/r/ + /h/ + /l/

[bluebeard]

In the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by G.R.R. Martin there's a red priestess called Melisandre. She worships some red god called "R'hllor". The book doesn't say anything about the fictional language of Asshai (the place where she's from), but even so... how the fuck do you even pronounce it? Any ASOIAF fans in this comm.? Come out, come out,

Comments

[marinshellstone]

All I know is that in A Storm of Swords, Arya hears R'hllor's name for the first time and GRRM writes out the way she says it as "Rulore" - as in, "Who's Rulore?"

I think that the 'h sound is more of a breath than a "u" sound as Arya says it.

[bluebeard]

lmao I forgot about that, but I remember now. Rulore, rofl.

Also, DAT ICON. :V

[marinshellstone]

HAHAH! I was using the icon as my avatar over at westeros.org and it caused much uproar. ;)

[muckefuck]

An apostrophe can also be used to represent a reduced vowel, such as a very short shwa. I'm assuming that's what intended here. The h could simply indicate voicelessness of the following sonorant, i.e. something like /rəl̥'lor/ or even /rəɬ'lor/.

[bluebeard]

Ohh, a schwa! Very good, yes, I like this idea. :3

[dontbeakakke]

As an incomplete and unexplained fictional language, the spelling was probably selected because it looked interesting? lol

[muckefuck]

That's the real answer, of course. But I can't help trying to rationalise even the most ridiculous fictional spellings.

[dontbeakakke]

yes, I actually often find myself trying to figure out how to pronounce "Cthulhu" convincingly ...

[muckefuck]

I once got into a ridiculous argument with someone over the proper transcription of that very name into Greek.

[minionofspot]

your userpic is creeping me out because that exact same mask is sitting right across the room from me

[minionofspot]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[arrowthroughme]

I started reading the novels not too long ago and keep wondering about a lot of the names. I tried to google some of them (Cersei?) and found that, with the exception of Petyr, GRRM seems quite happy with the way the names are pronounced in the audiobooks. (I have no idea, though, if book 2 even exists as an audiobook.)

Just a thought.

(And no, as much as I enjoy reading the novels, Tolkien he is not.)

[sorrowis_stupid]

Book 2 definitely does exist as an audiobook, and the pronunciations in the audiobooks were a source of much consternation for my boyfriend and me. He listened to the audiobooks and I didn't, so we argued over pronunciations of pretty much every name (Cersei, Petyr, Brienne, etc.).

[bluebeard]

So what is the consensus? When in doubt I read it as it’s written, so “Sér-séi”, though I like saying it as “Tsér-séi”, too... ‘é’ being like French or Spanish /e/ and ‘éi’ being like English ‘ay’ in “hay” or ‘ey’ in “hey”.

[sorrowis_stupid]

Well, I still pronounce Petyr exactly like Peter ([ˈpiɾɚ] in my American English dialect), beacuse I think pee-tire sounds kind of ridiculous. I now pronounce Cersei like sair-see [ˈsɝsi], where before I just sort of skipped over it in my mind while reading because I had no idea what it should be. I like your pronunciation of "Tsér-séi” though, I might switch to that! (haha, I feel like I am seriously over-thinking this)