Misprounced Monsters; Or... What did you call that monster, again?

[SolitonMan]

That's Lycanthropies
Lycanthropies- n.pl.- conditions resulting in turning into an animal at the full moon or at will.

hunh...the definition I found was this:

"Lycanthropies- n.pl.- declicious, golden-crusted epicurean delicacies stuffed with were-beast filling."



<<insert groans here>>

 

[Mark Hope]

Like it or not, "boo-LAY" is the proper pronunciation, as referenced in the Monster Manual in every edition of Dungeons & Dragons that I know about.

Tripe. If you want to pronounce it boo-LAY, you have to spell it differently ("bulet"). "Bulette" is pronounced boo-LET (byoo-LET is also permitted, but no more than that). Those who claim otherwise (D&D manuals included) are either wrong or should have gone for a different spelling in the first place .

 

[atomn]

But that idiotic "boo-LAY" pronunciation of "bulette," and the (primarily DDM) people who say "chraal" as "ch'rawl" get on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.

The pronunciation of "bulette" always made me think it was supposed to be pronounced as it would in French, but was misspelled (should have been "bulet").

 

[Mark Hope]

The pronunciation of "bulette" always made me think it was supposed to be pronounced as it would in French, but was misspelled (should have been "bulet").

Exactly. There is no method of pronunciation that allows for "bulette" to be pronounced as boo-LAY.

 

[sniffles]

As an adult, I joined a D&D group who, to the last person, pronounced paladin that way. At first, I thought it was an inside joke (they'd been together for a while before I joined), until I realized that, no, that's the way they thought it was pronounced.

"Um, guys...have you ever looked that word up in the dictionary? I don't think you're pronouncing it correctly."

"We're NOT?"

They were stunned. However, at least they pronounce it correctly now.

At least you can find a pronunciation for that in a dictionary. I think game publications should always include a glossary for unusual terms.

Most of the people in my group pronounce Bullette 'bullet', which annoys the heck out of me. If it was pronounced 'bullet' it would be spelled 'bullet'! I pronounce it 'boo-LET' based on the spelling. I guess I think it's French.

I've never heard anyone pronounce 'sahuagin', but I assumed based on the spelling that it was 'sah-HWA-gin', with the G as in 'get'.

I've got a friend who used to deliberately pronounce Lich as 'lick' just to irritate the rest of us. And don't get me started about one GM I play with regularly who mispronounces more words than I care to document. Not just monster names, either.

 

[lukelightning]

(inspired by the "sahuagin is pronounced sea devil" post):

Bulette: Earthbeast.
Varguille: Death's head.
Drow: Dark elf.
Lich: Smart zombie.

 

[Grazzt]

(inspired by the "sahuagin is pronounced sea devil" post):

Bulette: Earthbeast.
Varguille: Death's head.
Drow: Dark elf.
Lich: Smart zombie.

How about Bulette = land shark.

 

[Faraer]

'boo-LAY' was just a mistake by Frank Mentzer. TSR/Wizards could have officialized it if they'd wanted -- lots of things are different in D&D from outside D&D -- but they didn't.

'boo-LAY' is also, by the way, a hyperforeignism -- part of the American tendency to assume that foreign words, especially French ones, are stressed on the final syllable that actually have even stress. Like US pronunciations of 'beret', 'homage' (a normal English word), etc.

 

[Zhaleskra]

'boo-LAY' was just a mistake by Frank Mentzer. TSR/Wizards could have officialized it if they'd wanted -- lots of things are different in D&D from outside D&D -- but they didn't.

'boo-LAY' is also, by the way, a hyperforeignism -- part of the American tendency to assume that foreign words, especially French ones, are stressed on the final syllable that actually have even stress. Like US pronunciations of 'beret', 'homage' (a normal English word), etc.

A mistake that stuck because no one bothered to correct it then?

I do think the tendency of many Americans in my experience to try to pronounce every foreign word as if it were American English is appalling.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Appearantly, I pronounce every name in Wheel of Time, I screw it up. (ex: Aiel "Eye-eel" [as opposed to the rest of the group's "Ale", Athan'Miere "Ah-thahn-mee-air" [as opposed to "Athan-meer"], Trolloc "Troll-ock" ["Trol-luck"], Arafellin "Air-a-fellon" ["Ar-aff-a-lin"]).

Sounds like your players haven't read Jordan's appendix, where he spells everything phoenetically. I remember being pretty miffed that "MOI-rain" was actually "MWAH-rain," or something to that effect. But it doesn't matter because Robert Jordan will probably keel over before he finishes those damn books.

Let's see. Stuff I (apparently!) can't pronounce:

Vargouille (VAR-goil)
Juiblex (JU-bi-lecks)
Sahuagin (sa-HU-uh-jin)
Minotaur (MIN-uh-tawr)
Planetar (PLAN-eh-tar)
Solar (SOL-ahr)

I dunno. I always thought I had a decent ear for pronunciation; it's my reading that's the problem. Often I'll see a word and think it's spelled like A, and so pronounce it like A, then at some point I realize it's actually spelled like B. But, had it been spelled like A, I'm sure it would've been correct.