Most mispronounced monster names

[Chaldfont]

Dragon.

My players seem to pronounce it a million different ways:

Ahhhhsheeeeeeeeeit!
Weirskrood!
Faaaaaaaahhhhhk!
Ruhnnaweigh!
Crapponnastik!
&c.

 

[sad_genius]

Actually I've encountered a couple of Kobold pronunciations - Koh-bald and Cob-old.

I believe Gary (or it might have been Roger Moore) said Sahuagin rhymes with "ah, you again".

-M-

 

[IcyCool]

I've only ever heard tarrasque pronounced tear-a-skew. Tear-ask seems silly.

It may sound silly, but it is the correct pronunciation.

It's stupid, but is it KO-BOLD, or kuh-BALD?

KO-Bold.

The spelling doesn't realls suggest "shee", at least not in English (or German, for that matter)

That's because it's Gaelic.

And a few more:
Ogre = Oh-grrr
Trebuchet = TREB-you-shay (Not Tra-BUCKET)
Gnome = nome (rhymes with home, the g is not pronounced)

Yuan-ti = Yawn-tee or won-tee, I'm not sure on this one.

 

[wingsandsword]

I tend to think the same. But it is incredibly hard to explain this to english speakers, because I can´t think of a word with "ü" in English.
Maybe the "assimilated" german word "Übermensch". But no, I doubt they do pronounce the "ü" correctly, not when I think of the usual writing of it - "Ubermensch"...

I think the entire word "Über" has been assimilated by English as "Uber". In English usage, the "ü" is normally pronounced like the "oo" in "boot", in case you were wondering.

English normally isn't written with tildes, accent marks or umlauts, so no native English words have a "ü", and typically words assimilated from other languages lose those markings too. The schools don't typically teach the meanings of those symbols (except maybe the tilde in Spanish class, which is a typical class in US High Schools), so your typical English speaker has no clue how they change the pronounciation when they see that, just that those marks "look foriegn".

 

[Grazzt]

Rouge

No. That would be the MOST mispelled class name in 3e/3.5.

 

[IcyCool]

No. That would be the MOST mispelled class name in 3e/3.5.

No no. Rogue is the most mispelled class name in 3e/3.5.

Rouge is make-up you put on your cheeks, like so .

And yes, I knew what you meant.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think the entire word "Über" has been assimilated by English as "Uber". In English usage, the "ü" is normally pronounced like the "oo" in "boot", in case you were wondering.

English normally isn't written with tildes, accent marks or umlauts, so no native English words have a "ü", and typically words assimilated from other languages lose those markings too. The schools don't typically teach the meanings of those symbols (except maybe the tilde in Spanish class, which is a typical class in US High Schools), so your typical English speaker has no clue how they change the pronounciation when they see that, just that those marks "look foriegn".

I believe some of these "signs" are not universally defined, but I am not certain about that. (I seem to recall noticing this once, but I have no clue what it was exactly...)
But I assume that an US student of German would learn about the meaning of "umlauts", it´s just that most people in the US aren´t taught German? (Spanish makes so much more sense in the US )

 

[Grazzt]

I've only ever heard tarrasque pronounced tear-a-skew. Tear-ask seems silly.

Not as silly as "tear-a-skew" though. Cant say Ive actually ever heard it pronounced that way (other than in threads like these). All the peeps Ive ever gamed with since '81 or '82 always pronounced it "tear-ask". Doesnt mean we're all right, just saying Ive never heard it pronounced like that (and never seen "sq" followed by ue pronounced as "skew")

 

[Prince Atom]

In either the first or second book, it's been a while since I read them, during Drizzt's first foray aboveground, he met a child and an incident occurred as described above. As far as I can recall, Drizzt didn't like that because that wasn't his name.

That's why I pronouce it DRIZZ-T.

Actually, it's the third. In the first two books, he's in the Underdark. He only comes out onto the surface in Sojourn.

I think that's perhaps the best of the Drizzt books. And I've always pronounced his name like that little boy.

But I've never run a drow ranger with two scimitars. I have some creativity.

TWK

 

[wingsandsword]

But I assume that an US student of German would learn about the meaning of "umlauts", it´s just that most people in the US aren´t taught German? (Spanish makes so much more sense in the US )

Yes, if somebody in the US was being taught German they'd be taught all the markings that went with the language (if those two dots aren't called umlauts, I don't know what they are, I've always heard them called that.) Yes, Spanish is the most predominant second language to be taught in the US by far (although French and German are also taught in many schools, and Japanese is slowly catching on).