No. Wait. That should be Q&A. Sorry...
Dear Pat,
I know you're busy, but how exactly do you pronounce "Kvothe?"
I know it's similar to "quothe," but I'm still not sure how it sounds. Can you help clarify the specific phonetic pronunciation?
The initial "kv" sound in "Kvothe" doesn't crop up in standard English that often. But it does appear in the Yiddish term "kvetch."
The "o" is the same as in "roll" or "hole."
The "e" is silent.
If you've been pronouncing it wrong, don't sweat it. You're not alone. I've heard a lot of different pronunciations over this last year:
Kvahthe. (With the middle sound like you're saying "Ahhh" at the doctor's office.)
Kvothay. (With the ending rhyming with "prey.")
Kvothee, Kvahthay.... No no no. You're all making it harder than it needs to be. That's why I put that bit in right at the beginning of his story. "My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe.'"
Kv + Quothe = Kvothe. Simple.
Still, even this confusion makes me happy. I remember the Raistlin/Rastlin arguments me and my friends had years ago.
Wow, that's a warm fuzzy thought. My first year in college, out at someone's house, drinking homemade sangria in their kitchen and arguing about Dragonlance. I remember thinking, "I never knew there were this many people like me out in the world."
Those were good times. It almost makes me want to not post this up. That way, people can have that same sort of pointless argument about my book as I used to have about Weiss and Hickmann's.
Nah. I'll leave this up. That way when there's an argument, y'all can step in and seem supercool because you've got the inside scoop.
Oh, and one other thing. Tarbean isn't pronounced tar + bean.
It's tar + bee + en. The end is similar to how you say "Caribbean."
And now you know...
pat
Labels: Ask the Author, pronunciation
posted by Pat at 1:26 AM
30 Comments:
well holy shit. i think that i've not ever had a discussion in real life with anyone about the book, but i've been spot on about Kvothe's name pronunciation (yes, i pay attention to what i read!). however, i am guilty of the "tar bean" gaffe. my apologies.
far too many mind erasers and jameson shots tonight,
-ad
yay! now i know that the way i've been pronouncing those two names in my head has been correct! Oh... and i didnt think any self respecting writer would name a city Tar-bean. Except maybe Terry Pratchett because ...he's Terry Pratchett. Though i must say the concept of a Tar Bean makes me curious.
~Dyn~
There are multiple accepted pronunciations of "Caribbean." Just as an FYI. It may not be a good example for Tarbean's pronunciation. Then again, it also may be perfect.
Thanks for clearing that up! I had Kvothe's name right, but was was guilty of the Tar Bean pronunciation.
My wife and I got into it one night over the pronunciation of Kvothe. And I too got into the Raistlin/Rastlin argument with my other geek friends in middle school. So I find this post highly amusing. Also I am glad to see I got Tarbean right.
So does that mean "tar-BEE-en" or "TAR-bee-en"? I'm just saying, is all. :)
LOL. I've just been pronouncing it as "Quothe" since I could never figure out what you meant by "It's pronounced nearly the same as 'Quothe'" For the first chapter I kept thinking "What's nearly the same? It's either the same or it isn't. If he meant similar, wouldn't he just say 'similar'?"
In the end, I just pronounced it absolutely the same as Quothe, reasoning that perhaps you meant for Kvothe to be a Roman Latin name in which the Vs and Us were the same letter.
Now I know.
And knowing is half the battle . . .
Okay, but I still don't know if I should say the V or not. *has been arguing with her friend about this for, like, months* Is it Kuh-voth? Or Kwo-th?
I had the same reasoning as Mainjari. After taking three years of Latin, I just used my good ol' Roman logic and switched the 'v' to a 'u' (or, probably more accurate, a 'w').
Thank you for the explanations, Pat. Like some others, I actually fell into the Tar-Bean category. But the Caribbean connection helps a bunch.
One question though: How do you pronounce Imre? That one has had me stuck.
Fortunately my daughter and I had the advantage of actually hearing you (Pat) pronounce Kvothe at the Fantasy Matters Conference, so we had that right, however Tarbean we had wrong. Not any longer.... Thanks for the clarification!
I am happy to say Alexis (14 yrs) is LOVING the book! She keeps coming to me and asking questions. Some I answer because it's appropriate. Others, I don't because she will find out the answer as she reads on.
She is asking if there will be an UNABRIDGED audiobook, we love these, and if so, will you be reading it? She really wants YOU to be the one reading it. I must say I feel the same way!
