I write books with the audio book in mind. I read my drafts aloud to my wife and I even listen to Word’s narrator as I’m writing and editing to make sure the phrasing sounds right and my punctuation is doing its work.
I find it annoying when a narrator pronounces a name or place differently than I heard it in my head. To that end, I put together a quick pronunciation guide to hand over to my narrator when the time comes. I offer this list to you so that, if you ever wanted to know how I intended things to sound when I wrote Host, you have a reference. (You can purchase the eBook or paperback of Host here)
Main Characters (in order of importance):
- Reyankaiya – Ray-an-KY-a
- Reyan – Ray-AN
- Kavianhar – Kavy-an-HAR
- Parrnath Grainsmeir – PAR-nath GRAINS-myer.
- Sevvran Bital – Sev-RON bi-TAL
- Tamura – Ta-MOOR-A
- Mam – Just like it’s spelled. Just like people would say “Yes ma’am”. Not “mom”.
- Lyessa – LIE-ssa . Very similar to Liza but with ses not zs.
Various other names and places (alphabetical):
- Alicechandra – Alla-SHAWN-dra
- Dean Flaa – Just like “flaw”
- Dean Khamis – Similar to “Thomas” with the “T” replaced with a “HA” with a soft back-of-the-throat fricative. Similar to “Challa”, or “Chanuka”.
- Fang Hui Bai – Fang whee bye
- Gishken – GISH-ken
- Harut – Har-ROOT
- Quay – Kee
- Ramasundaram – Just break it apart and it’s just like it’s spelled: Rama-soon-DAR-am
- Tsunsk – tSUNSk All one syllable. Should mostly sound like “suns” with a slight fricative while starting the “s” and a slight short k at the end.
- Whulge – rhymes with bulge
Chris Lodwig - Author 