MGoT: Pronunciation Guide

And thus launches Sairgate.

I always read Irri as EE-ree. So that’s kind of weird to get used to. The rest of them are basically in line with my own reading. Except ‘ser’. That is just being unexpected for the sake of it, and not in a good way.

It doesn’t sound bad – it just gives an artificial Scots coloring to it.

There are so many other things to get stressed over in life. Like “Theeon.” Really? Theeon?

Lex,

I’m with you on that, but I’m telling myself that because they all have a wide range of UK and Irish accents(Greyjoys…right?) it might sound closer to the “Ser” we like. This will help me sleep at night, knowing I can justify issues such as pronunciation and a wide range of other things.

Irie rivals aloha for flexibility.

I always thought ‘ser’ that way in my head. It didn’t seem to make much sense to change the spelling and not the pronunciation.

I’ve agreed with most of these, unlike the Wheel of Time pronunciations, which largely seem illogical and a number of which I refuse to accept.

KG: There are so many other things to get stressed over in life. Like “Theeon.” Really? Theeon?

Buh? That’s *not* the only possible way to say that name? You’ve piqued my curiosity.

Saying “SAIR” aloud just sounds incredibly awkward to me. Feels awkward as well. I can’t imagine the actors constantly trying to remember to say SAIR instead of SIR, all through every episode and every season. Here’s hoping…

“Cersei Lannister – SER-see LAN-iss-ter”

I think you know what I’m going to have to ask about this particular one, with certain revelations we’ve had…

I’m shocked to see I pronounced almost all of those the same way they’ve gone with.

Even Ser, which I’ve always thought was an awesome way to pronounce it.
It would have thrown me off if they had gone to Sir, when I’ve been reading SAIR all along!

The only one I wasn’t spot on with was irri, which I’ve always read as Ear-ë, but even I don’t know where I got that one from!

Honestly, SAIR doesn’t bother me much. At first I thought “What? They’ll be saying Syr like in syrup??” but after a glance at the list, they seem to pronounce Viserys as Vi-SAIR-iss – that meaning Ser will be pronounced just like the Italian word Ser, if I got it right, just like I always thought they would, being Italian myself.

Surprisingly, it looks like everything will be pronounced just like I always have – even Arya and Maester.

I started reading the series in Dutch, so needless to say many pronunciations are a bit different than what I used to hear in my thoughts… But since following this forum a lot of names have changed already in my mind, and frankly I don’t care too much about these pronunciations.

One thing though: writing the names phonetically like that is not sufficient for many non-English speakers. In fact, even English speaking people with different accents would pronounce the names differently based solely on that. So if HBO wanted to get rid of any doubt, they should have added sound recordings pulled from the show.

Zack,

Thayon. Much more pleasing to the ear.

Axe,

There are a couple like that where Dotrice’s is different. I believe Gendry was Jendry, Irri was Ir-ri, Sansa might have been SAN-sa not SAHN-sa, and of course Petyr. But otherwise, everything matches perfectly I believe.

By the way, Dotrice pronounced Petyr as PIT-ire, for those wondering.

Ro,

Woops, actually it was more like pa-TYRE.

Matt,

I agree Matt. That is the only one I really would have preferred Dotrice’s. Not a big deal though.

As for the “sair” I’m not so sure they will actually pronounce it as hard as ‘air’ with an s before it. If you say “sair” in a more relaxed way it will sound pretty much like the way you pronounce ‘sir’ as I see it. I will need to hear it spoken by actors before I really have an opinion.

As for Petyr I’ve always pronounced it as it looks, i.e. like ‘Peter’ with a y. I think it sounds very awkward with a long second syllable.

Zack,

I’m guessing the joke is that SER-see should be SAIR-see?

Anyway, GRRM always pronounces it SER-say.

Ro: If you have listened to any of the audiobooks, most of these pronunciations jive perfectly.I’m assuming the audiobooks have been vetted by GRRM for pronunciation, so the truth is that most of you have been pronouncing it WRONG in your head for years.It has always been SAIR, not SIR.    

I’ve heard at least three different people do audiobooks for ASoIaF and they often pronounced names differently to each other so they could never all have been right.

