So how do you pronounce 'dweomer'?

[tarchon]

I always thought the 'e' was silent:
dw-OH-mer

The "dweo" headword in the OED is based on a single instance of that spelling. Most other instances of the word or the root suggest the first vowel was somewhere around lax/short high front, either short e or short i. The 'o' certainly isn't historic, though it's possible that this was an attempt to represent some sort of unusual local pronunciation.

 

[tarchon]

You know how they pronounce Eomer in the LotR movies? I would rhyme dweomer with that. The eo vowel combination in Anglo-Saxon was pronounced sort of like this: AY-oh, but run together sort of fast.

Though by Chaucer's time "dwimmer" would have been the more common pronunciation.

And I just have to take this opportunity to say that dweomer is a totally cool word.

OE "eo" usually reflects to long e in modern English. Really, it was probably intended to represent an early diphthong formation, since most "eo" words only have the "o" written in a certain set of dialects (Kentish?) and it doesn't appear in earlier, later, or other contemporary forms of English. "beor"->"beer", "beo"->"bee", "freo"->"free"
There are exceptions though like "ðeode" in which the "eo" represents two different historical vowels.

 

[Mirth]

OE "eo" usually reflects to long e in modern English. Really, it was probably intended to represent an early diphthong formation, since most "eo" words only have the "o" written in a certain set of dialects (Kentish?) and it doesn't appear in earlier, later, or other contemporary forms of English. "beor"->"beer", "beo"->"bee", "freo"->"free"
There are exceptions though like "ðeode" in which the "eo" represents two different historical vowels.

beowulf = bay-oh-wolf

dweomer = dway-oh-mer

I stand by my pronunciation.

 

[Dark Jezter]

In Baldur's Gate II, it's pronounced "Duh-way-oh-mur."

Since then, that's always been the way I've pronounced it as well.

 

[Chacal]

I've been playing for 20-some years, and I've always pronounced it
in-cor-RECT-ly.

same here.
But I do that with every english word so that doesn't count



Chacal

 

[bloodymage]

Wow! Easy, I thought. Then I pronounced it to myself. Let's see if I can replicate it: dweeay-o-mer. Somethin' like that. Very short duration long "e" sound after the first two consonants, barely noticable. Have no idea if it's correct, but it's the way I've always pronounced it and it's never caused any confusion in gaming circles. Good enuf for me.

 

[Desdichado]

I prefer either the Old English pronunciation, as described by Buttercup, or simply dwimmer, since that seems to be an alternate spelling of the same word.

Either way, it doesn't really matter, I suppose. Dweomer, in that form, at least, doesn't appear to have made an appearance in print between 1250 and modern fantasy novels. If it really is that old, then the Old English pronunciation is probably the best bet.

Tolkien often used the alternate dwimmer, but Tolkien was notorious for "inventing" words. Not that he actually invented them, but he took words from Old English (specifically from the Mercian dialect, actually, which lacks a lot of the dipthongs of textbook Old English) and applied linguistic triangulation to project what they would look like in modern English if they hadn't gone out of general circulation.

The methodology is sound, but it's usually used in reverse -- taking cognates from two or more different languages that are based on the same root word and triangulating what the base root word would have been.

Anyway, Tolkien used dwimmer more than once, particularly with the Rohirrim who have the words Dwimmerdene, dwimmerlaik, and a few other instances referring to something supernatural or haunted.

 

[Jack Daniel]

"Dweomer?" Every dictionary and pronunciation I've ever seen has said to prounounce it "dweemer."

Words like "phoenix" and "foetus" come to us from Latin, and would have been prounounced "poi-nix" and "foi-tus" classically, but were "feh-nix" and "feh-tus" by the Late Latin, and that's how they would've entered english. That short Latin e became an English long e. It seems to be much the same with the Old English oe dipthong.

Old English "Beowulf" is still prounounced with a dipthong, "bao-wulf," though people still insist on saying it in three syllables ("bay-oh-wulf"), naturally because the "eo" sound no longer exists in English. "Deop" has become "deep," and "þreo" has become "three," so it would seem a safe bet that dipthong-to-vowel simplification has led to a ME long e in the OE to ME transition as well.

The verdict? Say "dweemer," unless you're confident enough in your pronunciation of Old English to say "dweomer" in two syllables.

 

[Psionicist]

"Dommer".

 

[Ferret]

Dw (as on dwarf) + ee (as in tree) + ohm (as in Rome) + er (as in fir).

I usually just look at the words but if I had to pronouce it it would be like that.


Or Fnord