Pronunciation of D'ni

Charura · **Joined:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:14 pm **Posts:** 1773

I'm sure this is in here somewhere amid the bits and bytes of the forum....

Myst III - Upon entering Catherine speaks to you and calls them (D'ni = Donnie)

I've heard it pronounced from Atrus (D'ni = Dunny)

Myst V - Escher refers to himself as (D'ni = Duk-nee)

I know there are those that are hard-core fans that tend to lean one way or the other or in the middle...

BUT....Maybe....the D'ni actually had a dialect like all dialects... I say Potato you say Potawto...I say Tomawto you say Tomato... I'm from Ohio, USA. My dialect is a lot different from someone in Michigan or New York or Georgia or California. Maybe the civilization of the D'ni was a lot more diversified than originally discovered...

I know there are areas yet unopened in the city..but is this the only city? I've looked at the maps. Different cultures even?

Mowog · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 2:18 am **Posts:** 1420

I'm not sure if there's an IC explanation for Esher's pronunciation. Personally, I assumed it was some sort of dialect, and that being a full D'ni, he'd be more intimately connected to the race and more immersed in subtleties like languages, dialects, etc. Atrus, Catherine, and Yeesha were all separated from the original race by varying degrees, so they might have lost some of the finer points of the language.

I don't know... interesting topic, anyway!

Mowog

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 5:23 pm

The oddity about Esher's pronunciation for me is that it's very close to Hebrew, from which D'ni was derived.

* it's closer to the kh in melekh than it's probably meant to be.

Gondar · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 6:24 pm

I've always pronounced it dh-nee. That doesn't describe it exactly, but, the 'dh' sound of just the phoneme alone, a momentary stop, then 'nee'. In turn it's not slurred like 'dunny' nor is it turned into a glottal like dukhnee.
The pause is short, no longer than a brief moment to separate the first and second parts.

I always figured that was the best way to pronounce it as written. The best question would be how they pronounced other words with a break in the middle, and then extrapolate that to how they woulda pronounced the name.

I figure Atrus spoke it because he was raised by Ti'ana who probably taught him to speak english, so english IS his first language. Thus the easiest, dunny. Catherine also isn't a native D'ni speaker, having been taught by a mix of Gehn (who didn't do a great job) and Ti'ana, again. She probably carried her accent with her again.
As for Esher, didn't RAWA say he just has a really really weird accent and not explain too much of why? I figured he just spoke like that., and probably got weird looks from other d'ni

Trekluver · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 6:30 pm

Esher wanted you to think he was something on a stick; so I'm sure some of his "proper" pronunciations were a part of that.

Aside from that oddity, it is officially pronounced "Dunny." (And even spelled that way in the credits of the original Myst.)

Tai'lahr · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 8:34 pm

I agree with Gondar; I would pronounce it as dh-nee.

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 9:25 pm

I agree with Gondar - ' as a caesura if you like.

DLordofTime · **Posted:** Fri May 04, 2012 10:18 pm

Pronounce the 'd' as in 'duck', the apostrophe as in 'put', the 'n' as in 'new', and the 'i' as in 'see'. Note that the vowel sounds I'm giving are English vowel sounds, since I am English and I can't think of a standard American or Australian sound for it.

Malfhok · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 11:28 am

I went looking for it, couldn't find it (might not be on this forum), but I seem to recall RAWA giving a rare OOC explanation on Esher's pronunciation somewhere…

I'll keep looking around and drop a link here if I find it.

kaelisebonrai · **Joined:** Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:14 pm **Posts:** 902

Trekluver wrote:

Esher wanted you to think he was something on a stick; so I'm sure some of his "proper" pronunciations were a part of that.

Aside from that oddity, it is officially pronounced "Dunny." (And even spelled that way in the credits of the original Myst.)

Actually according to RAWA.. That is incorrect, and so is Escher's pronunciation. D'ni is not Duck-Knee, or "dunny". I think Yeesha in Uru has the correct pronunciation. RAWA has a post /somewhere/ about it, look it up before spouting incorrect information as the "official" answer.

EDIT: I've always pronounced it as "Duh-nee"

Trekluver · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 5:00 pm

kaelisebonrai wrote:

Trekluver wrote:

Esher wanted you to think he was something on a stick; so I'm sure some of his "proper" pronunciations were a part of that.

Aside from that oddity, it is officially pronounced "Dunny." (And even spelled that way in the credits of the original Myst.)

Actually according to RAWA.. That is incorrect, and so is Escher's pronunciation. D'ni is not Duck-Knee, or "dunny". I think Yeesha in Uru has the correct pronunciation. RAWA has a post /somewhere/ about it, look it up before spouting incorrect information as the "official" answer.

EDIT: I've always pronounced it as "Duh-nee"

Guess I should have speled it out as I pronounced it, but that IS how I pronounce it. :lol:

LuigiHann · **Joined:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:07 pm **Posts:** 837

Just ask people around the United States to say "Oregon." You'll see similar variety.

And you're right, basically everybody we meet in the Myst games was raised in a different era, speaking a different language, and even in the heyday of the D'ni you had children growing up literally on different worlds. It makes perfect sense that they'd have vastly different dialects

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 6:48 pm

If RAWA's post is anywhere, it will be on the DRC forum.

ETA Found it.

http://forums.drcsite.org/viewtopic.php?p=16654#16654

Malfhok · **Posted:** Sat May 05, 2012 7:00 pm

Ah, there it is! And here's the one (later in the thread) that I was thinking of: http://forums.drcsite.org/viewtopic.php ... 2a3d#16674

Gondar · **Posted:** Sun May 06, 2012 3:33 am

So how IS a schwa pronounced then (or at least, how does it affect the pronunciation)? Because, I was doing more like the softer glottal of it after a vowel. Dh, fraction of a pause, ni. Enough to move lips as it were.

Because that'd probably be then what the better pronunciation is. Unless, of course, it IS a hard glottal like Esher did. In which case then it's not like a schwa? :shock:

Long story short: You don't pronounce it like Esher. You also don't pronounce it like a toilet. Past that.. *shrug* :wink:

Pronunciation of D'ni

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