Very glad it’s Peter, not Pi-TIRE.

Doesn’t quite make up for SAIR, though. :) Did Dotrice really say SAIR?

Ro: If you have listened to any of the audiobooks, most of these pronunciations jive perfectly.I’m assuming the audiobooks have been vetted by GRRM for pronunciation, so the truth is that most of you have been pronouncing it WRONG in your head for years.It has always been SAIR, not SIR.    

Actually, GRRM did not vet the audio books for pronunciation and was as surprised as many about how Dotrice and the others pronounced some names.

Incidentally, I recently listened to a podcast and was surprised to hear GRRM say Do-thra-KYE, not KEE.

Most of these pronunciations seem in line with the audiobooks. The only time I disliked a pronunciation in those was for Brienne. Didn’t they always pronounce Ser this way in the audiobooks and readings anyway?

So does “Theon” have a hard TH or soft? I always assumed soft.

Aerys as Air-eze seems . . . how shall I say it . . . stupid.

If it’s Dan-AIR-iss, then it should be AIR-iss and Ja-HAIR-iss and vi-SAIR-iss, etc.

I’m with ezeqiel on Tyrell, as well, and always thought that Q’s without u’s are hard like a k. Can’t believe it’s not KARTH or maybe KHARTH and KOTHO or KHOTHO and KOHOR or KHOHOR

Most of these are what I was pronouncing already, save for a few small differences.

But the one that will annoy me the most is Clegane.

Cli-GAIN. Really? That makes no sense.

I always pronounced it CLAY-gahn-ay. Like how the French would pronounce a word like that, but with an acute accent over the final ‘e’. It’s going to take a lot for me to get used to that

Nick,

I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. SAIR sounds nothing like Sir. One rhymes with hair, one rhymes with her.

Katrina Brooks,

Interesting.

Would never ever have pronounced that as French. Clee-Gain. Short and ugly sounding.

Arya as Are-yuh isnt right to me. Always raid that as Ah-ria, as well as some -ons becoming -uns.

Sair and Are-ya are the big changes for me.

Lex: Nick, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. SAIR sounds nothing like Sir. One rhymes with hair, one rhymes with her.  Quote  Reply

Ah! Must be an American thing. The British say Hair and Her exactly the same, as they do with Hare and Herr. This obviously been a British show when it comes to the actors, that will be reason why. I assure you all “Sair” will sound just like Sir in the show

Cogman comes through! Nice update, glad to hear that some of these may vary from character to character. I think SAIR is too awkward, and most of the actors will naturally say SIR.

Also, I’ve always said LEESE instead of LICE, so I’m happy about that too.

Nick,

I still don’t agree, the British definitely do not pronounce “her” and “hair” the same. At least, not all British. Maybe Scottish…

A real shame for me that Petyr will sound like Peter, I always imagined it as pa-TYRE. It always sounded so great, ‘Peter’ is really very dull and for me doesn’t fit the character at all.

Also for Barristan Selmy: BAIR-iss-tin seems odd to me: in my head it always sounded like BA-riss-ton.

VAIR-iss for Varys also sounds extremely strange to me, in my head I always thought it was VAR-eze. And yes I did pronounce Arys, Daenerys and Viserys with th ‘iss’ – for some reason I always thought the ‘eze’ sounded better for Varys.

Always imagined Gendry as Jendry (soft G) too.

And TI-rul? That’s odd. Tyrell always sounded like TYE-rell to me.

I have to agree with rastronomicals on the Q’s. KARTH and KOTHO sound much better than QUARTH and QUOTHO.

Apart from the above, which really threw me, the rest appear fine.

Nick,

I believe you, it just seems very odd… I’ve never heard that pronunciation before, and I’ve listened to many British people speaking. I guess it’s a Yorkshire thing…

Nick,

Just curious, do you also pronounce the following words the same way?

Fur/fair, sure/share, purr/pear, etc?

In North America, “sir” rhymes with her, sure, purr, fur, etc.

