What the *scratches head* Tiefling, Eladrin...

[Carnivorous_Bean]

Tiefling is a made up word, I believe, but it is based on good old Germanic roots. You would be pronouncing it correctly by using a Germanic reading, which you are doing.

Eladrin is thoroughly made up, I believe, so you could pronounce it "tu-dth-fay-ree" and be correct.

All words are made up, so the argument is a bit dubious on the 'eladrin' part, IMO.

However, I concur that Tiefling is based on Germanic language patterns, so the logical pronunciation is "Teefling."

And I vote for "EllADrin" for "Eladrin."

These are the two easiest ways for me to say them, anyway, so that's how I'm going to pronounce them, at least.

 

[Keenath]

Tiefling is "teef-ling" as has been stated several times. (It comes from a german word meaning "little dark one" or some such thing, so that's not really arguable.)

Eladrin is more flexible; I've been known to say "EL-a-drin" and "eh-LAD-rin" with equal frequency. I think the first is more correct, but that's just me thinkin'. I wouldn't complain about somebody using either one -- it's not as annoying as Drow (rhymes with crow) or Paladin (rhymes with Aladdin)*.

On the other hand, the named eladrins in the various MMs all had vaguely gaelic names (at least, I think they are) like Coure (COO-reh) and Ghaele ("Gay-leh"), which would support "EH-la-drin". (In most gaelic, the accent is always on the first syllable.)

* I heard both of these in my gaming group, the latter from the same guy who said "melee" as "muh-LEE".

 

[Pbartender]

I'll ALWAYS be surprised on how it's difficult for native English speakers to agree on the pronunciation of a given word...

It's what happens when you borrow so many words from so many different languages.

 

[Klaus]

I say them:

TEEF-ling

and

El-ah-DREEN

 

[Remathilis]

Dwarf: Duh-War-F
Elf: L-f
Halfling: Haff-ling
Half-elf: Haff L-f
Tiefling: Teef-ling
Eladrin: L-lad-rin
Dragonborn: dum-I-dE-ah

 

[Aloïsius]

Simple : tiéflinng and éladrin.

I suppose that you can use "fnord" in English anyway...

 

[Engilbrand]

I say Teef-ling and El-uh-drin. Part of it is because I learned the game in college and just picked up what my friends called them. Part of it is that it's just easier. I could see E-lad-rin being correct if you assume that the E at the beginning is like in the word "meh".

I also agree with the statement someone said about being surprised that native English speakers have so much trouble with so many words. I'm an "accent-free" American from Indiana. I teach German and English. I pride myself on being able to speak any word that I come across in German, no matter how long and crazy it looks. German is just easy like that. Swedish? Not so much. But German is rather simple. I have so many students who struggle with it, even though I constantly remind them of how certain things sound.
Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitaenswitwe is an incredibly easy word to say in German. In English, though, it would literally be impossible. We may have "simpler" grammar, but we have a language that is incomplete and difficult to truly pronounce. I have argued with a student over the way to say "demonstrative". When names come into the picture, logic is thrown out the window and the name can be said any way that you want. It's nuts.

For those who are curious, the word up there would translate into the "widow of a captain of a steamship (i think) that travels down the Danube river". Hurray for German!

 

[Surgoshan]

Would "tiefkin" be better than "tiefling"? At least it's different from (different to, different than) "halfling".

 

[Pbartender]

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitaenswitwe

For those who are curious, the word up there would translate into the "widow of a captain of a steamship (i think) that travels down the Danube river". Hurray for German!

Literally, "Danube-steam-ship-ferry-captain-widow".

Gotta love German... Don't have a word for it? Just smash together old words to make a new one.

Would "tiefkin" be better than "tiefling"? At least it's different from (different to, different than) "halfling".

Oddly enough, etymologically, no it isn't...

Tiefling is a word based off perfectly suitable German. "Tief" meaning "low" or "deep", and "-ling" which is a suffix that roughly equates to "-a person who is".

Compare, for example, haft - "imprisonment", with Häftling - "prisoner". Or Haupt - "head", with Häuptling - "chieftain".

 

[Bagpuss]

Eladrin:
Is it "El-ah-drin", "El-aye-drin", "El-uh-drin" or "El-a-drin" ("a" like apple). Then to make it all worse is it similar to "Aladdin" (Elad-rin) or is it El-adrin like "El Adrenal".

I'm going to use Rhianna's prounciation of Eladrin.

Like in "Umbrella ela-ela-hey hey hey".

So it's El-a El-a-drin drin drin.