For many years I’ve been pronouncing Sigil as Sij-ill, like the word sigil. Recently I read something in a post from WotC saying that it is pronounced sig-ill (hard G). This just sounded weird to me, so I am continuing to say it with a J sound. You know, like in GIF 😏
Anyway, are there any other names of things in D&D that made you go “huh?” when you heard the official pronunciation?
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No clue where they’re pulling that pronunciation from, but it isn’t the standard, so I kinda suspect they pulled it from the same place you pull the rubber band your dog swallowed.
Capitalized “Sigil” (sig-əl) in this context is a made up place-name from D&D lore. It is a homograph to the actual English word “sigil” (sij-əl) They are pronounced differently for the same reason I can name my storm barbarian “Barnacles” (rhymes with “Hercules”).
Ahhhh! That is cool as hell, I never knew that!
Been playing since the eighties, you’d think I would have picked that up lol.
That’s clever. Given the spoken nature of a Dungeons & Dragons session, a DM could just meme by naming a character literally the English word “barnacles” but by pronouncing it as “barn” + “uh” + “cleese” (to rhyme with “please”) I imagine people would not think of that word.
…barnacles would make a fine champion in a party with vinegar the barbarian…
That makes sense. It is what they decided to name it according to the lore. Of course, anyone who decides that they don’t like the pronunciation can pronounce it differently in their campaign world.
Geas is an interesting one. It’s pronounced “gesh” but everyone I’ve played with pronounced it “geese”
I’ve said Ghee-ass this entire time.
I think it might be “gaysh”? but I’m happy to be corrected. I’d been pronouncing it “gay-us” until just recently 😂. Irish words are weird.
What!?
I’ve been saying “gi-ahs”…
For me its gay-ass and I do not apologise
“You have been targeted by a gay-ass spell, it compells you to go on a gay-ass quest”
Gay-Ass is a domain spell for the Oath of Throwing It Back Paladin.
As an Italian, I can attest that no one in my country knows how to pronounce Shillelagh correctly.
I’ve always said “Sha-LAY-Lee”
“Shil AY lee” is, I think, correct.
Shulaylah I thought.
I’ve only heard it pronounced with a hard g when listening to critical role, and the person that pronounced it that way (more like giggle but starting with an s) got razzed for it.
Listening to audio books I hear a lot of words that make me cringe or wonder if I’ve been wrong all these years, after all these are professional voice actors that presumably have directors or producers that correct them when they’re wrong, right?
Also I read a lot as a kid, And didn’t watch or listen to a lot of media, so I mispronounce things all the time. My favorite is primer as in a small introduction to a topic. This has always been prime-ur in my mind, makes sense as that is the term for the small charge that ignites the big charge in a bullet. The word is actually pronounced primm-er.
D&D is likely written by people who have similarly focused on the written, not spoken word. Don’t trust any of their pronunciations.
I also read a lot as a kid and to this day, I prefer it to video or audio-based content delivery. So I also mispronounce things, especially if they are not words that would come up in daily conversation.
The “primer” thing is something I just learned from you, verified with Merriam-Webster, and I am not happy about it because a primer primes you to learn about the subject, so I always thought it was said like “prime” + “er”…
I don’t know what they’re smoking but every dictionary I can easily access says it’s pronounced with a “j” sound, like vigil.
Jif is good you winker, creator’s pronunciation and all that.
Si-gill is obscene.
It’s pronounced “gif”!
But seriously, either the creator is trolling or an idiot.
Either is so confining
Ee-thur or eye-thur, depending on usage.
“Either make up your mind or else” = ee-thur “I don’t care either way” = eye-thur
Not functional usage, just region/preference.
Or is this a reference to something?
Am I wooshed?
I am not attempting to fool or trick you, this is my personal experience
I didn’t think you were doing either, I thought maybe there was a meme pretending "either’ had strict rules or doesn’t have interchangeable pronunciations.
Thanks
Hard G for life, yo!
I am thoroughly convinced that the people who choose the soft G are people who are intentionally contrarian.
“But the originator of the word says it’s a soft G”
Yeah, and, the originator of the word is wrong.
Hard G.
I don’t like when people are intentionally contrarian, but I honestly first picked it up as soft “g” and pronounce it that way to this day. I’m aware that just replying to your comment with this disagreement might make me look intentionally contrarian and like I’m just denying it to ruffle feathers though ^^;
Never use the hard ‘g’ unless you’re from the plains, Berk.
It’s pronounced like ‘vigil’ or ‘virgin’.
Recent interviews with J Craw suggest otherwise.
BOTH ARE HARD Gs!
I’ve gone with Sow-wain
…it’s pronounced sigil and anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong…
