How should I pronounce Tiefling?
- Thread starter Bayuer
- Start date
Err.. what? English grammar has enough rules and contradictions without you conjuring up new ones out of thin air! How do you pronounce 'grief'? Or 'thief', 'relief', etc.?
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
githyanki - gith-YANK-ee
otyugh - oh-tee-ugh
Sehanine - SAY-hah-neen
falchion - FAL-chee-un. I like the elegance of the "ee" sound in the middle, even though I know the pronunciation isn't exactly correct.
reagent - like "agent," but with a "re-" prefix.
treant - TREE-ant or TREE-ANT. Like "giant" (from which the word derives) but with TREE (with one "e" dropped when written) in in place of the "gi."
eladrin - ee-LAH-drin, but I'm beginning to like ELL-uh-drin more. The word is pretty durn close to Tolkien's name for his high elves, the Eldarin, so I'd guess the pronunciations of the two words would be similar. I just haven't checked the pronunciation of Tolkien's word.
drow - droh. That is, it rhymes with slow or foe.
bulette - BOO-lett or BYOO-lett. Occasionally bullet.
Engilbrand
First Post
The crazy thing about that is that the rule in English is the exact opposite. Usually. The fun thing about English is that we have a lot of instances that break the rules.
In German, an "ie" is an "ee" sound in English. Words are broken up in a certain way. It's more Teef-ling than Tee-fling. Not that there's much difference, but there ya go.
aurance
Explorer
FWIW, if you were a French speaker, you'd pronounce it "Bu-LET."
Infiniti2000
First Post
Of course, then, you pronounce slow, row, tow, etc. all the same? Because they all have W's, too. My opinion is that pronouncing them like cow is simply degrading. If I were a bad-ass dark elf, I wouldn't want to rhyme with cow, or sow.
Infiniti2000
First Post
You must get some funny looks, then, when you talk about thieves.
evilgenius8000
First Post
It's teef-ling (Germanic root) and droh (Scottish mythological race, akin to the Nordic Svartalfar).
Yes, the origin is as you say, but virtually all online sources I've seen give two possible pronunciations (rhymes with dough or cow), both for the mythological and D&D usages of the word.
Last edited:
eamon
Explorer
Heck, they're hardly worth calling rules. More like "those helpful guidelines that aren't used"...
it may also explain why I can never spell things like thieves or klein, or stein.... hum...
I still stand by my "bue-let" pronunciation.
eamon
Explorer
Then my bu-LET will crush you!
Infiniti2000
First Post
Still, I find it humorous that people like at these two words side-by-side and pronounce them differently: thief-ling, tiefling.
I actually concur with that pronunciation.
My current character pronounces 'tiefling' as 'Hellblood.'
When a 'tiefling' asked about my character calling him a hellblood, he told him that since he was neither a thief or a halfling, he wasn't going to call him a 'thiefling.' He refused to listen to any explanations about the words 'tiefling' or 'thiefling,' since common wasn't his native language and they all sounded the same to him.
He went on to explain that in his native language, hellbloods were called seuhtahk, meaning hell-fire-heart. The character has gotten used to being called Seuhtahk.
When a 'tiefling' asked about my character calling him a hellblood, he told him that since he was neither a thief or a halfling, he wasn't going to call him a 'thiefling.' He refused to listen to any explanations about the words 'tiefling' or 'thiefling,' since common wasn't his native language and they all sounded the same to him.
He went on to explain that in his native language, hellbloods were called seuhtahk, meaning hell-fire-heart. The character has gotten used to being called Seuhtahk.
Duncan Haldane
Explorer
For the OP's question, I too pronounce it like Thief with a ling on the end.
But I've always pronounced Drow to rhyme with Bow.
Duncan
But I've always pronounced Drow to rhyme with Bow.
Duncan
Infiniti2000
First Post
Ah, so yer a conformist.
On Puget Sound
First Post
They are not made up; I learned about reagents in 7th grade chemistry class and I'm pretty sure "falchion" is in Shakespeare somewhere. Per dictionary.com:
Of course, D&D does play fast and loose with the meanings. Our falchion is a "great scimitar", not a short sword, and our reagents are magical, not chemical.
