Most mispronounced monster names

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

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

No, not even close.

I believe this is the acustic equivalent of explaining a blind the color red...

 

[Diremede]

At one point in time I decided to play a session with some folks I had seen around the game shop for the past 3 years. When I arrived for the game I was suprised and awestruck as I heard quite possibly the worst interpretation of a word in D&D to date. The quote " Ya I really like my dwarven BATTLERAGGER, he is loads of fun, especially when he rages."

WTF!?!

I was completely confused as to how one could pronounce the name of a class wrong when the player could correctly pronounce the primary ability of that class. I assumed from that point on that the player would pull out misc. pieces of cloth to strike out at its foes.

 

[Zander]

And "Umlaut" is the German name for it. I guess the English language adopted the name, never needing the term for itself...

In English it's called a diaeresis or dieresis. English does use it in borrowed words like Noël, names such as Brontë and in poetry.

But I forgive you for not knowing that as I'm guessing that your first language is German.

 

[Thotas]

Hey, I know this was a page back but ... Sniffles, I thought the "onion bulbs" were called minarets, too. (Quick research proves that to be cupola, after all.) I'm also noticing some geographic proximity ... perhaps a case of regional miseducation? Any non-Oregonians with that misconception?

 

[billd91]

How many of you pronounce Chitin as it's spelled? Can't break myself of that one.

I have a same problem with lichen. It looks like lich-in to me and not like-in.

 

[Raging Epistaxis]

And, since I haven't seen anyone else post it yet (and because I just had to look it up myself)...

a minaret is the tower near/on a mosque from which the faithful are called to prayer.

http://i-cias.com/cgi-bin/eo-direct.pl?minaret.htm

The most egregious mispronunciation I've had inflicted on my ear is puh-LAY-din for paladin (PAL-a-din). It took several repeats and a 'use that in a sentence' before I knew what the heck they were talking about.

Tear-askew would be worse, if I had ever heard it.

R E

 

[Stormrunner]

I've heard "lich" pronounced "leek", like the vegetable. ("Hans, run! It's an undead onion!") I've always pronounced it to rhyme with "which".

a C in Greek words is always a K sound, AFAIK, so "KIM-er-uh" not "SHIM-er-uh", "HERK-you-lees" not "her-SOOLS" (thankfully the Disney movie seems to have squelched that one), "kat-OB-leh-pus", etc.

Of course, in Greek "centaur" is "KEN-tarr" but in English everyone says "SEN-tarr". Sometimes you can't win.


edit: I've never heard "puh-LAY-din", but I've heard "puh-LODDIN" a lot. Since the word is derived from Arabic, shouldn't it be "paw-luh-DEEN"? Oh well.

 

[DMH]

"HERK-you-lees"

That is the Roman name. The Greek is Heracles (which is why the series bugged me- Roman hero interacting with Greek gods).

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I used to game with a guy who pronounced "inventory" as "in-VENT-ory", as though it were some sort of hall in which inventing took place.

 

[ericlboyd]

Guide to prouncing "drow": "Drow" rhymes with "bow" as "bow and arrow" or "bow down before the king."

--Eric ;-)

PS This joke works better in print.