I had a player that called a Scimitar a Ski (like "skid") - mitar.
I did that when I first learned the game, and who could blame me? Damn English language, with its useless silent letters!
Anyway, I generally pronounce words however the heck I want to pronounce them. I remember the kid who taught me the game pronouncing lich as 'lik'...or maybe that was my creative interpretation. Anyway, I just pronounce it like I see it.
My group's favorite is Sahuagin; for some reason I can no longer remember whenever they come up in discussion it is always with a greatly exaggerated pronunciation -- SA-HA-HOOOOOGIN!!
It's pronounced Drooooooo. as is Drow Barrymore.
I just kEEding!
I was only 11 when I was the main DM in my area. For the longest time, my much older friend(13) thought I had created a new monster that I kept attacking them with. The awg-ruh. I had never seen Ogre written out before, ooops.
Well just today I heard someone say something that I've had to endure since David Bowie wore a Tina Turner wig and tightpantsed his past past muppets.
Labbernith.
It's pronounced lab-uh-rinth.
And one of my regular DM in 1980 was a guy named Paul Barret who said pissonics instead of sci-onics, org, instead of oh-grr, and orc jelly instead of oke-rr.
But I mispronounced a few billion words myself. That's what lernin' be fer.
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I thought in Old English it was more like "lick", not "leak," with the "ch" being a Scottish/German type throat noise. It sounds kinda cool if you say it like that. But screw it, I say "litch." Words change. Sword used to be prounouced "sward" not "sord." There is such a thing as too much accuracy.
Count me a Lick -er. he-hee. I recently stopped referring to them as Licks and switched to the more common and uninspired Litch.
FH
Truth be told, when I first saw the word as a kid I called them likes for awhile.
I got my revenge when another friend of ours was running a store bought module back in the day when many rooms were lit with flaming bruh-zeers.
I got my revenge when another friend of ours was running a store bought module back in the day when many rooms were lit with flaming bruh-zeers.
Made that mistake as well all the way up to age 18. <:) Never heard it said aloud or looked it up.
I recall many years back there was a discussion of this in an early D&D source, possibly a core book, maybe dragon. Basically one race split along political and cultural lines and evolved into two slightly different races. The pronunciations we have used since then are Gith-Yank-ee & Gith-Tzar-i (like Tzar). Apparently it is a sly reference to cold war Yanks and Russians (though the Tzars had long dissappeared from Russia at that stage).
Can any oldtimer with a better memory than I recall the source? I thinki it was actually in a core book, maybe MM or Fiend Folio.
DD
Fiend Folio. Now get off my lawn. ;)
"pissonics"
I have a player who, if he sees this thread, will START pronouncing it this way.
"pissonics"
I have a player who, if he sees this thread, will START pronouncing it this way.
A great buzzword for those who don't prefer the inclusion of psionics, I guess.
Ok, as the evil, misguided, albeit English degree having (yeah, that was a good idea, eh?) DM in question from the OPs post (and therefore Lady Lena's as well) I have a couple of comments:
1. DM Fiat. :p bwahahahahahaahahahahahah. :)
2. For many years I pronounced Lich as litch. Then a group of people who (at that time) were far more experienced than myself explained in excruciating detail why it should be leek. Now that I look back, I suspect it was because the felt like it. I am more than willing to (and in fact did so in the last session) cede the point. Other than occasional miscues the pronunciation for the dread creature of undead lore shall be litch. Hmph. :)
3. In college I was shown (in old dictionaries nonetheless) the pronunciation for bastard (when referring to swords) as buh-stard. I suspect those attempting to convince me simply didn't want me going around saying ba-sturd all the time. Having seen proof of both pronunciations I am willing to agree that either is ok, but have no plans to change my personal usage.
See, the DM can be flexible.
Oh, and Lena--your characters have unfortunate enough luck on their own. You don't need me to make it worse. :)
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So, is OPP "original poster's...." what? ;)I say it Snoop-dog style. Lyotch.Hilarious...I shall forevermore do the same. But a little more like Eazy-E than Snoop.
I think if snoop were to be consulted, he would say lizzatch.
You should check out www.gizoogle.com if you've never seen it before. It's the shizzle nizzle!
Everyone knows that leaks are mirrors.
Ha. I get that reference. So sad he passed on recently...
I say "lich" like i'm preparing for a huge lugey.
No one can stop me from saying BAA-stard.
It has nothing to do with doing the Diablo goatman death sound.
There used to be a bunch of Planescape-related WAV files on how to pronounce various demon, devil, plane, and other planar creature names... blast if I can't find them online now.
I do have them on my computer, though, so if no one else can find a site with them and knows an fast and easy way to host such files, I'd be more than happy to share.
Paizo rhymes with orange.
Come to any convention and stand around our booth and you'll see how true this is. We hear a lot of "PAA-zo?" "Pee-A-zo?" "Pay-zo?" "Peso?"
It's "Pie-zo." Because pie is delicious.
My pie-zo rhymes with drow. I can't make it stop :(
While it's true my missing word is naive, I did mean bow as in ow, you shot my missing word with an arrow. ;)
So your explanation here means that "drow" rhymes with that thing you shoot arrows from?
A lich can scratch an itch, but what about the people who write and pronounce it liche (rhymes with quiche)?
