What follows are the pronunciations for difficult/uncommon words and names that appear in the various Parahumans works (most confirmed by Wildbow):
Astaroth-Nidhug: “ass-tah-roth” “need-hyu”
Azazel: “ah-zay-zul”
Bakuda: “bah-ku-duh”
Behemoth: “bih-hee-muth”
Campanile: “Camp-a-Kneel-EE”
Chevalier: “Shev-uh-leer” (first pronunciation)
Echidna: “eh-kid-nah”
Eidolon: “eye-doe-lin”
Gesellschaft: “geh-zell-shoft”
Glaistig Uaine: “glash-tig ooanya”
Glaurung: “glaooh-rung”
Hebert: “Hee-bert”
Ingenue: “On-Jen-ooh”
Krouse: “CRazy hOUSE”
Melusine: “mel-ooh-seen”
Nilbog: “nill-bog”
Oni Lee: “oh-knee Lee” (Lee like Bruce Lee)
Panacea: “pan-uh-see-uh”
Parian: “pair-Ian”
Phir Se: “fear-say”
Piggot: “Piggo” the T is silent. (Like Piggy, but with an O instead of a Y).
Pythios: “pith-E-us”
Rinke: “ring-keh”
Sabah: “Saab” (like the car) “ah”
Simurgh: “see-murg”
Wildbow: /wīldbō/ – Truncation of ‘wild boar’. (the ‘ar’ can thus be dropped)
If you have any additions you would like to see or issues with something on this list, please bring it up in the comments below!
(I’m not sure if this is the proper place to post this so I’ll also try giving you a similar message through reddit.)
It has become apparent that the various Earths will be a recurrent feature of this setting, and by extension, their Hebrew names are liable to be used regularly
Due to my Jewish background I have a degree of familiarity with the Hebrew numbers and letters. And the fact that they can be counterintuitive to pronounce from their transliterated names.
(For example, the letter “Samech” is pronounced closer to “Saw-Meh” or “Saw-Mek”, as opposed to “Sam-etch” as it was pronounced by one reader)
(The “ch” is a hard, somewhat rolling, H-sound, from the back of the thought, and has no good english equivalent. The closest I can think of is at the end of the Scottish “Loch”, like in Loch Ness.)
As such I thought it might be a good idea if you included one or more of the following links to pronunciation guides/videos for them on this page, so as to give this project’s readers a better chance of being able to get the pronunciations right:
(Be careful of using non-Hebrew sources such as google as they sometimes get pronunciations wrong.)
Letters-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz_m118Yheg
(This video also includes the sounds and the last 5 minutes are just about the vowels, which are irrelevant. But it was the most concise one I could find that was clear, included their names spelled in english, and wasn’t in song.)
(Hopefully the spellings of their names in Ward are the same, or close enough to be identifiable, as their are multiple accepted spellings)
http://www.dictionary.co.il/pronunciation_guide.php
(A written pronunciation guide)
Numbers-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8N_AALN2gk
(The accent/pronunciation used in this video is different and a bit less clear/enunciated than the first one.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBd9QdpqUz0
(Clearer/more enunciated, but the numbers part is only from 0:50-2:20, and the spellings are different than the ones Wildbow used for Earth Achat(1) and Chamesh(2)
http://www.dictionary.co.il/numbers.htm
(Written pronunciations with audio. However, hebrew numbers are gendered, Wildbow uses the female forms, which are the default, so just ignore the first/top pronunciations)
Your pronunciation of Chevalier and Marquis hurt me deeply as a Canadian from the west who is not French. I’ve seen the IRC, I will fite you.
They should be “Shev all yay” and “Mark ee”
XD
Keep up the good work on Ward!