I hate to be ridiculously complain-y, but some of these strike me as incredibly unnatural (as though for the sake of being unnatural). The inserted diphthongs seem especially odd, and the emphasis on the last syllable of many of the names make it sound as if they’re trying to be fancy and not really succeeding well. Cassel and Clegane in particular are really bothering me.
I dunno, I dunno, I dunno. Many of these are going to take some getting used to, and even once I’m used to them I can see them grating on my nerves.
;p

Steve Hugh Westenra,

Ca-SELL (or Cuh-SELL) is an actual real last name, and that’s how it’s pronounced. Nothing unnatural about that one.

Nick,

I don’t think your pronunciation is the same across Britain, just in the north. The Beatles Liverpudlian scouse accent would also probably make “her” sound like “hair”… but I don’t think that’s the case with the Queen’s English (or Royal Pronunciation or whatever it’s called). I’m pretty sure Londoners would say Sir the same way as North Americans.

Well at least I got Hodor right! I dunno about these weird pronunciations. It’s good enough to just spell a name differently, you don’t need all these weird pronunciations. But I guess for the TV show you might. In the book when reading I pronounced: Ser as Sir, and Maester as Master. Baratheon as Barra – Thee- on, Tommen as Tom-men, Cersei as Sir-see, Viserys as Vis-er-us. I thought Asshai was pronounced Ass-High for sure.. If Sandor is San-door, then why isn’t Sansa San-suh? We have short-a inconsistencies here, folks, along with the whole Ty -problem.
It’s going to be hard to hear them pronounced incorrectly week after week, though (LOL)

Technically, what is the language that these people are speaking? Is this the ‘commen tongue’?

It’s interesting, some of the names, when said with an American accent, sounds better to me than when I pronounce with my own relatively posh South English. I think some may have been done to help out the American or other EFL cast, and some are simply just a more Northern UK way of speaking as a quick look at the cast certainly shows a bit of a northern lean.

Meh, I will grimace at a few every time, others will likely end up replacing the way I say it.

No complaining then, since Sean saying “Sair” will be the northern way. Hopefully they’ll have the southrons say it “sur”

I always pronounced “Lys” as LISS. just seemed easiest.

The comparisons above with all the American / British / British pronunciations of words are kind of impossible to decipher. Individual syllables are read differently by different people.

HER and HUR would be prnounced the same (by me), and SURE and SHORE are almost completely indistinguishable (PURE and SURE are again, totally different). HER and HAIR are totally different.

This is all with a Kiwi accent though, so my input is as worthles as everybody else’s :P

For the record, I always pronounced “Ser” as SIR, but SAIR doesn’t bother me. Of course, this thread has made me realised that a lot of these names are going to sound different even to how I read the pronunciation breakdowns.

As Nick has said, the pronounciation “SAIR” is merely a phoenetic representation of the accent that the characters are using.

I had a dialect coach for a role in a play in which I was a character from Liverpool (England) – I’m from Australia, so it had a little getting used to.
But I can assure you that I referred to elderly male characters as “Sair”

Lex,

I have to wonder if that isn’t an affectation itself though. I have a friend from the States (not saying it’s necessarily an American thing, but just in case someone could shed some light on it) whose last name is Cattel (pronounced cuh-TELL, in much the same way as Cassel is on this list). Her name comes from “cattle” but was probably changed to sound like what was perceived to be something fancier. This isn’t me poking fun at her– it’s actually something she finds terribly amusing.
I think the affectation of a lot (though by no means all) of these pronunciations is what I was trying to get at. The long “a” at the beginning of Sansa feels equally as strange to me, and a little put-on. It reminds me of what a lot of people do when trying to put on British accents of various kinds (they assume that all they should all be long). It just makes it sound very artificial and fake to me (but that is me, and I imagine there are some people who would say the same of my pronunciations, especially with discrepancies between first languages, etc).

You want some crazy accent twisting, listen to George Harrison sing or speak. Yikes.

KG: You want some crazy accent twisting, listen to George Harrison sing or speak. Yikes.    

He, just like the rest of the Beatles had/have very pronounced Liverpool accents.

It all sounds very North American to me. Like if I read them out loud, I sound as though I’m putting on an American accent.

Leese..

The most obvious pronounciation is ‘Liz’

Or maybe that’s just because I am Australian

Why is Jaime not in this list?

