Names you can't pronounce.

[Purple Poppy]

I often have a problem knowing how to pronounce the names of some of the characters. Recently , when reading Labyrinth, Kate Mosse, one of the main characters was called Alais. Having a french name ending in ais myself, I pronounced it Alay but then heard others pronounce it differently. Its ok when you read by yourself, but when discussing in public, its difficult, because you don't want to get someones name wrong. Anybody else have similar problems?
Susanna :wave:

[Mamacita]

Oh, yeah...

In the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, the author throws out all these hard to prounounce African names and prefaces them with the titles Mma and Rra. How the heck do you pronounce something like that? I ended up saying it "Ma" and "Ra"...which is probably totally wrong. :?

[Michelle]

Recently , when reading Labyrinth, Kate Mosse, one of the main characters was called Alais. Having a french name ending in ais myself, I pronounced it Alay but then heard others pronounce it differently.

I pronounce it as Alay.. how else was it pronounced?

[Purple Poppy]

I have a feeling it was on Richard and Judy, and might even have been Kate Mosse herself, as they had her on. Anyway, someone pronounced it Alace sounding the 's'.

[MonkeyCatcher]

I have extreme problems with this sort of thing. If the word is difficult to pronounce then I don't try to do so - I memerise how the word looks on the page instead (not the letters, just the way the word looks). That makes it really hard when I am discussing the book with someone because I'm just like "uh.. that guy... the one starting with the m..." :D

[Purple Poppy]

Yep. I can relate to that. Its a problem, cos you don't want to be disrespectful to people by getting their name wrong, or look totally stupid yourself! I'm afraid I end up calling people a similar name, usually made up from the letters in the original.
Susanna :wave:

[Kell]

Some fantasy books are filled with unpronouncable names, but, like MC, I end up recognising the word without pronouncing it in my head. It can be pretty annoying at times.

[Sugar]

In the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, the author throws out all these hard to prounounce African names and prefaces them with the titles Mma and Rra. How the heck do you pronounce something like that? I ended up saying it "Ma" and "Ra"...which is probably totally wrong. :?

That was one fo the things that totally annoyed me about the series. I wanted to say Mma as Madama - as the french abbrieviate Madame to Mme!

[Janet]

In the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, the author throws out all these hard to prounounce African names and prefaces them with the titles Mma and Rra. How the heck do you pronounce something like that? I ended up saying it "Ma" and "Ra"...which is probably totally wrong. :?

That was one fo the things that totally annoyed me about the series. I wanted to say Mma as Madama - as the french abbrieviate Madame to Mme!
You are right! :)

Mma is the term used to address a woman, and may be placed before her name. It is pronounced "ma" (with a long a)

Rra is the rough equivalent of "mister". It is pronounced "rar", but with a slight rolling of the second r.

Found here: http://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm?book_number=1173

[Sarahrob]

When I first left Uni I worked for a bank (I didn't last long!).

We used to have mystery shoppers who would visit at random, so you had a set of rules you had to follow. One rule was that you had to call people by name: "Thanks Mrs Smith" etc. All was well untill Mr Ng came in. How are you meant to say that? :shock:

[Janet]

All was well untill Mr Ng came in. How are you meant to say that? :shock:
:lol: That reminds me of the Knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail!

[Michelle]

Try working in a day surgery unit in South London (Kings College).. every time I had to go to reception to call a patient I'd be worried what name I'd be picking up!

[Kell]

Years ago, when I did telephone sales, everyone would purposely save all the odd names for me as I seemed to have a knack for pronouncing them in a way that was at least approaching the right way - it was always pages of Oriental, Arabic & Nordic names & could be a lot of fun - it was a nice opener, the whole "ooh, what an unusual name - isn't that lovely?" thing - LOL!

[Sarahrob]

Garry, if only I'd known - where were you ten years ago? :mrgreen:

[Maureen]

Craigurquhart - from Country of the blind!(not to mention some of the words when the characters are talking!!!)

[Laramie]

I have extreme problems with this sort of thing. If the word is difficult to pronounce then I don't try to do so - I memerise how the word looks on the page instead (not the letters, just the way the word looks).
That's exactly what I do!! Or else I just kind of make it up and say something that sounds right.:lol:

In The Gift, the main character's called Maerad which took me a while to get the hang of until I found the notes on pronunciation at the front, and found out it was said "My-rad".

Also, there's another character called Maninie:lol: - I think that's how you spell it but it has those two dots over the top of the "e" - and that's said "Man-in-eye-ee" which always makes me :lol: because I fit it into a tune for something else...I can't remember what the words were to start with...

PS yay, I've gone up; I'm a Bibliophile, now!:D

EDIT: I looked it up and found it is spelt Maninae - with two dot over the "e"! It's crazy!

[Janet]

A friend recently told me that until she saw the first Harry Potter film, she'd been reading Hermione as Her-me-oh-ne!

[Fiona]

I read Hermoine with a silent e. Near enough! I quite like the name now...

[Icecream]

A friend recently told me that until she saw the first Harry Potter film, she'd been reading Hermione as Her-me-oh-ne!

I did that too:blush:

[Janet]

A friend recently told me that until she saw the first Harry Potter film, she'd been reading Hermione as Her-me-oh-ne!
I did that too:blush:

It's a very strange name. I only knew how it was pronounced beause there was an actress in Mary Poppins with the same name, and I had a conversation about it with my Mum when I was about 10!

[stoney]

There is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov called Pnin, about a man called...Pnin. Can't remember whether the P is silent or not.

Then there's the whole matter of how to pronounce Nabokov, which could be a thread in itself (but I'm not going to start it!).

David

[samgrosser]

I hate it when I don't know how to pronounce names and if there's more than one I find it really off putting and confusing. I suppose it's something to do with not being able to get a proper handle on the character if I don't really know what they're called.

By the way, and still on the subject of confusing, I've just noticed that if I read the thread without logging in the posts are in the opposite order.

[Sedge]

I usually just read what sounds best in my head. Although, I often find out later that it's pronounced differently!

[poppy]

Some Irish names are tricky. I may have come across these in Maeve Binchy books. Sinead (Shh-naid), Siobahn (Shh-vaun), Niamh (Neeve)

[Laramie]

I looked it up and found the character's name was spelled "Maninae" with two dots over the "e". That's worse than what I thought it was!

[wrathofkublakhan]

Ack - in the Riddlemaster of Hed there is a character (the bad guy) who's name is Ghisteslwchlohm.

It makes me blink twice when I come across it.

[Purple Poppy]

Hermione is a name I stumble over everytime. I know how to say it, but not fast enough!!
Poppy said ...
Some Irish names are tricky. I may have come across these in Maeve Binchy books. Sinead (Shh-naid), Siobahn (Shh-vaun), Niamh (Neeve)


Yep. they are difficult, and when I was younger, I couldn't see how they could possibly be pronunced how they sounded when written like that. I think I just about have my head round them now...well maybe not Niamh! They are very beautiful names, especially Niamh.

Pp

[Leona]

Some Irish names are tricky. I may have come across these in Maeve Binchy books. Sinead (Shh-naid), Siobahn (Shh-vaun), Niamh (Neeve)

my sisters name is Niamh (Neeve). she spent a summer in LA when she was in college and had a total nightmare trying to tell people how to spell and pronounce it!!!she's always cursing my mother for giving her an unpronouncable irish name, and i'm so jealsous of her, i love irish names

this thread reminds me of when i was young reading those enid blyton 'mallory towers' books- i thought Alicia was pronounced 'alicka'.
it was years before i twigged it!!!