Pronunciation

[Scott Kellogg]

What's the correct pronunciation of "Aereth"? The diacritical mark is unclear. "Mu'ugalavya" I can pronounce. "Aereth", not so much.

[John LaSala]

Scott, I can perhaps give you some insight.

In the Northlands, at least, they call the whole of the world "Áereth," which is commonly pronounced as the easy to say, "AIR-eth." However, pedantic scholars, very old dragons, and other long-lived denizens of the Known Realms may still be heard pronouncing the word with a bit of Old Giant influence: AY-ret-th. The "Áe" may be compared to the Old Irish pronunciation of Áe (AY) and the "th" is a digraph cluster. That is to say, like the "th" in "eighth," where you hear a "t" and a "th" clustered together: AY-ret-th.

As you may have read in the World of Áereth GM's Guide, the word is ultimately descended from an Old Giant phrase meaning "where we walk." If the old tomes can be believed, the tongue of Old Giant was taught to them by the gods themselves, and it can be transliterated as something like "aergreal-igth." It corrupted and changed over time, as these things do, and in eldritch scrolls you'll find the word "arearth." That is the shared root word of both "Áereth" and the common word for soil, "earth."

Or so they say.

[mythfish]

What's the correct pronunciation of "Aereth"? The diacritical mark is unclear. "Mu'ugalavya" I can pronounce. "Aereth", not so much.

Depends on which part of Aereth you're from, I'd imagine.

I pronounce it AIR-eth, but with the second vowel sound so lax as to be almost nonexistent.

[Scott Kellogg]

Thank you. That's about what I had come up with, sans background. Now where did I put my box of umlauts?