Ducky: Why is Jaime not in this list?    

because everyone knows it’s pronounced ‘ji-may luhn-der-spore’ 8)

The Dragon Demands,

Typo: I’ve been saying “Tar-gar-yen” for all this time, and its hard to adjust to “Tar-GAIR-ian”

The Dragon Demands, “Valyrian – Vuh-LEER-ee-un”

I’ve been saying “Val-ear-ian” all this time.

Isn’t that the same thing?

And re: Clegane, – I’d always pronounced it Cleh-GAHN. Cle-GAIN sounds off

Actually, on the whole Lys thing, I just realized that I think LEESE, but when I see Lyseni I think “LICE-EEN-EYE”

Winter Is Coming: Added one other update from Bryan to the post. The Pycell pronunciation is incorrect. It should be “Py-SELL” with the accent on the second syllable.    

Awesome!

I think I’m thinking of the chemical, Lysine.

Hum I don’t know I’ve always pronounced: Peh-TEER BAY-lish
Tyrell: TIE-rell and Cassel KAH-ssell (not as in Russell but as you would pronounce the letter “L”.. anyway not that it matters that much haha

At first I was quite alarmed by SAIR, but I think it’s because I was saying it with a hard American “r” on the end. When I say it with a softer British “r” it sounds much better.

But what’s up with EAR-ee for the Eyrie? Pronounced like the word “eerie” instead of, well, “eyrie?” That doesn’t make sense.

Can’t believe no-one else (or did I miss it?) commented on gre-GOR! Really? Gre-GOR? To me, he was always just GRE-gur, like the actual name. Strange …

Kathrina Martinsen,

Agreed. That one just seems weird.

They have gone from saying ‘sir’ to the older ‘sire’ just to keep it original in a way ‘ser’ was meant to do for a reader.
Problem solved.

I have to say, this topic is not quenching my thirst for Thrones action. I need some Thrones action.

Kathrina Martinsen,

As I said the list above is perfect.

I dont know, perhaps it is because I am swedish? We have always been insecure about our own culture and language so we have always borrowed from other cultures. Perhaps I am more open to readning the names, not just in english but in a mix of swedish, english, german, french and spanish?

Czarnian,

Well, I’m Danish :-) I agree with most, but not all the pronunciations listed, but it’s a matter of habit, I guess.

To me the pronounciation of Y is a bit unconsequential…

It sounds as “ee” (or its consonantal form “y”), however it is ‘aye’ in Tywin, Tyrell and Nymeria.
How come???

(I always pronounced the name of Tyrion like ‘TIE-ree-on’ but that’,s just me :))

Not to mention that Sandor and Janos (actually written Sándor and János, equivalents of Alexander and John) are well used Hungarian names (pronounced like ‘Shaandore’ and ‘Yaanosh’.)

Just your daily funfact :)

Felagund: To me the pronounciation of Y is a bit unconsequential…It sounds as “ee” (or its consonantal form “y”), however it is ‘aye’ in Tywin, Tyrell and Nymeria.How come???(I always pronounced the name of Tyrion like ‘TIE-ree-on’ but that’,s just me )Not to mention that Sandor and Janos (actually written Sándor and János, equivalents of Alexander and John) are well used Hungarian names (pronounced like ‘Shaandore’ and ‘Yaanosh’.)Just your daily funfact   Quote  Reply

Probably because they have different linguistic roots in Westeros. You know, “Tywin” is Riverlandish in origin and “Arya” is from the Iron Islands or some crap like that.

Who cares?

I STILL don’t know how they pronounce Jon!!!! They forgot the only name i had serious dubts about! o_o

is it ee-ON or John?

Help me!

ezeqiel: Most of these seem fairly logical in my head or only a slight tweek to what I had envisaged myself, but there’s some I really can’t get…Cassel = cuss-EL (it’ll always be CASS as in “crass” or “brass” to me, the only cus’in I’ll be doin is at this pronunciation!)Tyrell = TI-rul (nope, can’t hack this one either… tir-ELL is in my head, kinda like Pirelli tyres)Tommen = TAH-min (what is wrong with just plain ol’ TOM-min???)    

These along with Gendry having a hard G are abominations.

