How should I pronounce Tiefling?


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ColonelHardisson

What? Me Worry?
@ 21:05 Rabbi asks: “How do you pronounce the following words: githyanki, otyugh, Sehanine, falchion, reagent, treant, eladrin?” (Bonus words: drow, bulette)

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
I've always said Tiefling Tief (tie-f) ling ;when two vowels follow each other, you pronounce the first one...

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.
 


Serphet

First Post
Bulette

bulett (e at the end makes first vowel proocuned

"b-you'll" ett

or

"b-you-lett"

focusing on merging the b and you, bu. Bulette almost sounds like beulet.

I'm not an eglish major or anything.. just breaking the word apart.
 

chitzk0i

Explorer
Once I was in a game where the DM mentioned a bullet. My brother and I both (separately) blinked and, in unison, said "Ohhh, a byulette!"
 

Infiniti2000

First Post
drow (rhymes with plow; if it were "dro" it wouldn't have a w, imo...)
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. :mad:
 




eamon

Explorer
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.
Heck, they're hardly worth calling rules. More like "those helpful guidelines that aren't used"...
 





Set

First Post
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. :)
 



On Puget Sound

First Post
I find it pretty funny that crazy made up D&D words like "reagent" and "falchion" made the list. I mean, how would anyone figure out how to pronounce those?

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:
fal⋅chion   /ˈfɔltʃən, -ʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [fawl-chuhn, -shuhn] Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun 1. a broad, short sword having a convex edge curving sharply to the point.
2. Archaic. any sword.


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Origin:
1275–1325; ME fauchoun (with l restored in 16th cent.) < OF fauchon < VL *falciōn-, s. of falciō, deriv. of L falx, s. falc- sickle

re⋅a⋅gent   /riˈeɪdʒənt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ree-ey-juhnt] Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun Chemistry. a substance that, because of the reactions it causes, is used in analysis and synthesis.


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Origin:
1790–1800; re(act) + agent; cf. act

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.
 

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