Words are hard!

[Morrus]

I've written a nice little (and when I say little, I mean big) compilation from numerous sources. You can find it here.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showwiki.php?title=D+and+D+Pronunciation+Guide

 

[Thotas]

Maybe let them know that to jiff means either to spread stinking bodily odor from a back orifice, or, in some costume wearing circles, jiffing has yet another meaning they may not want to be associated with

... and I tend to think "peanut butter" when I hear that word. Or at least I did.

 

[Dioltach]

I can definitely verify Coup De Gras has an ‘s’ sound at the end – I confirmed that when I started dating a French girl.

It sounds like there's a story there ...

 

[Will Doyle]

So it may be true that it's dying out in popular culture, but when Her Majesty's Prison Service, the BBC, national newspapers, local councils, and others all spell it "gaol" and "gaoler" it's a pretty hard sell to claim that such spellings must be in an "parallel universe".

There are indeed a lot of references to gaols, because we have a lot of old prisons scattered about. The national newspapers definitely prefer "jail" over "gaol": a quick search on the Guardian's website brings up 40,073 results for jail versus 346 for gaol. Plus - and this is the nail in the coffin - the UK monopoly board spells it "Jail", and always has. It's an archaic term.

Do they have Smarties in your Britain, Morrus? What about Marmite?

 

[Morrus]

Plus - and this is the nail in the coffin - the UK monopoly board spells it "Jail", and always has. It's an archaic term.

I'm gonna believe HMPS over Hasbro!

Do they have Smarties in your Britain, Morrus? What about Marmite?

I don't understand the question.

As I said, I agree it's dying out. But it's also too much of a stretch to claim it isn't used.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I always read and pronounced justiciar as "JUST-ih-car" until I learned it's "ju-STIH-she-er". Who knew! (Probably lots of people.)

 

[Will Doyle]

I don't understand the question.

You know, in your parallel univ- oh, forget it.

As I said, I agree it's dying out. But it's also too much of a stretch to claim it isn't used.

And I never did. I just disputed your claim that "it's how 63-million of us spell the word." It's not. And it's not just dying out, it's practically flatlined. Look, here's a handy chart:

Gaol vs. jail - Grammarist

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Someone just mentioned chimera. I pronounced it CHIM-ur-ah for a couple of decades before learning it was supposed to be kimm-AIR-ah. That was another one that got me because the ONLY people I ever heard say it were in my gaming group. I guess I just naturally assumed they were pronouncing things correctly so never had reason to suspect I should look it up.

 

[TarionzCousin]

OMG, way to get under my skin. Asking for a "jiff" basically gets you a look and a "Really? Really?!"

We had Jif long before we had gifs.

 

[Fifth Element]

It is definitely Gaol down here, as we are still a part of the commonwealth. I’m surprised Canada doesn’t follow suit, but not overly…

If we use too many Britishisms our friends to the south get a bit antsy.

I can definitely verify Coup De Gras has an ‘s’ sound at the end – I confirmed that when I started dating a French girl.

One thing about growing up in the only officially bilingual province in Canada is that nearly all of my primary education was in French. So stumbling over French pronunciations has never been a problem. Coup de gras, as you've written it, would not have an S sound on the end. It's spelled coup de grace.

In the glossary @Morrus linked to I see bulette listed as "boo-lay". That strikes me as another mistaken attempt at a French pronunciation. If that were French, it would be "boo-let". "Boo-lay" would be bulet. (Edit: also the "boo" part isn't really accurate, but we don't really have the needed vowel sound in English so it'll have to do.)

Vargouille is another, listed as "var-gweel", that strikes me as odd. The name is clearly based on the French word for gargoyle, which is gargouille, and is pronounced something like "gar-gooey" for lack of a more competent transcription.

More properly, of course, gargoyle is the English word for gargouille. Presumably the name vargouille is vampire + gargouille? It's ironic that they rename a creature concept (it's a penanggalan), presumably to make it easier to pronounce, and then butcher the pronunciation of the replacement name.

And in related news, I recently learned, ‘Ye Olde Shoppe’ should be pronounced ‘The’ old shop as the ‘Y’ represents the printed form of the archaic ‘thorn’ letter which represents the ‘th’ sound… article here

Yes, I learned that from Stephen Fry awhile ago. Not directly, of course, but via Youtube.