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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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It amuses me that someone is currently voting for World's Edge Intersectional Research. Odds are the actual fact is that they simply either missed the third or fifth word in WEBIR or WEIRD, but the absurdist in me likes the idea of a research institute --- situated on the top of a mountain well away from any major river --- being named after a kind of lowhead dam.
 
The Phoenixian said:
It amuses me that someone is currently voting for World's Edge Intersectional Research. Odds are the actual fact is that they simply either missed the third or fifth word in WEBIR or WEIRD, but the absurdist in me likes the idea of a research institute --- situated on the top of a mountain well away from any major river --- being named after a kind of lowhead dam.
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No that person is playing 5-dimensional chess while us mere mortals are stuck at 2-dimensional. You see naming our branch WEIR will forever have people confused across species.

"Did she mean to name it WEIRD?"
"Maybe she meant WEBIR?"
"Don't be silly, what kind of name is WEBIR?'

and

"Where is WEIR?"
"Where?"
"Weir"
"What?"
"WEIR! Where is it?"
"Bah stupid umgi get lost."
 
While we're on the German language talk and N dimensional punnage, It suddenly occurs to me that Sunlight Society can be acronymed as either SS, or as a ß, and that such ambiguity could have some serious pun potential in a larger acronym.

Like, just the idea of a layered thing where you have to wonder: Is it WESSIER (pronounced with a heavy German accent on the W, like the kind of advisor,) or are you spelling it WEßIER?

It's just a shame that you probably can't also fit Mathilde's other profession into the mix, for the three way "Vizier/Wiser(d)/Weber" ambiguous pun acronym combo.

Then again, maybe you can. There may well be a brilliantly elegant combination to elicit the three way pun but, alas, I am too tired to find it. I guess I'll pass that torch to someone else's court.
 
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picklepikkl said:
Just as a datapoint, at least in my variety of English (US Northeastern accent), they are pronounced the same, which might be why I appreciate the not-pun more than some.
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In mine (mixed-UK) they're also generally pronounced the same, but only because the second syllable's vowel is essentially ignored. Weber, Webir, Webur and Webar would all be pronounced with the same vowel sound (ə).

But when you start pronouncing them with care they become completely different in my accent.
 
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"Welcome to Karag Nar! How was your trip?"

"It went well enough, I suppose. I'm a little disappointed there weren't any bandit attacks—I've got a new Fireball variant I've been itching to try out. You wouldn't believe the results, Adela! Say, what's this about a Karag Nar? I thought you were based in Eight Peaks."

"It's one of the Eight. The closest translation is 'Sunrise Mountain.'"

"Oh, like The Sunrise Society! How did we get them to rename an entire mountain after us?"

Adela automatically began to correct her friend and paused.
 
SuperSonicSound said:
You would say irrespective that way, irresponsible and irrigation. You also generally don't use the same letter multiple times in different syllables Web is its own syllable so why would you then start the second using the last letter of the first?
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Counterpoint: "irradiate." English just doesn't have consistent vowel pronunciation.
 
SuperSonicSound said:
You also generally don't use the same letter multiple times in different syllables Web is its own syllable so why would you then start the second using the last letter of the first?
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Why would you be so confident that Weber/Webir breaks down as Web - er/ir as opposed to We - ber/bir? Consider webbing vs webing, the second one obviously isn't a word, but if you try to sound it out as if it was an unfamiliar word it's far more natural to go with we - bing rather than web - ing.
 
me.me.here said:
Why would you be so confident that Weber/Webir breaks down as Web - er/ir as opposed to We - ber/bir? Consider webbing vs webing, the second one obviously isn't a word, but if you try to sound it out as if it was an unfamiliar word it's far more natural to go with we - bing rather than web - ing.
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I refuse to side with any argument that is based on the concept of weebing :p
 
SuperSonicSound said:
You also generally don't use the same letter multiple times in different syllables Web is its own syllable so why would you then start the second using the last letter of the first?
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That makes it sound like you have an extremely fragmented accent. When you say riding does it come out as "ride-ing" with a slight pause? Because in my speech the second syllable is "ding" for the simple reason that I don't end the d before I begin the ing. I'm not using it twice, I'm just not pausing long enough to get rid of it before moving on.
 
