How do I incorporate a pronunciation guide?

[Enkoaura]

I'm still writing and haven't posted anything yet. The problem is that my story's character and place names are Arabic, German, and Chinese. I don't want my potential readers to have issues figuring out how anything should be pronounced. All three languages use sounds that English speakers are not familiar with. I already changed some names to ones easier to pronounce because they have similar meanings but I don't wanna do that for all my names, or else all the names will lose their meanings. Any advice will help.

 

[LilRora]

I see two options here; either keep adding it regularly to the author's notes, or add the guide to the glossary and mention it in an author's note at least each time a new name comes up.

 

[SRB]

You can use transcriptions in English, showing exactly how to pronounce them in the author's notes. Or leave links to videos where someone says these names.

 

[TheBestofSome]

You could also use the footnotes tool to show pronunciation, but as a reader, having a guide in the glossary would probably be preferable. Or you could do both; the first time the name comes up you add a footnote showing how to pronounce it, then you add it to the glossary as well in case any readers forget.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I rarely worry about it myself - let them come up with their own pronunciations. Might be better than the ones I thought of...

 

[beast_regards]

Don't worry about it.

That's a problem for the voice actor.

You, as the writer, need to only worry about making the name somewhat pronounceable and that's it (unless you are naming something that is meant to be unpronounceable)

German vs. English pronunciation doesn't quite matter, only if the reader could read it.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

Actually, don't think you need to care about that. Unless it's highly important for what the name sounds like, it's up to the reader to be interested in how they are pronounced. To give an example that I can pick from the top of my head would be in my favorite western fantasy novel series, where there's different tribes among the were beasts and the hyenas call themself "Bouda", which one character misunderstands as "buddha" once. That gives you a clear hint as to how it was pronounced by the other person, who clearly knew how to do it right. In another book, a protagonist describes how the name of her Sister, Saoirse, is described, but I can't really remember what led up to it. Still remember how to pronounce it to this day though, almost 20 years later. Things like that stick pretty well with me, but I guess that also depends on the person.
Either way, for things important, use that subtle "in story" explanation trick, but don't bother making it a big hype for nothing, because most people don't give a rats ass - and if they do, they will check for themselves.

 

[Spacerunner357]

I'm still writing and haven't posted anything yet. The problem is that my story's character and place names are Arabic, German, and Chinese. I don't want my potential readers to have issues figuring out how anything should be pronounced. All three languages use sounds that English speakers are not familiar with. I already changed some names to ones easier to pronounce because they have similar meanings but I don't wanna do that for all my names, or else all the names will lose their meanings. Any advice will help.

Hi I have seen people use this - like for the word al-pha-bet that might help out, i like putting lets say Нью-Йорк :NewYork: and lable this :: once or twice. Hope this helps~!!:).

 

[3guanoff]

write them using English as best as possible. I.e. German Maike could be spelled Mykeh or Chinese Liu Xi could be spelled Leo Cee. It's not the same, but at least they will be pronounced similarly.
Otherwise, you get people calling Maike "mah-ike" and Liu Xi "low-ksuh".