Oryan77 said:
That's something that has always puzzled me. I don't understand why people always compare a "D&D" word as being pronounced incorrectly because "that's not how you say it in french/dutch/german/russian/ect". The same thing with the whole Sigil debate and it being a word in the dictionary. We are talking about words from a fantasy setting, not a French culture from planet Earth or an 'English' dictionary.
Whenever somebody pulls the "That's not how bulette would be pronounced in French!" crap with me, I alway respond "It's not French, it's Suloise."
99% of them have no idea what I'm talking about. Damn kids.
Oryan77 said:
If anyone can provide a link to a statement from a TSR/WotC creator giving proof on the real way to say Bulette or any other words, that would be great. Then I can change the above list and add in the explanation/source.
"Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" by Frank Mentzer,
Dragon #93 (and probably the source of that
Dragon Compendium article people keep mentioning), gives the acceptible pronunciations as "boo-LET, or byoo-LET; also boo-LAY, or byoo-LAY". ("let" rhymes with "met" in his orthography.) He claims to have listed pronunciations in order of "most common or preferred."
Mentzer, in addition to being a longtime TSR editor (and the lead designer for Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters/Immortals boxed sets), is well-known as a Friend of Gygax. I'd say he's about as official as it got in 1985.
The 2E
Monstrous Compendium page for the Bullette, on the other hand, gives "boo-LAY" as the only pronunciation. That's as offiical as it gets for 1989.
See where I'm going with this? With a company that's been know to retcon the shapes of continents, there is no true-and-eternal pronunciation of a word. (Oh wait -- that's true in the real world, too. Figure that.)
I still go by the Mentzer guide for most things, except of course for bulette, because I just like saying "boo-LAY".