Foreign pronunciation issues arise in our seventh preview of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations:
A small thing that I never would have anticipated, and never even knew before I was invited to a Star Wars convention in Munich: The “thr” combination apparently doesn’t exist in German, or so I was told. German Star Wars fans therefore have terrific difficulty pronouncing Thrawn’s name.
Pronunciation issues are fairly common in these books, even in English: Is it Mar-uh or Mare-ah? (Trust me: It’s Mar-uh.) How do you say C’baoth? Fey’lya? Damn apostrophes.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Jad Bean // Apr 28, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Here’s how I say them: Seh-bath, and fey-LEE-ah. I’m sure I am totally wrong.
2 Cy // Apr 28, 2011 at 3:30 pm
I’ve always thought of them as Sa-bowth and FEY-lie-ah.
3 Dunc // Apr 28, 2011 at 3:33 pm
I’m with Cy on both, but I have no idea what they’re ‘supposed’ to sound like.
4 FredH // Apr 28, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Still want to know how to pronounce “Luuke,” in a way that distinguishes it from “Luke.”
5 sean // Apr 28, 2011 at 4:53 pm
I always read it “Cah-bow-th,” but then, it took me two year to realize Hermione is not pronounced “Hermee-own” :)
6 Cy // Apr 28, 2011 at 5:07 pm
I still pronounce “Zonama Sekot” like “Zonoma Sea-Coat.”
I seem to recall someone drawing the “u”s in “Luuke” out to like three times their normal duration. Or sortof putting a cough in the middle of it. “Lu’uke”. No idea if those are anywhere near the “correct” way to say it. But it was funny.
7 SirDan // Apr 28, 2011 at 6:04 pm
according to the audiobook in my mind…
suh-BAWTH
fuh-LAY-uh
and just for good measure, to prove I’m all alone, NO-guh-rye
8 HLynn // Apr 28, 2011 at 10:02 pm
For me, it’s been “Kah-BAY-auth” and “Faylah” in my head. Not sure why I skipped the second “y”, unless I have an aversion to more than one “y” in a person’s name and never knew until now. :)
9 jawajames // Apr 29, 2011 at 2:24 am
C’baoth= Se-BAOTHhh
Fey’lya= FAY-lia or sometimes just Faylah like HLynn does.
No-REE. or sometimes Nog-h(schwa)-ree
Loo-ook. and his clone would be Loo-oo-ook.
(long double o sound throughout).
PAY-lee-awn.
10 Aaron // Apr 29, 2011 at 3:35 am
Uhm, being German I cannot confirm Mr. Zahn’s story. It’s true that Germans do have a lot of English pronunciation issues, but it’s not “thr”. It’s “th” which most Germans turn into “z” (as in Zenobah) or even “s” (as in Solo). Chances are that hundreds of German theatre employees were repeatedly spit on when “Revenge of the Sith” was released… ;-)
11 Mark Newbold // Apr 29, 2011 at 3:50 am
Jaw-us Suh-Bo-ath, that’s how I always said it, and Luuke was always Luuuuuuke (like Yoda says to him before he dies in ROTJ.
Always got how, to make names sound more alien, there were increasing apostrophies put in there. It’s like talking t’ut Yorkshireman…
12 Mark Newbold // Apr 29, 2011 at 3:51 am
…and now, after 20 years of me and all my mates saying ‘Suh-Bo-ath’ I can see it should have been ‘Suh=Bay-oth’…:-p
13 Nancy // Apr 29, 2011 at 7:15 am
However it is that Anthony Daniels pronounces these words in the DFR and LC audiobooks is how they are stamped in my brain. :)
14 Nanci // May 3, 2011 at 1:41 pm
I asked Zahn pronuniciation one time, he said it was Suh-bee-oth (took me a LONG time to hear that in my head) and Puh-lay-on. I still say Pay-lee-on. I hear Fay-lay, but I know I’m wrong. :P
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