Datacron Database:Pronunciation

Below are key pronunciation symbols to guide you in articulating words and names.

Note: an apostrophe (') is used after the emphasized syllable in each name.

The following text was taken from Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Characters page 10.

Vowels

• ă: short a sound as in the words bat and act.
• ā: long a sound as in the word age or rate.
• ä: open a sound used for words like part, calm, and father. It duplicates the short o sound of the word hot.
• ĕ: short e sound used in edge or set.
• ē: long e sound used in equal or seat.
• ēr: This vowel sound before r may range from ē through ĭ in different dialects.
• ĭ: short i sound used in hit or pit.
• ī: long i sound used in bite or whine.
• ŏ: short o sound used in hot and pot.
• oi: a diphthong vowel sound that is a combination of an ō and an ē, such as in the words boy and toy.
• ō: long o sound used in moan and tone.
• ōō: long o sound used in toot and hoot.
• ô: relatively long o used in order and border.
• ŏŏ: short double o sound used in book and tour.
• ŭ: the short u sound used in up and sum.
• ûr: the u sound used in turn and urge.

Consonants

• kh: a hard k pronounced at the back of the throat, such as in loch or ach.
• hw: a soft w sound used in the words who and what.

ALT

The following text was taken from Leland Chee's Instagram.

Holocron Phonetic Pronunciation Key This only applies to syllables that end with a vowel sound, not a consonant. The idea is that adding an H after a vowel gives it the soft vowel sound. Adding an E after a vowel gives it the hard vowel sound.

soft vowel sound

• -AH (like cat)
• -EH (like in pet)
• -IH (like in kit)
• -OH (like in COT) [yeah I know, this one sometimes looks wrong so I often like to add additional clarification or figure out a different way to spell it out]
• -UH (like in cut)

hard vowel sound

• -AE (like in hay) [-AY works just as well]
• -EE (like in bee)
• -IE (like in tie) [sometimes using with certain consonants make us want to read it differently (ie SIE) so addition clarification or an alternate phonetic spelling might be helpful
• -OE (like in toe)
• -UE (like in due)

There's not a whole lot of difference between AA and OH, so I tend to go with AA to avoid confusion.

The idea is for this to be a clear and simple system, but it's our knowledge of the English language that ends up fouling things up.