The Dûrian Language

Generally I have tried to spell Dûrian in an ‘English’ way, which has done violence to my principles as a linguist: but I have sacrificed these to the greater good of helping English readers pronounce the language more correctly.

The name Fira, for instance, is spelt that way so that English speakers will pronounce it as ‘Fire-ah’, which is a lot closer to the Dûrian pronunciation than what an English person would say if faced with the linguistically more accurate Faira / Fayra.

In most cases, therefore, you can just go ahead and pronounce Dûrian words and names the way they look. But there are a few things to bear in mind:

The letter-combination dh stands for a sound that exists in English, but is misleadingly spelt ‘th’ in words like ‘this’, ‘that’ and ‘bathe’, as opposed to ‘thin’, ‘thank’ and ‘bath’. So the first syllable of the Dûrian town name Dhembis is pronounced like English ‘them’; and Mindbender Dhelgor’s name begins with the same sound.

The combination th is pronounced as in English ‘thin’, ‘thank’ and ‘bath’.

The combination kh represents a sound that English only encounters in loanwords from other languages, which it writes with a ch, as in Scottish ‘loch’, German ‘Bach’. Likewise zh represents the French g in ‘rouge’, ‘gêne’, etc.

Ch is pronounced as in English ‘chase’, ‘chill’, ‘each’.

J is pronounced as in English ‘jump’, ‘joy’, ‘ajar’.

G is always hard as in ‘get’, never soft as in ‘gem’. Thus the first syllable of Gilmane is pronounced like ‘gilded’, not ‘Gillian’.

C and k are both used for the hard ‘k’ sound at the beginning of a word. C is never pronounced like an ‘s’, as in English ‘ceiling’, ‘city’, ‘receive’. Following English usage, Dûrian words beginning with ke- or ki- are spelt with a k: keldon, kim, kion (cf. English ‘keep’, ‘kind’, ‘king’), thus avoiding any temptation to pronounce an initial c- with an ‘s’. However c has been retained elsewhere for its ‘softer’ look, as in Cârin, cay, colárre.

R is always rolled, as in Scottish English.

The syllable ey always rhymes with ‘say’, never ‘see’. Thus teméyn (which is a loanword in Dûrian) is pronounced ‘temane’; and the name of Danîsha’s protégéé Teynel is pronounced ‘Taynel’.

 

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Accents:

 

The optional acute accent, as in the final syllable of Shiván, shows where the stress falls. Steve Harston’s Dûrian name is pronounced ‘Shiv-VAN’, not ‘SHIV-ven’ (or, heaven forbid, ‘SHY-ven’!).

Dûrian has quite a few words that are not accented on the first syllable (as English tends to be). To make this clearer, I have adopted a quasi-French spelling in a number of cases: for example, Stillárre. A straightforward transcription of the Dûrian spelling of this name would have been Stilár: which most English readers would have pronounced as either ‘stiller’ or ‘styler’. But by doubling the final consonant and adding a silent -e, I hope I have encouraged English speakers to read this correctly as ‘stil-LAR’. Similar examples are Durónne (‘du-RON’), calénne (‘cal-LEN’) and sinélle (‘sin-EL’).

By contrast the name Jomel has no final accent, and is not spelt ‘Jomelle’: the pronunciation is ‘JOE-mel’, not ‘joe-MEL’.

(Note that I could not bring myself to apply the French spelling to the name Shiván: ‘Shivánne’ would have looked altogether too feminine. Here the accent alone indicates the stessed syllable. In any case, these are merely helpful representations of the Dûrian script, which contains no accents or French-style spellings.)

I have not indicated stress where it seems obvious, as in Alanya (‘a-LAN-ya’). The chances of this being wrongly pronounced as ‘Alan-ya’ seem fairly slim.

The other accent used is the circumflex, as in the second syllable of Danîsha. Circumflexes indicate long vowels (which in the Dûrian writing system have separate letters). They also tend to carry the stress, and are pronounced as follows:
   â:    ‘ah’ as in ‘calm’, e.g. Cârin (‘CAH-rin’).
   ê:    ‘air’ as in ‘cairn’* (no example in the books).
   î:    ‘ee’ as in ‘see’, e.g. Danîsha (‘dan-EE-sha’).
   ô:    ‘or’ as in ‘thorn’,* e.g. Dôrion (‘DOR-ee-yon’).
   û:    ‘oo’ as in ‘boot’, e.g. Dûrion (‘DOO-ree-yon’).
(*British English. Americans and others who pronounce the ‘r’ in such words will have to try and imagine how they would sound without
an ‘r’…)

As an example of the difference between short and long vowels, compare Dûrion and Guriet: Dûrion has a long ‘u’ as in ‘suit’; Guriet has a short ‘u’ as in ‘soot’.

