Purple Poppy Posted June 23, 2006 Share Posted June 23, 2006 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: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamacita Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 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. :? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Poppy Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 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'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeyCatcher Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 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..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Poppy Posted June 24, 2006 Author Share Posted June 24, 2006 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: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted June 24, 2006 Share Posted June 24, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugar Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarahrob Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 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: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 All was well untill Mr Ng came in. How are you meant to say that? :shock: That reminds me of the Knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarahrob Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Garry, if only I'd known - where were you ten years ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maureen Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Craigurquhart - from Country of the blind!(not to mention some of the words when the characters are talking!!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laramie Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 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. 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 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! EDIT: I looked it up and found it is spelt Maninae - with two dot over the "e"! It's crazy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 A friend recently told me that until she saw the first Harry Potter film, she'd been reading Hermione as Her-me-oh-ne! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiona Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 I read Hermoine with a silent e. Near enough! I quite like the name now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icecream Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 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: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoney Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samgrosser Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedge Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I usually just read what sounds best in my head. Although, I often find out later that it's pronounced differently! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Some Irish names are tricky. I may have come across these in Maeve Binchy books. Sinead (Shh-naid), Siobahn (Shh-vaun), Niamh (Neeve) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laramie Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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