Here’s news you can use: You’re pronouncing them wrong.
I’ve never had a problem with Don Quixote, but shouldn’t “quixotic” be pronounced “Key-ah-tik”? Because Brit Hume said “quix-o-tic” the other day.
15 thoughts on “Fictional Characters’ Names”
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The most commonly mispronounced name in fiction is probably Dr. Jekyll (JEE-kil). I don’t think *any* of the movie or TV adaptations got it right.
Interesting, EW. What is your source on the correct pronunciation? I want to know so if someone challenges me I can tell them.
See, for example:
http://www.pronouncenames.com/pronounce/jekyll
The Jekyll family still exists in Scotland, and it is certain Robert Louis Stevenson knew how to pronounce the name since they were relatives of his.
Thanks, EW! Now I can amaze and astound (and best of all, correct) my friends!
“Key-ah-tik”? You mean sorta like “chaotic?”
I think the Brits pronounce Quixote as “Key-shote”
Seems is should be “kee-Hoh-tic’. But, we say “kwik-Sot-ik”.
Blame the writers not the readers. Failure to communicate.
This article is silly. About half the names get a pass because the author wasn’t trying to be cute. Foreign names, especially those in archaic tongues, will be hard to pronounce correctly and may have weird spellings to boot. But if you have a really weird name with a really weird pronunciation in your really weird fake language (with Voldemort with silent “t” being the most ridiculous one mentioned), then either put in how to pronounce it the first time or just don’t have an established pronunciation.
Ding ding ding
Here’s another example of a hard-to-pronounce name.
The proper pronunciation of Quixote is “kee-HO-tay”.
I’ve read it in Spanish 🙂
3 years of Spanish in high school with the last being in honors I can say you are are correct, Sir.
If you get your meaning across you’ve accomplished the goal of communications. Alphabets and languages are often in conflict because nations conquer others. Until each letter in an alphabet has a specific single phoneme associated with it, we all get a pass.
Having said that, Jag-U-ar still drives me up a wall.
Re Rowling’s “Voldemort” – improvised name, but hardly a fake language. Weird, maybe, and occasionally orthographically ridiculous, but that’s par for the course: it’s French.
“Vol de mort” = “Flight of death” or “Death flight.” Standard pronunciation rhymes with “toll-the-door,” heavy on the R.
J’ai dit. (Pronounced “zhay-dee” — French for “Nyah-nyah, so there.”)