I tend to say:

Tisroc as tiz-rok
Lasaraleen as lass-are-ah-leen
Tashbaan as tash-bahn

Excellent question:

Unfortunately, this isn't the best way to explain pronunciation, since we don't always understand what other people mean by their explanations, and with different accents I get very confused. (Like the a in Shasta and castle sound completely different to me, but might sound the same to people of different accents). Anyway, it's the best we can do so I suppose we can try.

*resists the urge to use IPA symbols*

[end linguistic rant]

I say:

Aravis- Arr-uh-viss

Lasaraleen- Laz-ruh-leen (not sure why I leave out the second syllable - laziness probably)

Ahoshta- Uh-hosh-ta

I also say Tiss-rock, not Tiz-rock

This is what comes of so many of us reading the books by ourselves and just making up the most logical pronunciations.

I also say ARR-a-viss and TIZZ-roc. I say LAZZ-uh-ruh-leen, but I often glide over the second syllable as Ajjie does.

But I think I've goofed up the names of both of the countries, judging by the FOF readings. I have always said KAL-or-men, and they say kah-LOR-men. I also give Archenland a soft ch, like chirp (ARCH-en-land), and I think most people pronounce the ch as k: ARK-en-land.

I emphasize the second syllable of Ahoshta but the first syllable of Tisroc and Tashbaan. Yipes! I speak Calormene with an accent.

I've wondered about this myself. For myself I pronounce Aravis as "AIR-uh-vis. I find it interesting that some tend to glide over one of Las's syllables. I don't, probably because I emphasize that middle syllable. 😛 I prounounce Lasaraleen as "Laz-AIR-uh-leen. It's almost impossible to drop the word forms you accent 😛 Technically, if I was using proper American pronounciation for Ahoshta, it'd be your way, Nora, but I'm lazy and pronounce the "aw" as "uh." I also share the pronunciation of Rabadash with Nora.

When it comes to Tisroc, I pronounce it TIZ-rock. But the z is very weak and sounds closer to an sz sound. Difficult to explain, but half-way between a "zz" and a "ss"

🙂

The one I found out I've apparently been pronouncing "wrong" is Archenland. I pronounce is AR-chin-land. Apparently it's ARK-hen-land. But the alternate pronunciation for Aslan (uh-SLAN, with a hissing "s") always makes me laugh whenever I hear it. I pronounce it AZ-lan (or AZ-lun 😉 ).

@hobbit: do you mean uh-SLAN or ASS-lan? (The latter is the correct pronunciation. Turkish and all. 🙂 )

I've heard a couple people pronounce it uh-SLAN.

Huh. I've never heard that one before.

The only pronunciation of these that I have noticeably different from everyone on the thread is the name Aravis, I believe. Most of these words I think I've played around with a lot, with different vowel sounds and syllable emphasis, but for some reason Aravis has always been uh-RAY-vis to me (or ah-RAY-vis if I wasn't from the South).

That's how I used to pronounce it, too. Uh-RAY-viss. It sounds more musical that way. Lately, though, I've been pronouncing it AIR-uh-vis because that's the way most people I know pronounce it.

Aslan- Az-lan

Aravis- Air-ruh-vis

Archenland- Arch-in-land

Calormen- Cal-are-men (Though, the Spanish pronunciation of the word, "calor", meaning hot, makes more sense.)

Coriakin- Core-e-ah-kin

Jadis- Jade-iss

Lasaraleen- Lass-uh-rah-leen

Octesian- Auk-taze-ian

Tisroc- Tiz-rock

Aslan - Az-LAN

Aravis - Air-uh-vis

Archenland - Arken-land

Calormen - I'm not sure if I'm consistent with this one; either Cal-or-men OR Ca-LORE-men

Coriakin - Cor-ee-ah-kin

Jadis - JAH-dis

Lasaraleen - For the longest time I didn't know how to pronounce this, but I think now I would say: Luh-zair-uh-leen

Octesian - Auk-teeze-ian

Tisroc - Tiz-rock

Aslan - Ass-lan

Aravis - Air-uh-viss

Archenland - Arck-en-land

Calormen - Cuh-lor-men

Coriakin - Cor-a-kin

Jadis - Jay-dis

Lasaraleen - Laz-arr-uh-leen

Octesian - Oct-ess-ian

Tisroc - Tiz-rock

We see a lot of names you don't hear very often other than in the series.

For instance, Tarkaan is pronounced "tar-con" or "tar-khan". "Khan" is a Hindu word for "King". "Tarkhan" was a title used by a Mongals and Turks over thousand of years ago. Honestly, I don't know how "tar" got to be in there. But CS Lewis may have got the inspiration from ancient history "Tarkhan", though changed the spelling to "Tarkaan." I honestly don't know why "Tarkaan" is used after the name instead of before (must be part of the Calormene culture).

And lot of Calormene names sound interchangeable. In The Horse and His Boy, Aravis mentions that her grandfather's name is Rishti Tarkaan and in The Last Battle, the Calormene captain is Rishda Tarkaan. So it's like there's a Rishti Tarkaan and there's a Rishda Tarkaan.