Felagund,

Not all the names have english pronunciation. If it has to sound north european that it could be Ion, as well.
I don’t remember hearing George pronouncing that name (he probably did a number of times) so i still have my dubt.

Here I always herd people saying Ion, in US they say John, but is no evidence at all!

Am I the only one to have noticed the inherent problems with this? Since we don’t agree on a common accent, we can’t agree on how to pronounce the phonetic descriptions: “TAH-min”, for example, is how the (Southern, fairly RP) English would hear a “strong” American accent pronounce “Tommen” phonetically, but it probably isn’t how those Americans would hear the English say it (that’s probably “TOM-mun”, but I can’t testify to that).

Anyway, it’ll keep us amused with frantic and futile speculation until we actually hear them said on screen… :)

A. Visitor,
lol, and Tar Kidho and Paweł Ausir Dembowski beat me to it in their turn.

This is a tasty hors-d’oeuvre, let’s hope we’ll soon get a detailed guide with IPA transcription and sounds.

Nick:
Ah! Must be an American thing. The British say Hair and Her exactly the same, as they do with Hare and Herr.

No we don’t. Where are you from?

Lex: Actually, on the whole Lys thing, I just realized that I think LEESE, but when I see Lyseni I think “LICE-EEN-EYE”

That’s not unusual in real life either. There are often cases when the place name sounds different from the nationality. I believe it has to do with the lengthening of the word and the addition of new syllables, which will affect the pronunciation of vowels. I did the same thing as you: “Liss” for the place name, but “Lye-seen-ee” for the nationality.

Amarantha: It all sounds very North American to me.Like if I read them out loud, I sound as though I’m putting on an American accent.    

I agree to some extent (which makes sense, given that GRRM is American). Even more than that though, when I say most of them the way they’re written on this list, it sounds like what an American might think a posh British accent sounds like, when in actual fact, the stress and vowel pronunciation is way off. Some of it, as has been pointed out, could be meant to represent a northern English accent of some variety, but there’s not a lot o consistency and it feels very…messy.

Kathrina Martinsen: Can’t believe no-one else (or did I miss it?) commented on gre-GOR! Really? Gre-GOR? To me, he was always just GRE-gur, like the actual name. Strange …    

No, you’re not the only one. I think it sounds pretty ridiculous too. My pronunciation doesn’t seem to match anyone on here though anyway. I say (in a poor attempt making it comprehensible): GREG-ore CLEG-ain. It’s a very hard, strong, almost vulgar sounding name in my head.

Jordan Healey,

Blackfish Blues: A. Visitor,
lol, and Tar Kidho and Paweł Ausir Dembowski beat me to it in their turn.
This is a tasty hors-d’oeuvre, let’s hope we’ll soon get a detailed guide with IPA transcription and sounds.    

I fourth this! I’m still not sure what some of them sound like from the guide.

I knew this would be an interesting thread of comments to follow. So just to throw my two stags in there:

- These pronunciations are very close to how I pronounce things while reading, so obviously, I’m reasonably satisfied. A couple of differences seem rather strange to me, but overall, where I find myself at odds with the production, I often like their take on it is my own. Targaryen and Barratheon for example.

- Sair-gate: They probably shouldn’t have even published this one. I’m with the camp that firmly believes this will be more subtle than people realize. I have a feeling, had they said nothing, most of the people on this forum would not have even noticed. What you want to wager that we hear this in the next preview?

- Ar-ya, Ah-ri-a. Again, I think most people will find the distinction here is subtle when actors are actually speaking. It will be largely like pronouncing the word “fire” was one syllable versus two. To most ears, this will sound like a matter of brevity–a sort of clipped quality–rather than a different pronunciation.

- The Evolution of the Westerosi common tongue. Like English, the language of the seven kingdoms is going to be something of a bastard child. It doesn’t really surprise me that the first syllables of Sansa and Sandor sound a little different, or that certain phonemes, even in names that are ostensibly from the same linguistic background, have developed subtle differences over decades or centuries of amalgamation with other dialects (this is assuming that those phonetic distinctions were not prevalent in the original tongue. Perhaps in High Valyrian, there are mutators at work that we don’t understand, such that the endings of Aerys and Danaerys sound different. It could be syllabic, gender related, hereditary, etc.)

