive linguist, so I always balk when people start in on "correct grammar."

Well, I am not. I'm more of a historical linguist, so there still is a "correct" grammar to me.

I don't know what your point about wolves, halves or calves are. Those are different words with different histories and are completely irrelevent.

And if you step outside of the fantasy world, you'll find that dwarfs and elfs are in common usage, assuming the words are used at all. If you ever go to an astrophysics convention, you'll get rolled eyes at best for talking about white dwarves, for instance.

The pluralization of dwarves and elves started with Tolkien. Nobody had ever done it before him, and he had to fight with his editors to make it happen. That's probably why your dictionary shows both variants of the plural; because he popularized it to some extent.

I was able to find a more recent dictionary that does show both plurals as valid. Oddly enough, though, it does not show dwarvish, but dwarfish, and not elvish or elven but elfish or elfin.

I mean, really, you can't call yourself a descriptive grammarian if you don't understand the nuances of the usages of the word!

 

[Aesmael]

The exact same way, of course. The two are just alternate spellings of the same word, after all.

Lately I've been using daemon moreso than demon in my campaigns, but maybe that's the Warhammer influence creeping in...

Despite being aware of this, I years ago (~5, pre D&D) decided to go with Daemon = Day-mon and Demon = Dee-mon for the purpose of having more categories available. I also decided that a daemon is generally a more powerful creature than a demon.

I still prefer that (wert relative power) in a D&D context even though I use daemon = you-go-loth and demon = tah-nar-ree.

Oh, and Yrthak = Ir-thack or Ear-thack.

Should I answer the original question? Dee as in reading what is written. But thanks to the poll for making me aware of alternates.

P.S. Bulette = Byu-let

 

[evildm]

Die. Started with D&D too, so I have no idea why we use die instead of dee. In fact, it sounds really weird when I hear someone refer to it as dee, but I know I'm in the minority... the superior minority!

(please don't hurt me!)

 

[glass]

d6: dee-six

drow: said dro (bro) for years, then switched to drau (cow)*

chitine: kie-teen (kie like the begining of kite)

bulette: boo-let

manta ray things: iks-itz-zach-itl

catoplepas: cat-o-blee-pus

That said, I am likeing the idea of devilfish and necrozon for the last two (although, how do you pronounce necrozon).

*Now I am considering using one pronunciation for GH/generic D&D and the other for FR.


glass.