Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-213.143.72.174-20131117234834

I noticed that almost the entire table for the dragon language phonemes is inaccurate when compared to both the soundtracks and the actual spoken language in-game.

Example: the "ur" in "Paarthurnax" and "Durnehviir" sounds like the actual /u:r/, not like the stated /ɛr/. I find it difficult to locate a single use of a clear /ɛr/ pronunciation for the written form of "ur" in the game itself.

Similar cases appear for the others as well, such as the "aa" in "mahfaeraak" in the title song being a long /a:/ instead of the stated /æ/. Same case with "ey" in "suleyk" - it appears only as /ei/, never as the long /i:/ (to which we could also note that Paarthurnax seems to add a glottal sound to the transition between the /ei/ and /k/ sounds, but further comparison with other dragons' pronunciation is necessary before declaring this a phonemic feature, an allophone, or merely an isolated case).

The "oo" does however sound like both the long /u:/ or the long /o:/ sounds. Typical example would be the word "joor" (or the plural "joore"), which seems to be always pronounced as /u:/.

My point is essentially that the chart presented should either be changed to reflect the actual sounds (the ones described below), equipped with direct quotations that prove the stated pronunciation, or removed completely. As it is, the chart itself is far more confusing - not to mention misleading - to the usual reader than figuring out the rules of pronunciation by comparing the spoken dialogue to the subtitles, or the spoken lyrics of the Song of the Dragonborn to the transcription found in the book Songs of Skyrim. 