Laurie & Alexis
SRH:
Yeah. I was thinking of that while I made the post. I'm thinking of the [carry-bee-yun] pronunciation, not the [k' rib-ian].
Wait, you didn't give a pronunciation for tarbean in the book, did you?
Because if not, then it will always be tar + bean to me.
Dude, have you ever read Wheel of Time? You wanna get a bunch of geeks together and debate pronunciations, that's the series to do it with. Egwene, anyone?
Ah Mr. Rothfuss, your initial error came when you assumed I knew how "quothe" was pronounced.
p.s. I've also found that even though I often times later learn the correct pronunciation to characters names, my mind refuses to read them to me that way. So in my head, he will forever remain, Quo-thee.
Sean: I'm the exact same way. And honestly, I'm of the mind that everyone should pronounce his name the way that makes them happiest.
This is just for the folks who were curious....
I still don't understand how you pronounce the "Kv" sound...
Is it like "kuh-vothe"
Or more like "Kwothe"
But, to be perfectly honest... I have been pronouncing the name as "Kwothe/Quothe" since the first time I read his name... so learning the true pronunciation probably won't change anything.
Not only am I stubborn once I have my own version of the pronunciation, but even if his name is "kuh-vothe", my laziness will prevent me from saying it properly.
That being said, at least I know I was right on the Tarbean issue.
Oh and one last thing. Imre. As someone said above, this one has been stumping me on the pronunciation.
Geddy, if you're having trouble with Kvothe, just find the nearest Jew and ask them to say kvetch. Or click the little audio thing on the linked page.
Ha, I am one of the smarter readers. Right there in the dust jacket and in the first chapter it says, "My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as quothe." That cleared it up. I have Tarbean right too. Tar-bee-en. Three syllables.
Though I do tend to pride myself on my linguistic skills and lord my ability to get character names right just by reading them. I have only failed once in the last ten years of reading fantasy novels.
Speaking of WoT...even when Jordan himself said the character names people still dispute them. Okay people Moiraine is "Mwah-Rain" and Egwene is "Eh-Gwain" Lan's surname is "Man-Drah-Gore-en." Like Al Gore, not a dragon.
Oh, and the one fail I mentioned was House Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire. It's four syllables "tar-gar-ee-en." Not "Tar-Gar-Yen."
Pat I think you misunderstood. I'm very interested and love knowing. Unfortunately, that's the logical part of my brain. The other part, that reads to me, doesn't seem to pay attention.
In my hurry to devour a good story, I've been known to completely misread a character's name. That is, I basically make up and entirely new name for the character. Later, realizing the error of my ways, I still can't seem to read the correct name in my mind.
I'm quite sure I'm broken somehow...
I do try to use my logical mind in conversation, so as to seem slightly less weird.
I seriously can't believe a simple Kv causes people this much of a braincramp. Anyhoo-- I was actually hoping Tarbean was Tar+bean as a throw back to what Weiss and Hickman called coffee on Krynn: Tarbean Tea.
Kelly Swails:
mmm...for the wheel of time series the pronunciations of names are in the back of the books... Egwene = Eh-Gwain
Anonymous: Yeah, I know. But I read the entire first book before realizing there was a frickin'-dictionary-in-the-back, so whatever pronounciation I made up stuck in my head. Doesn't matter that Egwene is "Eh-gwene" or Moiraine is "Mwah-rain". To me it's always "Egg-win" and "More-rain". I know, I know ...
close enough hehe ^.^
Okay...so funny coincidence...I'm re-reading the Dragonlance Chronicles for the first time since the first time...about 7th grade...
Oh...and I've always said Rastlin.
Danny
Maybe I am stupid, but I don't think that made it clear to me. Unless I hear it I suppose I will never know for sure. I guess I can't be mad at my mom for pronouncing puberty, pooberty, making my childhood even more awkward.
Pat, do you say Kvothe's name in that interview you did with nerdy mclawyerpants a while back?
This guy is making me sad.
Throw the kid a bone.
annnnd it's Ray-st-lin I believe according to Weiss, who created him. The name is meant to have a phonetic call back to the word Wraith.
Hmm, I've always said "ray-stlin". And, uh, "Kvothe." ;P
And while I find most of the foreign names in your book to be fairly simple, I have a huge fondness for authors who include pronunciation guides at the back, haha. It just makes me feel more secure when I'm talking about the book to other people. :D
Ah, the joys of Icelandic. I got the pronunciation of Kvothe right without trying.
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