Some readers have asked for a pronunciation guide. Here one is.
As you might imagine in a story that includes multiple cultures speaking multiple languages, there’s not 100% agreement on any of these pronunciations. There’s no wrong way to say these words, and people generally make allowances for regional dialects and accents. There are four different Freeman dialects alone, with very different pronunciations, even for common words.
People’s names are hard for others to pronounce even after they’ve heard them spoken. Ciarán’s name, in particular, tends to get butchered, mostly by Mrs. Amati, who can’t decide on a pronunciation, and Helen Konstantine, who calls him “Karen”, although I don’t think I’ve published the story where she does that yet.
I don’t know how to do the dictionary-style phonetic spelling and I haven’t had time to send this out to someone who does. If you’re a native English speaker what I’ve written here should help some, at least.
I’ve written down how Ciarán says these words at home. Macer sounds much the same. In public they both adjust their speech to mirror their audience. Seamus doesn’t pronounce the letter “h”, or “haitch”, as he calls it, because he’s certain it’s not a letter, but punctuation. Most space-born Freemen agree with Seamus.
There might be other words that I missed. If so, I hope you’ll tell me.
| Word | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
amadán caife Cartaí craic Ellis, Lorelei “Laura” “the Ellis Og” Gagenot Gallarus gombeen Huangxu Eng Junh Kalh Kavanagh, Maura Konstantine Linh mac Diarmuid mac Diarmuid, Ciarán mac Diarmuid, Seán mac Donnocha, Seamus mac Tír, Lucan mong hu [when used with “People of the…] mong hu [when used without “People of the…] Murtagh nic Cartaí, Fionnuala “Nuala” nic Cartaí, Aoife Noh Oileán Chléire Ojin Eng Olek, Commodore Kirill Pearse, Mr. Roche, Merchant Aengus seanachie seanscéal; seanscéalta Sxipestro Tell Me Another Thinker’s Dame Tractor Four-Squared Yuan Ko Shan | muh-DAWN KAF-uh KAR-tee crack ELL-ess, LAW-reh-lie “LAW-rah” “an ELL-us ohg” GAG-a-no GAL-a-russ gom-been WANG-sue Ng JUN KAL KAV-a-naw, MAW-reh kon-stan-TINE LIN mac DER-mit mac DER-mit, KEER-awn mac DER-mit, SHAWN mac DON–a-kuh, SHAME-us mac TEER, LU-can MUNG hoo MAHng-hoo mur-TAW nik KAR-tee, fin-YOU-la “NEW-la” nik KAR-tee, EE-fuh no ILL-lawn CLAY-rah OH-jin Ng OLK, CURL PEER-suh ROACH, ANN-gus SHAN-eh-keh SHAN-scale, SHAN scale-tuh SHE-pest-row Tellme Anuder Tinker’s Dam For Skwayer WAHN ko shan, KO shan |
Again, if I’ve left anything off the list let me know and I’ll add it.