Gakkari

[flemmings]

Further adventures in People Not Being Called What They Should Be: just as Tolkien has two syllables instead of the proper three, so it appears Gaiman is not pronounced Guyman either. I'd assume my misreading is Japanese-influenced, except that I thought 'Tolkien' had three syllables decades before I knew anything about the language.

I can't think of any words where ai is pronounced as a long i and not long a, but does this mean Leguin's Genly Ai is Genly Ei?

Comments

[lebateleur]

The three-syllable Tolkien is basically the "snuck" of author's names: so commonplace it's widely tolerated if not necessarily correct. The correct pronunciation of "Gaiman," however, will forever trip me up.

[flemmings]

Thing is, I never heard anyone say Tolkien's name ever, three syllables or two, until a couple of years ago when a young friend looked at me oddly and said it correctly. So I'm glad that other people make the same error, because I thought I was the only one.

Phonetically I can't defend the reading 'guyman' at all, but 'gayman' just feels *wrong*.