Ummm, Shamgar, I know all the L screen names blend together for you, but I'm lynora, not lady lena. : )
Yeah, you know I picked that just to confuse you.
Ummm...let's see...yeah. *looks around house*
Yup. Married Lynnora and *not* Lady Lena (though I'm sure she is an amazing catch as well). Oops.
Even the best DMs make mistakes...(a tad too late for retcon/edit blast it all!). :)
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And one of my regular DM in 1980 was a guy named Paul Barret who said pissonics instead of sci-onics
Does that mean that psicrystals (read piss-crystals) are really just kidney stones? Ouch...
Thank you all for your informative, as well as hilarious, posts. Shamgar, Lady Lena...I mean, Lynora, and I are continuing our battle with the Red Hand of Doom tonight and I will be sure to use my skim-a-tar versus any li-zitch that we may encounter. Or maybe my bow...
While it's true my missing word is naive, I did mean bow as in ow, you shot my missing word with an arrow. ;)So your explanation here means that "drow" rhymes with that thing you shoot arrows from?
Well if that's the case, that's not what I meant. I always pronounced drow like ow. If it's pronounced droe... I did not know.
Does that mean that psicrystals (read piss-crystals) are really just kidney stones? Ouch...
He prolly woulda called 'em pissy crystals. They make special pet food for that.
A lich can scratch an itch, but what about the people who write and pronounce it liche (rhymes with quiche)?
Real men don't spell liche.
"pissonics" A great buzzword for those who don't prefer the inclusion of psionics, I guess.
Actually, I think that would more property be referred to as "pissoffics"
I thought in Old English it was more like "lick", not "leak," with the "ch" being a Scottish/German type throat noise. It sounds kinda cool if you say it like that. But screw it, I say "litch." Words change. Sword used to be prounouced "sward" not "sord." There is such a thing as too much accuracy.
Agreed. Play experience has absolutely nothing to do with one's ability to pronounce words. No offense, but I think the person in the OP is being a little elitist. (EDIT- Now that I've read the whole thing {must stop posting before completing threads!}, I relize you're just gullible, Shamgar. :P )
Oh, and it's GITHY-an-kee.
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I thought in Old English it was more like "lick", not "leak," with the "ch" being a Scottish/German type throat noise. It sounds kinda cool if you say it like that. But screw it, I say "litch." Words change. Sword used to be prounouced "sward" not "sord." There is such a thing as too much accuracy.
When I used to drink Old English, I said all my words kinda funny.
Director of Narrative
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I thought in Old English it was more like "lick", not "leak," with the "ch" being a Scottish/German type throat noise. It sounds kinda cool if you say it like that. But screw it, I say "litch." Words change. Sword used to be prounouced "sward" not "sord." There is such a thing as too much accuracy.When I used to drink Old English, I said all my words kinda funny.
Word! Mickey's too. For that matter all the crap I used to drink.
I thought in Old English it was more like "lick", not "leak," with the "ch" being a Scottish/German type throat noise. It sounds kinda cool if you say it like that. But screw it, I say "litch." Words change. Sword used to be prounouced "sward" not "sord." There is such a thing as too much accuracy.When I used to drink Old English, I said all my words kinda funny.
ROFLMAO
Well, this post has forced me to look up a few things, and I found out that I've been pronouncing chimera and wyvern wrong for several decades, according to Webster's, which insists on kye-MEER-ah and WYE-vern instead of KIM-er-ah and WIV-urn.
The linked wiki article indicates either pronunciation is OK for drow. It is etymologically related to the word "troll," if that makes a difference. But I've always rhymed it with "cow," and don't plan to change anytime soon. (Think I avoided ambiguity there).
Buh-STARD may have been the Middle English pronunciation of the word, which comes from Middle French, but in contemporary English it is unequivocally BAS-terd. (BAH-stahd for those of you who speak the queen's English). Bastard sword has mostly been abbreviated to B-sword at my gaming table, because my son was uncomfortable saying a slightly bad word, even though he wanted to use the sword that does 1d10 damage but still lets you use a shield.
I looked up Sahuagin on wikipedia some time back, as that one has always puzzled me. Apparently the creator (I think the late Tom Moldvay) sort of randomly pulled the word from a religious tract that was discussing the efforts of the Spanish missionary Bernardino de Sahagun to convert the Aztecs. Somehow it got mutated to Sahuagin, and wiki (as of last year) said either to pronounce it Sa-ha-gun or to pronounce it per Spanish phonetic rules. I'm sticking with sa-HOO-ah-ghin.
Anyhow, to each his own. I've spent time in China, where people pronounce words differently in just about every city--and after a while you get used to it. As someone above put it, people in different parts of the campaign world probably say it differently, so we'll have to be tolerant at our game tables.
I use "Yahnkee", because it is something of a default pronunciation of those characters in several different languages and some forms of English. I certainly wouldn't be offended if you say them differently.They also say "Leak" for Lich.
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Me first..Githyanki..is it "Yanki" like Yankee or Yahn-kee (sounds like "Yanni" the flutist or whatever he plays).
It would be a whole different matter though if Vlaakith takes issues with how you pronounce the names of her race and her nature. ;P
I have taken to pronouncing Sahuagin as "Sah-WA-jin," actually.