How do You Pronounce Argamon?
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was recording The Dance, the first story in the Rymellan Series. The audio story is now available at Gumroad for $0.99. It’s almost an hour long and includes brief introductory and closing remarks. I enjoyed reading the story, so I’m going to record more.
Partial view from my window
When I’m reading, I sit at my desk and read into a snowball microphone. There’s a window right next to me and a vent underneath it. I can’t record when the window is open or the furnace or A/C is on, because the mic picks up the background noise. Since we’re moving into our hot weather season here, the window will be open or the A/C running on most days. So…I won’t be able to record much over the summer. I might get The Military Academy done, but a safer bet will be that I’ll pick up the readings full speed in the fall.
The Dance contains the word Argamon, so you can hear how I pronounce it. Because I read science fiction and fantasy, I often come across made-up words and pronounce them in a way that makes sense to me. Usually it doesn’t matter, since I’ll never actually say the words, and nobody is going to rap my knuckles for getting it wrong.
Having said that, I can remember getting to the third book in a fantasy series and finding a pronunciation guide in the back. There were a couple of words that I was pronouncing completely wrong; mangled didn’t begin to cover it. I altered my pronunciation for one frequently-used phrase, but stuck with my version for the rest. I figured I’d never have to take a test. It would have been nice if the first book had included the guide—at the front of the book.
I know some people pronounce Rymellan differently than I do, which is fine. The same goes for all my made up words, such as tziva. I’m not attached to the way I pronounce any of them. In fact, when I was writing The Dance, I pronounced Argamon differently than I do now. As part of my editing process, the computer reads the story to me. Its pronunciation of Argamon didn’t match mine. Being the lazy person that I am, I decided to change the way I say it, rather than fiddle with the text-to-speech program’s settings. So yeah, not particularly attached to any one pronunciation.
Anyway, if you’re in the mood to listen to The Dance, grab it from Gumroad.
Summer Hours
Back in January, I said that I was going to post to the blog every Friday. So far, so good, but I’m going to relax that self-imposed requirement over the summer months (June, July, August). I might end up posting every Friday, or I might not. We’ll see. Either way, in September I’ll return to my regular posting schedule.
Have a great weekend!
How do You Pronounce Argamon? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch
