# Let's pronounce "Genasi"



## doctorhook

Okay, so can anyone tell me whether or not there is an official pronunciation for "Genasi"? I have been pronouncing it "ge-nah-see" /gзnα:si/. (Hard "g",  short "e",  short "a",  "i" as a long "e",  with the emphasis upon the middle syllable, "na".) This seems like the most natural way to pronounce the word in English (General American dialect).

What does everyone else think? How does ENWorld pronounce "Genasi"?


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## Asmor

Rhymes with cow.


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## Fallen Seraph

I pronounce it the same way.

Though given their heritage and such, I would like to know how it be pronounced in Arabic.


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## Boddynock

Interesting! I've always pronounced it the same as doctorhook, except that the g is soft, not hard.


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## Lord Xtheth

Jen-na-see is how I say it.

if I were to apply english rules to it... 

Jean-na-see (I think?) 

french-english 
gen (like shin) ass
genasse?


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## Studio69

JEN-ah-SEE


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## Shemeska

Hard g :  Gen - ah - si


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## fissionessence

Boddynock said:


> Interesting! I've always pronounced it the same as doctorhook, except that the g is soft, not hard.




This. 'G' is usually soft before 'e', 'i' or 'y'. 

So I go with [jeh NA see].

~


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## Mouseferatu

Originally, I went with a hard G, as in "go away!"

But I realized that was wrong, for a few reasons.

1) As someone else pointed out, G is usually soft before an E, such as in "generation" or "genuflect." However, we all know D&D and fantasy names often don't follow English structure. That said...

2) The genasi, as a concept, were originally descended from genies, and that (I'm pretty sure) is where the name came from. As such, a soft G--so it's pronounced "jenasi"--makes much more sense in-character as well.

So I pronounce it:

"jen" as in "Jennifer" or "generation"

"oss" as in "cross"

"ee" as in "Whee!" or "free."


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## Hypersmurf

doctorhook said:


> This seems like the most natural way to pronounce the word in English (General American dialect).




[giggle]

I like the way that the sentence where you claim a hard G on 'gen' is the most natural way includes a word with a soft G on 'gen' 

-Hyp.


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## That One Guy

For the genie reason the mouse of darkness stated, I came to a similar pronunciation.


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## blargney the second

I've been pronouncing it GUH-nah-zee, but I could be sold on JEN-ah-zee.


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## Ginnel

Genasi

I pronounce Gen-sai

as in the bleach Bankai well the ai being pronounced like eye  

This is mainly because of a dyslexic friend who ran planescape and said it that way and the fact that the human brain generally only looks at the first and last letter of a word, I'd never really examined the word properly before.

But looking at again it could still be pronounced Gen-a-si with the a being near silent.


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## cougent

My first impulse (Native Texan speak) is to say "guh-Nah-see".

blargney's previous Canadian pronunciation being eerily similar, I could default to that as well.

However, I too defer to the mouse and agree that seems a more appropriate pronunciation as well.


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## Huw

"jen-AA-see"

Obviously derived from jinni/genie, so a soft "g" in either case. But it's a made up word, so say whatever you're most comfortable with.


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## Shemeska

Someone ask Monte Cook how they're pronounced, since he created them in the Planewalkers Handbook. That'll be the answer there if we go with original intent.

Unfortunately I don't think genasi are mentioned in the audio portions of the Players Primer to the Outlands, which has always served as a handy planar pronunciation guide on a lot of terms.


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## Kobold Avenger

Jen-a-see..

"Genasi" being derived from "Genie" since their heritage is commonly associated with Genies.


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## theredrobedwizard

Coming from a co-worker who's originally from Turkey: jena-SIGH (sounds like Genocide without the -de).

-TRRW


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## Klaus

Jen-NAH-see here.


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## Henry

Klaus said:


> Jen-NAH-see here.




Me, too, though the "Jena-sigh" is a neat idea, too. I have always went "soft g" because of the word "Genie".


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## Tancread

Shemeska said:


> Unfortunately I don't think genasi are mentioned in the audio portions of the Players Primer to the Outlands, which has always served as a handy planar pronunciation guide on a lot of terms.




I was just going to ask if they were in any of the audio books from the FR novels.


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## Nahat Anoj

I pronounce it as "jee-NAH-see."


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## Fifth Element

doctorhook said:


> This seems like the most natural way to pronounce the word in English (General American dialect).



Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:

general
genie
generation
gentle
genuflect
gene
genesis
gender
genus

I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually* does *have a hard 'g'.


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## Morrus

Boddynock said:


> I've always pronounced it the same as doctorhook




Interesting, but for clarity we'd have to know how you pronounce "doctorhook", too!


