Most mispronounced monster names

[Vradna]

No, Kupfer is German for copper. Cobalt is English for Kobalt.

When I was a lot younger, I misread Kobold instead of mispronouncing it.

My first dungeon had Kobloids in it. :\

 

[Faraer]

'Cthulhu', if you don't want to go to the effort of pronouncing it close to right (as in freebfrost's quote), in any case case has two syllables, not three. 'Cth' is a single complex consonant, not a syllable.

In 'Faerûn', the circumflex over the 'û' makes it a long 'u' sound, so Fay-roon though the 'ae' is probably a diphthong.

Bob Salvatore has fun giving different answers since he's been asked how to say 'Drizzt' so often, but he's always pronounced it Drisst -- just listen to any radio interview with him.

The 'h' in 'herb' is aspirated in English. It is only dropped in dialects such as American and Cockney.

Yes. 'Herb' has been anglicized for hundreds of years, and Americans dropping the 'h' is a kind of fake reFrenchifying like their mispronunciation of 'homage' (or 'bulette').

 

[woodelf]

So it's Drizz-tuh or Drizz-ta?

"Drizzt".

or, using pronunciation-by-example:

d as in dog, ri as in rip, z as in zipper, t as in cat. There's no vowel on the end; there's no vowel between the z's and the t.

 

[woodelf]

daemon.

I assume it should be pronounced "demon", but I pronounce it as dee-A-mon.

It's an Anglicized Romanized Greek word. In both Greek and Roman, it would be "die-moan", roughly. According to English 'rules', it could be "dee-mun" or "day-mun" (there're examples of both) if it's an 'a' and an 'e'. When written as an a-e ligature, it should be "dee-mun"--best canonical example of the a-e ligature is the 4th vowel in "encyclopedia"--which has generally been simplified to a regular 'e' these days, but without changing the pronunciation.

As a practical matter, i always pronounced it "day-mun", knowing full well it was wrong, because otherwise you can't tell when speaking whether one just said "dee-mun" or "dee-mun".

 

[Baragos]

Nastrovje. And it doesn't mean gesundheit AFAIK. It means "cheers" (you say it before you drink. Vodka, usually)

Nastrovje means "to health", just as "prosit/prost" does.

Sidhe is pronounced "shee" - it's Gaelic, so using Germanic or Romance pronounciation logic doesn't help...

 

[Baragos]

Not only that, but I can think of no english word that has the sound an ü stands for. So it's hard to explain.

You might say that ü is the second part of the diphthong in Gay or Guy. But it's not entirely accurate. On a side note, Guy is the French version of Will...not that it has much to do with this discussion...

 

[BWP]

Im surprised no ones mentioned spectre. Oh, that word has given me so much grief. If I remember correctly (and that dictionary was correct) america shold say it spec-ter, and england and france should say it spec-tree. But all I ever hear people say here (England) is spec-ter.

I think the reason no-one has mentioned it is because you are possibly the only person to have this problem. There is no reason why any modern English speaker would pronounce it as "spek-tree". It is extremely common for American spellings to reverse the ending of English words ending in -re. E.g., theatre (theater), metre (meter), and so on.

Another one is wyvern, im sure its Y-vern and not wiven, what about you lot?

Both are correct modern pronunciations. According to m-w.com, the etymology is "alteration of Middle English wyvere viper, from Old North French wivre, modification of Latin vipera". The French pronunciation would be likely "wee-vre", which in English would have been adopted as "wiver" (short i, sounds like "river"). However, since outside of gaming its main modern usage is in heraldry, the alternate pronunciation is unsurprising since heraldry incorporates many pseudo-French words, spellings and pronunciations in its terminology, forming what is in essence a new language with its own rules.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

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")

No pronouning an s and a k sound as skew is silly...the only place I know of Que making the q sound is...well...Queue! and it has help to let you know thats its pronounced. Even there Que is a k sound, its the extra ue that gets the ew sound.

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

I don't doubt that you guys are right. It's just that I've never hear the right pronunciation. I bet I'd get funny looks from my current gaming group, and my past gaming group from my hometown, if I said it that way.

 

[Tolen Mar]

I don't doubt that you guys are right. It's just that I've never hear the right pronunciation. I bet I'd get funny looks from my current gaming group, and my past gaming group from my hometown, if I said it that way.

Then there's only one solution...

Take a big stick and beat them over the head with it until they admit they've been pronouncing it wrong all along.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat as necessary.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Nastrovje means "to health", just as "prosit/prost" does.

...and cheers. Basically, it's what you say before drinking.

You might say that ü is the second part of the diphthong in Gay or Guy.

No, not even close.