How should I pronounce Tiefling?

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

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.

 

[eamon]

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"...

 

[Serphet]

You must get some funny looks, then, when you talk about thieves.

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]

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.

Then my bu-LET will crush you!

 

[Lokathor]

Tiefling uses a hebrew H sound and a japanese R. In IPA you'd spell it "george".

 

[Infiniti2000]

it may also explain why I can never spell things like thieves or klein, or stein.... hum...

Still, I find it humorous that people like at these two words side-by-side and pronounce them differently: thief-ling, tiefling.

I still stand by my "bue-let" pronunciation.

I actually concur with that pronunciation.

 

[Set]

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.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

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

 

[Infiniti2000]

But I've always pronounced Drow to rhyme with Bow.

Ah, so yer a conformist.

 

[On Puget Sound]

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.