As the title says, I have in mind a verb for explaining how to pronounce a character's name: PRONOUNCE

IC version:
> pronounce kaldonis
Cal-doe-nihs

OOC version:
> pronounce kaldonis
Cal(ifornia) Doe Nis

Whether it should be IC or OOC is for me, personally, not important. The "correct" way to "pronounce" a character's name in-genre is by spelling it correctly (or spell correctly whatever other name or nickname they profess to like). But still, as a player, I think about character names and naturally want to say them. The difference of how to pronounce character names has become really evident now that my wife finally moved to Tokyo with me, and we talk about the game in person and not, you know, in text online. Anyway, it's not a strictly "roleplaying" verb since it doesn't have an effect in game, but it effects how we think about the game and is not mechanical, so it's kind of like roleplaying.

I've discussed the pronunciation of names with some fellow Beacon Hall officers, who I hope will not mind using their names as examples. I also hope that I manage to correctly explain how to pronounce their character names. Below that, I will put how the player of Astru says them to me (incorrectly, raspberries).

> pronounce khiya
Kai-ah
(Key-ah)

> pronounce jersea
Jer-see-ah
(Jersey)

> pronounce raincail
Reen-kill
(Rain-cail)

> pronounce fyrentennimar
What-did-you-just-say?
(Oh god)

> pronounce neovik
Neo-vik
(Neo-vik)

Or some other ones, by players who may or may not know both of us, and most pronunciations are guesses.

> pronounce droit
"Droit rhymes with Detroit"
(Detroit is a French word, it's "Droigh(t)")

> pronounce rlen
レン (Japanese has a R/L sound)
(How the hell do you pronounce that?)

> pronounce starchitin
Star-chit-in
(Star-chit-lin...oh there isn't an L?)

> pronounce dergoatean
Goat
(Goat)

What do people think? Basically, there would be an option like PRONOUNCE SET to set your own name pronunciation, and the usual, "no violation of policy" like pronouncing your name as swear words. GMs might even have a bit of fun with that for creatures...

~daid (player of Kaldonis)

I heartily support either verb or profile option on this.

--Hal

I love this idea. And I think it does have some IC uses. I have one character who's likely to give nicknames or rhyme someone's name, but that's hard to do if you're not sure of the pronunciation!