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## Gotham Gamemaster

Mouseferatu said:


> Originally, I went with a hard G, as in "go away!"
> 
> But I realized that was wrong, for a few reasons.
> 
> 1) As someone else pointed out, G is usually soft before an E, such as in "generation" or "genuflect." However, we all know D&D and fantasy names often don't follow English structure. That said...
> 
> 2) The genasi, as a concept, were originally descended from genies, and that (I'm pretty sure) is where the name came from. As such, a soft G--so it's pronounced "jenasi"--makes much more sense in-character as well.
> 
> So I pronounce it:
> 
> "jen" as in "Jennifer" or "generation"
> 
> "oss" as in "cross"
> 
> "ee" as in "Whee!" or "free."





This is how I remember Bruce Cordell and the other FR designers pronouncing it at this year's Secrets of the Forgotten Realms seminar at Gen Con.


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## Cam Banks

I'm the jen-AH-see camp.

Cheers,
Cam


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## Carnivorous_Bean

I've always said "jen - AH - see" also, for what that's worth.


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## Wonka

Ginnel said:


> Genasi
> 
> I pronounce Gen-sai
> 
> as in the bleach Bankai well the ai being pronounced like eye




This is how I pronounce it, although it was a result of me misreading the spelling as such. Ive come to like that pronunciation better so I just stick with it


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## Remathilis

jenna-see (no separation of the gen and a)


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## Ethalias

theredrobedwizard said:


> Coming from a co-worker who's originally from Turkey: jena-SIGH (sounds like Genocide without the -de).
> 
> -TRRW




I was beginning to think I was the only one! I was shocked by how many people pronounce it with an -EE sound at the end.. Not appalled though


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## knightofround

I've been pronouncing it gen-a-sai, like in "genocide". I do wonder what the original intent for pronunciation is though.


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## Greylock

Fifth Element said:


> Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:
> 
> general
> genie
> generation
> gentle
> genuflect
> gene
> genesis
> gender
> genus
> 
> I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually* does *have a hard 'g'.




Genk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

hth


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## doctorhook

Hypersmurf said:


> [giggle]
> 
> I like the way that the sentence where you claim a hard G on 'gen' is the most natural way includes a word with a soft G on 'gen'
> 
> -Hyp.






Fifth Element said:


> Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:
> 
> general
> genie
> generation
> gentle
> genuflect
> gene
> genesis
> gender
> genus
> 
> I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually* does *have a hard 'g'.



Yikes, guys. I said, "seem like", as in, "seems like *to me*". Obviously, I forgot to consider that "g" is usually /dz/ in front of an "e". Sorry for being wrong.

Anyway, you all have convinced me that it's probably a soft "g" /dz/ sound, but that otherwise, I'm probably on the right track. I'm also gathering here that there isn't a consensus on how "Genasi" was intended to be pronounced.

Someone mentioned that Monte Cook wrote about them originally. Did he create them conceptually? If so, how does he pronounce the word? Also, are there any arabic-speakers here who can give us some linguistic context for this word?


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## Shemeska

doctorhook said:


> Someone mentioned that Monte Cook wrote about them originally. Did he create them conceptually? If so, how does he pronounce the word?




Genasi first appeared in the 2e Planewalker's Handbook, which Monte wrote. Elemental planetouched hadn't appeared prior to that point to my knowledge, so I'd say that he created them conceptually if I had to guess. Not a clue unfortunately how he pronounced them.


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## Ranger REG

Studio69 said:


> JEN-ah-SEE



Rhymes with Jealousy.

*dances to the Club Nouveau song*


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## el-remmen

Mangrove Throatwarbler.  


But serious, I am amazed that anyone pronounces it any way but, jen-UH-sigh.

It ends in "i", not "sey" or "sy" or "see"


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## Fifth Element

doctorhook said:


> Sorry for being wrong.



No apology required. But mistakes will tend to be noticed when hundreds of people read them.


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## El Mahdi

theredrobedwizard said:


> Coming from a co-worker who's originally from Turkey: jena-SIGH (sounds like Genocide without the -de).
> 
> -TRRW




Same here.  I've always said it kind of like the Genii (Jen-eye) from Stargate: Atlantis - so I say it the same way (jena-sigh).


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## Fifth Element

Greylock said:


> Genk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> hth



Yeah, not sure that qualifies as English,


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## Huw

doctorhook said:


> Also, are there any arabic-speakers here who can give us some linguistic context for this word?




You want a linguist?

Well, Arabic has had a soft "g" and no hard "g" for its entire literary history, whereas other Semitic languages have a hard "g". The Arabic letter "jim" (used to spell "jinni") is "gimel" in Hebrew, "gamal" in Assyrian and (though Phoenician) "gamma" in Greek.

Languages written in Arabic script which have a hard "g" (like Farsi, Urdu and Kurdish) use the letter "kaf" (i.e. K) with an extra mark above it, much like most European languages with non-Latin sounds use accents.

Short story: Arabic doesn't have a hard "g".


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## Huw

Fifth Element said:


> Yeah, not sure that qualifies as English,




But gear, gecko, geek, geese, geld, get and Gettysburg do.