In short, linguistic consistency within living languages is rubbish. Embrace mispronunciation and general inconsistency! Huzzah!

Critical Geek,

Didnt you just love McNulty?

HT Reddy:
No we don’t. Where are you from?    

East Yorkshire

They should have just went with Canadian accents, it would give everyone less to worry aboot.

Nick: East Yorkshire  Quote  Reply

Okay, I guess it’s a north-east/rest of the world issue then. I can imagine my friend from Castleford might pronounce hair and her the same, but I wouldn’t, so it’s not a ‘British’ thing either way.

I had a dog that I adored. I named him Tyrone. When I was feeling all soft and mushy and indulgent toward him ,he got something like the Irish pronunciation, Teer – OWN …when he was being willful, or feisty, or somehow unmanageable , it became more like the American pronunciation, Tie-RONE.. :)..So I guess I can be flexible.

I’ve always thought of Tyrion as Teer-ee-on , of Janos, Sandor and Gregor with the Hungarian / eastern European pronunciations , YAN-osh , SHAN</em-dor, GREG-or ; of Lys as Leese or Leez and the Lyseni as liss-ENNY..I think we’ll all get used to the HBO versions fairly quickly, but will their voice change our inner voices when reading ? ..Not so sure.

Tar Kidho: I couldn’t agree more! But there might be hope. At some point in the past few days someone (Tywin’s Bastard?) said that it is good to get involved in fora like this one ahead of a series/film that is based on books, to lessen the shock about the small and big changes that are made. Also, there was an increasing cry for news from HBO (I concur, I was one of them crying people). It could be just a coincidence, but putting up Arya’s picture closely followed by this list of pronunciations seems like a quick way to keep the fanbase happy. If my guess is correct, this means that HBO pays attention to this forum, so we should maybe increase our efforts to demand more news!! (time for another trailer or an Artisans clip, HBO! Anything where we hear people speaking we haven’t heard before…)  Quote  Reply

That was me! I used my Battlestar Galactica reboot shock as an example.

My two cents: I always assumed that GRRM wrote “ser” as opposed to “sir” on purpose to be a little different and unique, as he has done with several names in the series (Joffrey for Jeffrey, Tommen for Thomas, Eddard for Edward, etc etc etc). Therefore, I always pronounced it “sayr” in my head, not “sir.” I’m actually quite pleased that they’ve gone with that pronunciation for the show. This isn’t the Medieval era, this is Westeros, despite the parallels.

I have read these books multiple times, and am not sure why but I always sounded Pycelle as Per-sell-le. Do not know where the “R” came from.

Steve Hugh Westenra,
Gregor is pronounced GREGOR. It is known. :D

obsidian,
I like Shandor! Rory McCann does look like a young Sean Connery. :D It would also end the San-San meme…

Blackfish Blues,

Ahahaha. Yes.

This is a good thread, btw.

Lex,

Ditto on Brienne. I know that it’s not GRRM’s pronunciation, but “Bree-EN-ee” sounds terrible. :/
I’m not sure how else one could pronounce Craster (CRASS-tuhr). I guess you could say it with a long “a.”

I used to say CRAY-ster, but now I think it’s probably CRASS-ter.

I think Rhaegar is the only one that I’m not happy with. In my head it was always RYE-gar, not RAY-gar.

Tywin’s Bastard: purplejilly, We’ve both brought it up then as I’ve made that point as well a while ago.   Quote  Reply

Great minds think alike!! :P

Zed: I just bumped at Maisie Williams dance vid on You Tube.Couldn’t really tell if it was Maisie, but the act was great.    

LOL, cute! It definitely looks like her, and I remember reading that she’s also a dancer.

Zed,

From the silhouette it could definitely be her, but nobody should be THAT multitalented!

Blackfish Blues:.Arya Stark – ARE-yuh STARK
In what way is it different from the way Maisie says it?

Maisie says “A-ree-ah”.

OldGran: I see they are pronouncing Braavos as Bra-vos. I always wondered if it was Bra-Avos because of the two a’s.    