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Pronunciation of some of the names and words in the books:

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Alanya — a-LAN-ya
ambon — AM-bon
bellaril — BELL-a-ril
Bellarniar — bell-AR-nee-yar
Berenel — BEH-ren-el (first syllable rhyming with ‘Ben’; not ‘burn’)
Berûvis — beh-ROO-vis
blaise — BLAZE (or more properly, ‘BLACE’)
Câr — CAHR (final r pronounced)
Carreck — CA-reck (first syllable rhyming with ‘cat’)
Cârin(or) — CAH-rin, CAH-rin-ore (not ‘CARE-in-’)
colárre — col-LAHR
Darthane — DAR-thane
Damion — DAY-mee-yon
Danîsha — da-NEE-sha
Demárre — dem-MAR
Denny — DEN-nee
Dhelgor — THEL-gor (th as in ‘them’)
Dhembis — THEM-bis
Dôrion — DOR-ee-yon
Dûrion — DOO-ree-yon (not ‘DYOO-ree-yon’ or ‘JOO-ree-yon’)
Durónne — du-RON (short u, as in ‘put’)
Finien — FIN-ee-yen
Fira — FIRE-ah
Frengor — FRENG-gore
Ganneret — GAN-ner-et
Gelmion — GEL-mee-yon (hard g like ‘get’)
Géris — GEH-ris (hard g like ‘get’; first syllable rhyming with ‘get’)
Gil — GIL (hard g like ‘get’; not like ‘Jill’)
Gilmane — GIL-mane (hard g like ‘get’; not like ‘Jill’)
Gnarthrog — NAR-throg (for English and Dûrian speakers: the Gnarthrog themselves pronounce the initial letter as a hard g)
Guriet — GUR-ree-yet (short u as in ‘put’)
Gwargif — GWAR-gif (ar as in ‘are’, not ‘war’; second g hard as in ‘gift’)
Janulane — JAN-u-lane (short u as in ‘put’; not ‘JAN-you-lane’)
Jomel — JOE-mel
Kennissôr — KEN-nis-sore
Khoreyn — khor-ANE (kh pronounced like ‘ch’ in Scottish ‘loch’)
Khrellárre — khrel-LAHR (kh pronounced like ‘ch’ in Scottish ‘loch’)
Lômack — LOW-mack (more properly ‘LAW-mack’, but English speakers can be allowed some licence here)
Mâra — MAH-ra
Margay — MAR-gay
Marûvin — ma-ROO-vin
Mesten — MESS-ten
Nelláy — nel-LAY
Nerick — NEH-rick (first syllable rhyming with ‘net’)
Ongaret — ONG-ga-ret (hard g like ‘get’)
Orrénne — o-REN (first syllable rhyming with ‘on’)
Pandiar — PAN-dee-yar
Perrely — PEH-reh-lee (first two syllables rhyming with ‘pet’; not like ‘pearly’)
Sarmion — SAR-mee-yon
Selmion — SEL-mee-yon
Sesten — SES-ten
Shambor — SHAM-bore
shandil — SHAN-dill
shiláy — shil-LAY
shiláyet — shil-LAY-et
Shîr — SHEE-r (not ‘shee-yer’: the r immediately follows ‘SHEE-’)
Shîrin(or) — SHEE-rin, SHEE-rin-ore
Shiván — shiv-VAN
Sûrilane — SOO-ree-lane (not ‘SURE-ree-lane’)
Taboru — tah-BOR-oo (not ‘TAY-bor-oo’)
Tallissôr — TAL-lis-sore (first syllable rhyming with ‘pal’, not ‘tall’)
teméyn — tem-ANE
Teynel — TAY-nel
Thrinar — THRY-nar (first syllable rhyming with ‘try’)
Thrinari — thry-NAR-ee.