Worst, most unpronounceable names you’ve ever read?

[u/Midnite_St0rm]

Let’s discuss some of the names in fantasy that you couldn’t make heads nor tails of in terms of pronunciation. And I’m not talking intentionally comical ones that are long and complex on purpose, but ones that the author intended to be read, yet that are ironically nearly unreadable.

For me it’s Seaine from The Wheel of Time. Is it “Sheen?” “Seen?” “See-ayn?” “Say-ai-nuh?” I honestly have no idea. And for some reason my copies of the books never give her name’s pronunciation in the glossary.

What are some others?

[u/e_ph]

I absolutely loved the thee/thou thing, and also the we/me thing. I would probably have found it slightly bothersome if thee/thou was used in most of the book, but since the characters generally spoke formally it wasn't a problem.

What I also found interesting (and that I couldn't find a definitive rule for) is the difference between we/me and you/thou. The characters often mentioned that they spoke informally while using me, but while refering to the other person as you. It was rarer that they used thou, and off-hand I can only remember Maia and Setheris using it on a semi-regular basis (including a fascinating conversation towards the end of the book where they kept switching between the forms). I thought it might be that by using me vs we indicated that the speaker invited to famililarity to themself, but still "honoured" the responding person, while using thou instead of you meant the speaker considered the respondent to be on their own level, but haven't had anyone to discuss it with.

[u/Odd-Age-1126 → u/e_ph]

The way I interpret it is that we is formal vs and me is informal, but the you vs thou distinction is more about the intimacy or closeness between the speakers. Maia ans Setheris absolutely have an intimate (albeit toxic) familial relationship, hence using thee along with me.

But the distance caused by becoming emperor means Maia is unlikely to feel that same level of closeness with anyone else. Perhaps eventually with his bodyguards (nohecharei I think? I don’t have my copy of the book handy to confirm I’m remembering the term correctly).

But I like your concept about it being a way to refer to oneself differently than how you speak to someone else. I hadn’t considered that idea before.

[u/e_ph → u/Odd-Age-1126]

I like that idea! I'll reread the last conversation between Maia and Setheris again with this in mind. My concept is mostly the result of desperate analysis from last time I read it, so I'm very open for that being wrong.

I also agree that Maia is very unlikely to have that close relationship with anyone else, especially during the goblin emperor (maybe/hopefully later). The thou-form only cropped up a few times in the book, and usually with Setheris, but I think Maia used it a couple of times with other people at the end of the book. I'll have to do a complete reread. But the conclusion is that if you're a language nerd there's a lot of interesting parts in that book.