TLC Forum

Anytime I read through CoN I always wonder how others might pronounce names and places.

Here are some from HHB next to how I would pronounce each:

Aravis- Air-uh-viss

Lasaraleen- Laz-uh-ruh-leen

Ahoshta- Aw-hosh-tuh

Rabadash- Rab-uh-dash

Tisroc- Tiss-rock

Tashbaan- Tash-ban

Your thoughts? How do you pronounce these? Are there any other names/places/words that you think you may pronounce differently? By all means please share.

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).