Character name pronunciations

Well, no doubt everyone will say I've been pronouncing it incorrectly (especially all you creepy people on the "invent your own language" thread! :eek: ) but here goes anyway.. ;)

Tywin = "Tie-win"
Rhaegar = "Ray-gar"
Daenerys = "Day-nair-is"
Viserys = "Vis-air-is"
Maester = "May-ster"
 
I'd agree with those. :)

I figure there has to be lots of variations, though...

And this thread was started in honour of the different ways to pronounce "Hodor", as mentioned on another thread. :)
 
I always pronounced hodor with a silent h (as I was learning french at the time it was a habit) I pronounce it:

oh-dor soft on
 
The one that always gets me is Jaime.

Is it pronounced:
Jay-me

or is it a 1 syllable thing like:
Jime (rhymes with "time") or
Jame (rhymes with "lame")

?!?!?!
 
Good idea to start a thread on this one, I, Brian! Thank goodness GRRM's character names are pretty simple. When I was wasting my time reading Robert Jordan's books I had all kinds of pronunciations running through my head, and when I read how he pronouned them all my head nearly exploded.

Here are my pronunciations:

Arya= Are-yuh
Tyrion= Teer-ee-un
Cersei= Ser-sea

One of the real puzzlers is Baratheon. I pronounce it: Bear-uh-thee-on, but others I know Buh-ray-thee-on.

I guess it really boils down to where you're from. Obviously, being from California, I'm bound to say things differently than Europeans.:)
 
Aye, I am originally from Arizona (for my first 26yrs at least) and just moved to France two years ago. This language thing has really had an effect on how I pronounce things.

Baratheon for me
ba-rah-thee-on
 
Ned - Ned (as in bed)
Robb - Rob (as in knob)
Bran - Bran (as in man)

Sorry I could not help it. :)

I pronounced Tywin as tay win.
I pronounced Jaime as Jame (as in lame)
 
Isn't Jaime a Spanish name ? Naturally, I would pronounce it as the mexican/spanish way too.
 
I said:
"Jaime" as sounding like "lame", too - namely it's because it looks the French for "I like" - J'aime.
Click to expand...

If it was pronounced like j'aime it wouldn't sound like "lame" it would sound more like 'je im"
 
Leto said:
Isn't Jaime a Spanish name ? Naturally, I would pronounce it as the mexican/spanish way too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Jaime is a Spanish name. Unfortunately, I'm more used to hearing the Gringo version "Jay-me" from ignorant white substitute teachers, so it stuck. Not to mention, it would sound weird to have one Spanish name amidst all the others in the book.
 
aye tis why I pronounced it jay-me. Though when I first saw it I thought of the mexican version.
 
I thought Jaime was Hai-me too.

I know part of the fun is making up your own pronounciations but I wanted to let you guys know there is a great resource at Westeros.org filled with reports, emails and forum postings by Martin himself. Many of them contain what he pronounces names as, for example: [The Italics are responses by Martin]

Is the 'ae' in many Targaryen names pronounced 'ay' ?

yes, in most cases

For example, is Maester 'Master' (like normally pronounced) or is it 'May-ster' or is it 'My-ster') or something else?

may-ster

And what about Cersei? (I say Seer-see)

Sir-sei

Is Lysa - Lee-sa or Ly-za?

Lie-sa

Is Benjen benjen or Ben-yen?

Ben - Jen

Is Tyrion 'Tee-re-yon' or 'Ty-REE-yon' or something else?

tear-ree-on

http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/SSM02a.html
 
Just curious as to how YOU pronounce them mate. GRRM never personally told me how to. LOL. Always interesting to see how others pronounce certain names.
 
This is true. But also interesting how Martin does too, even though he very well could be wrong, lol.

What about Qhorin Half-Hand? I pronounced it Korin.
 
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