More blather about Graceling
Kristin Cashore has said that readers can pronounce the names of characters and places in Graceling however they like. In particular, she originally pronounced the first a in Katsa like the a in father, but since many readers pronounce it like the a in dad, she has adopted the more common pronunciation. (As far as I can tell, the a in father is called a broad a while the a in dad is a short a, so I will use those terms going forward.)
I read that and promptly started using the broad a for Katsa. (I had previously used the short a.) I consider this less to be missing the point of the original FAQ and more to be deliberately ignoring it.
I found that using the broad a when talking about Katsa came fairly easily, but that it's harder to maintain while reading Graceling. There seem to be two reasons for this.
First, one of the characters calls Katsa "Kat." This is obviously a shortened form of Katsa that should keep the same vowel, but it's very difficult for me to read "Kat" and hear the broad a, I think because all the Kats I know in real life use the short a. I don't buy the vowel changing when the name gets shortened, so I've had to actively work at keeping the broad a in Kat.
Second, another character uses "wildcat" as a nickname for Katsa. "Wildcat" is a fair descriptor of her personality, which is sufficient justification for the nickname. But it also really looks like wildcat should sound like Katsa as well, and it just doesn't with the broad a in Katsa. The mismatch between the way the words look and the way they sound is like a thorn in my brain, but there's no resolution for it.
I read that and promptly started using the broad a for Katsa. (I had previously used the short a.) I consider this less to be missing the point of the original FAQ and more to be deliberately ignoring it.
I found that using the broad a when talking about Katsa came fairly easily, but that it's harder to maintain while reading Graceling. There seem to be two reasons for this.
First, one of the characters calls Katsa "Kat." This is obviously a shortened form of Katsa that should keep the same vowel, but it's very difficult for me to read "Kat" and hear the broad a, I think because all the Kats I know in real life use the short a. I don't buy the vowel changing when the name gets shortened, so I've had to actively work at keeping the broad a in Kat.
Second, another character uses "wildcat" as a nickname for Katsa. "Wildcat" is a fair descriptor of her personality, which is sufficient justification for the nickname. But it also really looks like wildcat should sound like Katsa as well, and it just doesn't with the broad a in Katsa. The mismatch between the way the words look and the way they sound is like a thorn in my brain, but there's no resolution for it.