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kingreaper said:
That makes it sound like you have an extremely fragmented accent. When you say riding does it come out as "ride-ing"? Because in my speech the second syllable is "ding" for the simple reason that I don't end the d before I begin the ing. I'm not using it twice, I'm just not pausing long enough to get rid of it before moving on.
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The first syllable of riding doesn't have a d though. It's pronounced rye-ding. At least that's how everyone I've heard pronounces it.
 
I don't think this pronunciation tangent has any actual relevancy? The acronym will be pronounced however Mathilde chooses to pronounce it, and most likely won't be pronounced much at all because acronyms don't seem to really be a thing in Warhammer.

In all likelihood, any of the 'World's Edge Branch of X' names will just be shortened to World's Edges Branch in casual conversation- or just get called 'the Dwarf college', because that's more than specific enough.
 
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GrimTheMad said:
... And not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a written story. How are you all expecting pronunciation to come up in the first place?
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Most people hear in their head ("subvocalise") when reading (especially when reading names). Not everyone obviously, but the majority.

So how they subvocalise "WEBIR" affects whether they think of it as a good pun that sounds just like Weber, or equivalent to calling it WEBOAR
 
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To give a pronunciation approximation that doesn't rely on too much on regional commonalities (I hope), the -er in Weber is pronounced as in Fletcher or Butcher. Fletchir and Butchir aren't the same, right?
 
Or we could just use the IPA instead of ad hoc comparisons totally dependent on dialect for this irrelevent tangent? Pretty please?
 
Burned_Cookie said:
Wait but wouldn't that limit your reading speed to the speed of speech?
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No, because subvocalisation can be significantly faster than speech. It can go about the same speed as hearing. (EDIT: Also because it's relatively easy to only subvocalise some of the words, skipping things like "of" and "the".)

Something to keep in mind is that the human mind can't actually intake language at more than about twice the rate of speech. It's possible to "read" faster, but at that point you're not really reading but scanning for keywords.

Valarauko said:
Or we could just use the IPA instead of ad hoc comparisons totally dependent on dialect for this irrelevent tangent? Pretty please?
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Here's a good source for the IPA vowel sounds

To me, when speaking fast Weber and Webir both have their first vowel as e and the second as ə. When pronouncing more carefully Weber is still e then ə, or if overpronouncing e then ɜ: - and Webir is e then ɪ
 
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Rafin said:
To give a pronunciation approximation that doesn't rely on too much on regional commonalities (I hope), the -er in Weber is pronounced as in Fletcher or Butcher. Fletchir and Butchir aren't the same, right?
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Not identical but quite close as I'd pronounce them - per the request for IPA, I'm pretty sure the respective vowels I'd use would be /ə/ and /ɪ/, give or take. Which IMO don't sound very far apart.

EDIT: had the vowels listed backwards initially, fixed now.
 
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Valarauko said:
Or we could just use the IPA instead of ad hoc comparisons totally dependent on dialect for this irrelevent tangent? Pretty please?
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I'm sorry. I'm not fluent in IPA. I have no idea how ə is pronounced and if it's closer to the Greek ε or ι.

Edit: Weber - Wiktionary German section. Except that in that pronunciation guide they omit the "r" completely and I have no idea if ɐ and the sound in the sound clip are agreeing with each other.
 
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Rafin said:
To give a pronunciation approximation that doesn't rely on too much on regional commonalities (I hope), the -er in Weber is pronounced as in Fletcher or Butcher. Fletchir and Butchir aren't the same, right?
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They totally could be. If I saw an institute called FLETCHIR, I'd assume it was meant to be read as "fletcher" and wouldn't see that pronunciation as incorrect - it would match the way I pronounce "chirp", for example.
 
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