Let me guess how you say “Aardvark,” then…

;)

all these retarded and over complicated and alien pronunciations only serves to to make the world less real and more alien/fantasy like, and to further distance itself from the world we read about in the books. Rodrik Cassel – RAH-drick Cuss-EL. if thats how you want us to pronounce it then spell it rahdrick cussel in the bloody book ffs. why use the English language for the whole of the books then deviate from it for no reason for a few words, it makes no sense.

Adam RAH-burts,

Have I said enough?

Also, I was pleased by Gendry. I had always used a “soft g.” It never even occurred to me to do it differently, but I greatly prefer HBO’s way of saying it. I’m going to switch to that version from now on.

…I always thought it was, er, “sair.” Latin “e” and all.

Also, trippy pronunciation guide. What’s wrong with the actual dictionary pronunciation guide? Or, heck, IPA?

This Sair thing isn’t weird for me. I always pronounced it that way, and even in Dragon Age (an RPG game) they pronounced it like this, and it was said that they took it from George’s books.

I don’t get this Sair-gate thing either.

But really? Even with this guide, we’re all still going to read these in our head different, considering the plethora of nationalities represented on this board alone. Language is an awesome beast.

But for the record ‘ser’ was never pronounced ‘sir’ in my head. Much more Sair. But, really closer to Sehr.

ablaaa:
Maisie says “A-ree-ah”.

Thanks! I think I understand, it’s a matter of pronouncing it as 2 syllables or 3. But in my mind I can’t hear much difference with ARE-yuh. Here we have the word “aria”, meaning air, and the 2-syllables pronounciation is more common, although the difference is just a tiny lengthening of the “i” to make 3 syllables. The accent is always on the first A, however.

I agree with those who said that these differences will be less noticeable when heard in normal dialogues.

Is anybody else surprised that Hoster Tully made the list? He will probably be mentioned with reference to the Lysa-Petyr affair, I guess.

Still no updates on Jaime? Maybe we’ll never hear his first name in the series. ;)

My turn to mess up a post. Huzzah!

Bard of Awen,

I approve of J-Dawg. XD

But in all honesty, even though I’ve always said it like Jaimie , I kind of like the hispanic pronounciation that I’ve heard people mention. Either one would be fine with me. It would fit in more with Cersei in some ways.

Zack: Cutter Allen Kilgore,
Indeed. Rodrick, Podrick, etc…seemed pretty straightforward. It isn’t “Dennis Rohd-man.” Similarly, people who think that the phonetics of “Tah-min” are significantly different from “Tom-men” (with the e as a schwa) make me scratch my head. When spoken aloud in normal conversation, they’d be identical.

Maybe this is an American/British thing? TAH-min sounds nothing like TOM-men in a British accent. If I say TAH-min I feel like I’m putting on an American accent – So yeh, to use the other example someone used, RAH-berts is not how I’d say Roberts. At all.

I really prefer SAIR, to be honest. That’s the way I’ve always said it, and it sounds much more “knightly” to me.
Honestly, it’s just a matter of getting used to it. I could’ve gotten used to SIR, but I guess I won’t have to.

Nick,

Does Pod appear in AGoT?

“he” being Tyrion of course

Blackfish Blues,

I say Martell with the emphasis on the last syllable as well (Mar-TELL). I think for me, it works because they’re a very different house from a different culture, versus Tyrell (TIH-ruhl in my head) and Cassel (CASS-uhl), which I think of as being more homogeneous with their respective areas (the “uh” sound I’m referring to being a schwa). Martell, I guess, is inherently more exotic to me, thus warranting the end-stress.

GoT ON HBO ADRIA!
I know this is off-topic but I just read that HBO Adria will be releasing GoT to us in Europe almost at the same time as they will be in America! Great news and really happy to have that confirmed, if it was already posted somewhere I apologise cause I didn’t see it till just now..

OT: in an acceptance speech at the Baftas, one of the producers of The King’s Speech said that if there were an award for best casting, Nina Gold should definitely recieve it. Nice to hear! And I must say I was not surprized to hear this, Maisie Williams and some others in mind.

Cutter Allen Kilgore: mummer, He has? Who did they cast? I haven’t heard about this.  Quote  Reply

Irish actor David Scott.

