Let's pronounce "Genasi"

[knightofround]

I've been pronouncing it gen-a-sai, like in "genocide". I do wonder what the original intent for pronunciation is though.

 

[Greylock]

Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:

general
genie
generation
gentle
genuflect
gene
genesis
gender
genus

I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually does have a hard 'g'.

Genk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

hth

 

[doctorhook]

[giggle]

I like the way that the sentence where you claim a hard G on 'gen' is the most natural way includes a word with a soft G on 'gen'

-Hyp.

Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:

general
genie
generation
gentle
genuflect
gene
genesis
gender
genus

I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually does have a hard 'g'.

Yikes, guys. I said, "seem like", as in, "seems like to me". Obviously, I forgot to consider that "g" is usually /dz/ in front of an "e". Sorry for being wrong.

Anyway, you all have convinced me that it's probably a soft "g" /dz/ sound, but that otherwise, I'm probably on the right track. I'm also gathering here that there isn't a consensus on how "Genasi" was intended to be pronounced.

Someone mentioned that Monte Cook wrote about them originally. Did he create them conceptually? If so, how does he pronounce the word? Also, are there any arabic-speakers here who can give us some linguistic context for this word?

 

[Shemeska]

Someone mentioned that Monte Cook wrote about them originally. Did he create them conceptually? If so, how does he pronounce the word?

Genasi first appeared in the 2e Planewalker's Handbook, which Monte wrote. Elemental planetouched hadn't appeared prior to that point to my knowledge, so I'd say that he created them conceptually if I had to guess. Not a clue unfortunately how he pronounced them.

 

[Ranger REG]

JEN-ah-SEE

Rhymes with Jealousy.

*dances to the Club Nouveau song*

 

[el-remmen]

Mangrove Throatwarbler.


But serious, I am amazed that anyone pronounces it any way but, jen-UH-sigh.

It ends in "i", not "sey" or "sy" or "see"

 

[Fifth Element]

Sorry for being wrong.

No apology required. But mistakes will tend to be noticed when hundreds of people read them.

 

[El Mahdi]

Coming from a co-worker who's originally from Turkey: jena-SIGH (sounds like Genocide without the -de).

-TRRW

Same here. I've always said it kind of like the Genii (Jen-eye) from Stargate: Atlantis - so I say it the same way (jena-sigh).

 

[Fifth Element]

Genk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

hth

Yeah, not sure that qualifies as English,

 

[Huw]

Also, are there any arabic-speakers here who can give us some linguistic context for this word?

You want a linguist?

Well, Arabic has had a soft "g" and no hard "g" for its entire literary history, whereas other Semitic languages have a hard "g". The Arabic letter "jim" (used to spell "jinni") is "gimel" in Hebrew, "gamal" in Assyrian and (though Phoenician) "gamma" in Greek.

Languages written in Arabic script which have a hard "g" (like Farsi, Urdu and Kurdish) use the letter "kaf" (i.e. K) with an extra mark above it, much like most European languages with non-Latin sounds use accents.

Short story: Arabic doesn't have a hard "g".