Character Pronounciations?

[Neurolanis]

All right, so you have some weird fantasy names and are writing a glossary of characters for the back. You want to show the reader how the names are pronounced, but then you wonder ... is there a particular way this is to be done?

Like, say:

Kael (kale)
Percachlyn (Per-koe-sh-lin)
Sokluni (Sock-lune-ee)

Does this look right to you??

[Magus]

I would have pronounced the first and last right. the onyl one that varied was Percachlyn, which I would have pronounced "Per-kah-shlin".

this actually reminds me of my whole Yissam/Yissim debate. On that I simply decided to make a note of some kind in the form of a forward, in addition to making an effort to make a phoenetic pronunciation within the text itself. If you'd like, I could show you a website where the majority of the debating for the name took place.

[Neurolanis]

Well, Jissam was spelled okay, I just presumed it was pronounced Jissim for some reason.

[Magus]

Ummmm... you do realise that there's a "Y" at the front of the name, and not a "J", right?

[Neurolanis]

Yes obviously. Meant Yissim.

[Magus]

It's back to the original spelling, now, so it's "Yissam".

[aldan]

Actually, I look at 'Sokluni' and pronounce it 'Soh-cluh-nee'

[Spiderkeg]

While I admire a writer for coming up with unique and interesting names for people, places, and things. Sometimes the way of writing a word, even for sake of being different, can really cause a mixed phonetic pronounciation even against the authors intentions.

I tend to write out all my fantasy names using the most basic of methods and make a point to sound out all letters. Of course I'm working with the English dialect here. Letters like r and l sound the same in Japanese, so "light" and "right" are indistinguishable.

However, since I'm writing in English I try to stick to a basic English dialect. I'll worry about translations later.

[Neurolanis]

Good advice, Spiderkeg. In the novel I've been working on I have various spellinhs which, although beautiful, will cause confusion when it comes to pronounciation unless I explain the sounds in a glossary.

[aldan]

...and of course, many people won't want to be bothered reading a glossary. I know that at least one person often does this for sure, and I've been told by several other people to whom I've lent novels that they hate when there are glossaries, because it seems like just a way to pad the book size to them.

[Spiderkeg]

Tolkien made up so many vast words, both confusing and beautiful, that he literally wrote a glossary to compliment his novels. While most people enjoy skimming through this huge glossary of words and terms, I don't know of anyone who keeps the book handy while reading Tolkien's books.

Keep in mind that Tolkien was la linguist and was a master of phoenetic and spelling. He completely created the Elven language, along with Dwarvish, etc. Tolkien was a gifted man with regards to language.

[Magus]

He created a total of 14 languages, most well known of which is Quenyan, the elves' language. It was so complete that, when some cattle rancher asked him what the Elven word for Cattle was, so that he could name his company that, Tolkien coud research it's stem in his original languages and eventually come about what it would be in Quenyan, because he started languages as they start, a simple primordial one that he eventually evolved and built off of to create his more complex one.