WiC Post about it.

some weird ones for me….

Ilyn = eye-lin
Tyrell = tie-rell
Baratheon = buh-ray-thee-on
and for the places, I always made it a long ‘o’, as in Ess-oh(s) and Pen-toh(s)

Flea Bottom Flea,

A very good question, which probably doesn’t have an actual answer. ;p

I’ve always said it with an ess, as I find that saying like Ares just sounds, I don’t know, dull? Unimaginative? It seems like an odd association to make. I guess we do have Cersei as well, who’s always reminded me of Circe.

My first read through the series was on audiobook. I had very little idea of how most of the names were even spelled. So this guide is pretty similar to the audiobooks and nothing is a big surprise to me. Maybe a few things, but not worth complaining over. Of course if I had read the text first I probably would have pronunciations that were way off. Lots of times I read a book and decide how a name or place sounds in my head and then later realize “my” pronunciation is missing (or inserting) letters that aren’t even there! But because of the audiobooks, nothing here is much of a surprise.

HT Reddy:
Maybe this is an American/British thing? TAH-min sounds nothing like TOM-men in a British accent.If I say TAH-min I feel like I’m putting on an American accent – So yeh, to use the other example someone used, RAH-berts is not how I’d say Roberts. At all.    

As an American, I can see what you’re saying that it could be different, but at the same time those two phonetic spellings are the same in my mind. I pronounce Tommen like Thomas with an en instead of an as, like TOM-in. I see TAH and think of that same sound. I can see how TAH-min could seem like the way I pronounced Tamzin Merchant’s name, but it wouldn’t be the first way I thought of it. If it ends up being TAH-min with that sort of sounded I will be genuinely weirded out as I thought that TOM-in was pretty easily pronounced and the other way just sounds odd.

Nakmal:
As an American, I can see what you’re saying that it could be different, but at the same time those two phonetic spellings are the same in my mind. I pronounce Tommen like Thomas with an en instead of an as, like TOM-in. I see TAH and think of that same sound. I can see how TAH-min could seem like the way I pronounced Tamzin Merchant’s name, but it wouldn’t be the first way I thought of it. If it ends up being TAH-min with that sort of sounded I will be genuinely weirded out as I thought that TOM-in was pretty easily pronounced and the other way just sounds odd.    

Yeah, this is pretty much the crux of the problem. In British English, “TAH” has a long “ahhhh” sound, but the “Ta” of “Tamzin” is short. In British English again, “Thomas” has a short “oh” – and I’m not sure that this sound even exists in American accents, where it tends to become “ah”. So TOH vs. TAH means very little to the American reader, but there’s a world of difference in standard English.

KG: It doesn’t sound bad – it just gives an artificial Scots coloring to it.There are so many other things to get stressed over in life. Like “Theeon.” Really? Theeon?  Quote  Reply

Hmm. I’ve always pronounced it “THEE-on.” I don’t know what other way it COULD be pronounced, actually.
That’s one of the only ones I’ve been pronouncing right all this time.

A. Visitor: Yeah, this is pretty much the crux of the problem. In British English, “TAH” has a long “ahhhh” sound, but the “Ta” of “Tamzin” is short. In British English again, “Thomas” has a short “oh” – and I’m not sure that this sound even exists in American accents, where it tends to become “ah”. So TOH vs. TAH means very little to the American reader, but there’s a world of difference in standard English.  Quote  Reply

indeed. So if Mark Addy calls Tommen TAH-min, it will sound incredibly strange, to American viewers as well as British

I just wanted to add in that I have always hated the name Benjen Stark. It feels like his name is one of those mashup names for celebrity couples that the tabloids make up, like Brangelina, Bennifer, etc. I guess because I read it after Brangelina was already in existence. Those of you who read it in older days might not have thought that.

Now I guess I should make mash-up names for the people I am going to want to ‘ship in the series. It may be different than those in the book, too, depending on screen chemistry!
Let’s see, per the book I am planning
Daner-Jo or Jonerys
Gendrya
Or
Sandrya (Sandor and Arya)
And how about
Jaeene or Brieme (lol, awful mashup name!)