Elantris Pronunciation Guide

(This section is spoiler-free)

Aonic:
Pronounce Aonic names by finding the Aon (most of them are listed in the back of the book. Otherwise, find the two nearest vowels.) Then, pronounce the Aon’s vowels in ‘long’ form (I know—my linguist friend told me that’s not exactly correct. See below for examples, however) and any other vowels in short form. The first syllable with the Aon in it always gets the stress.

Examples:
Aon = AY-Ohn
Raoden = RAY-Oh-den

List of Aon vowels:
A = a as in ‘bake’
E = e as in ‘eat’ or a as in ‘bake.’ (See below.)
I = i as in ‘bike’ (A double i Aon pronounces both long i sounds. See below.)
O = o as in ‘boat’
U = There are no ‘u’ sounds in Aons.

Every other vowel should be pronounced in short form without a stress.

A note on ‘E’ sounds in Aonic. The only exception to the rule includes words written with ‘e’ in the Aon. In English, ‘e’ can often produce a long ‘a’ sound. So, I wrote many long ‘a’ sounds with ‘e’s. This was a device I used to try and make the names look better and have a chance of being pronounced more accurately. Note the examples in names below.

Common Aonic Names
Raoden = RAY-Oh-den
Sarene = sa-RAY-Nay (or sa-REE-Nee, if you want to get technical.)
Elantris = EE-Layn-tris (Though most people say el-lan-tris, which is fine.)
Kiin = KYE-Eye-n
Teod = TAY-Ohd
Arelon = ah-RAY-Lone
Daorn =DAY-Ohrn
Kaise =KAY-Ice
Ahan = AY-Hayn
Roial = ROH-Eye-al

Other Names:
Hrathen = Ray-then (with a very subtle ‘h’ sound at the beginning.)
Fjorden = Fee-ohr-den
Galladon = Gall-ah-dawn
Dilaf = Dee-lawf