English isn't known for consistency


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## Fifth Element

Huw said:


> But gear, gecko, geek, geese, geld, get and Gettysburg do.
> 
> English isn't known for consistency



I was looking for a word beginning in 'gen'. The above do not qualify as such.


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## Logan_Bonner

Didier Monin came to the design pit one day to ask us a question about the genasi, and pronounced it with a French accent. 

So my favorite pronunciation is zhe-na-see'.


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## blargney the second

You can find hard-g gen's in names like Morgen and Sagen.
-blarg


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## lutecius

I am french too but it doesn't sound like a french word so i've always pronounced it (hard)Geh-nah-zee. 

erm... now that i think of it, that sounds exactly like "gay nazi" in french. Maybe that's why D.Monin prefers "jenasi".


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## Shemeska

I'm not sure that the pronunciation of genie or the 'g' in arabic fully matters in this situation. It's not an arabic word, it's a created word from a fantasy setting. And the genasi don't necessarily have a monolithic descent from genie-kin either. 

Regular elementals, mephits (yeah, there's an image of a honeymoon you want in your head), salamanders, and other non-genie natives of the elemental planes can be the source of a particular genasi's bloodline, assuming that it wasn't just caused by magical mishap, curse, or general exposure to the energies of the elemental planes in-utero. So should we assume "genie" should have that much importance for pronunciation purposes?


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## Greylock

Fifth Element said:


> Yeah, a hard 'g' like in:
> 
> general
> genie
> generation
> gentle
> genuflect
> gene
> genesis
> gender
> genus
> 
> I could go on. I'm having trouble thinking of a 'gen' word that actually* does *have a hard 'g'.






Greylock said:


> Genk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> hth






Fifth Element said:


> Yeah, not sure that qualifies as English,




Hey, no moving of the proverbial goalposts! You didn't say it had to be English!

How about Gengou?

Bordet-Gengou - Definition from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary


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## Fifth Element

blargney the second said:


> You can find hard-g gen's in names like Morgen and Sagen.



Indeed. Should have specified initial 'gen', not terminal.


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## Fifth Element

Greylock said:


> Hey, no moving of the proverbial goalposts! You didn't say it had to be English!
> 
> How about Gengou?
> 
> Bordet-Gengou - Definition from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary



Well spotted, I didn't specify English, did I?

Gengou was French, apparently. And the link specifies a soft 'g' for that one as well.


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## Klaus

Shemeska said:


> Genasi first appeared in the 2e Planewalker's Handbook, which Monte wrote. Elemental planetouched hadn't appeared prior to that point to my knowledge, so I'd say that he created them conceptually if I had to guess. Not a clue unfortunately how he pronounced them.



And a mighty fine book that is.


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## Leatherhead

Similar to the way I say Ginsu.

Curse those infomercials for being so memorable.


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## Ranger REG

WotC_Logan said:


> Didier Monin came to the design pit one day to ask us a question about the genasi, and pronounced it with a French accent.



You sure? Not German? Brooklyn? Alabama?


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## Cam Banks

Shemeska said:


> So should we assume "genie" should have that much importance for pronunciation purposes?




Yes. Even though it's a made-up name, the connection to "genie" is at least a reasonable one.

Cheers,
Cam


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## Wyrmshadows

_Gen_-uh-si (like genocide)

What's really odd is that there are so few pronunciation guides in regards to how to pronounce odd or unfamiliar sounding words in D&D.



Wyrmshadow


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## Mouseferatu

el-remmen said:


> But serious, I am amazed that anyone pronounces it any way but, jen-UH-sigh.
> 
> It ends in "i", not "sey" or "sy" or "see"




While there aren't a huge number of English words that end in I, those that do, and those that we've borrowed or transliterated from other languages, almost all end with a long "ee" sound.

Broccoli.
Ferrari.
Ravioli.
Salami.
Pepperoni.
Tripoli.
And, of course, Ari.


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## TarionzCousin

Mouseferatu said:


> And, of course, Ari.



I pronounce that just like the word "awry."

And isn't genasi pronounced "Gee-Nazi"?


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## doctorhook

...So it appears there is no "official pronunciation" for this word, if this thread is any indication. In this thread, there's already nearly sixty replies from a huge range of informed and semi-informed people, including official WotC staffers, community-renowned freelancers, and hobbists and D&D geeks of every stripe, from a fairly wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It's not a huge sample, but it's not bad either, and given the lore and hobby-knowledge some of these posters have, I think that if an "official pronunciation" existed anywhere, at least somebody would know it. Thus, I am no longer expecting an "official pronunciation" to appear, nor am I confident that Monte Cook's pronunciation of "genasi" will settle anything. (I'm still curious about how he does pronounce it, though.)

That said, a significant number of posters apparently pronounce "genasi" similar to "jen-NA-see". (Don't beat me up if either my transcription or my counting is wrong! For our purposes, though, I think it's okay.)
/d͡ʒзnα:si/ = 14 (Soft G, "jen-NA-see")
/d͡ʒinα:si/ = 1
/d͡ʒi:nαzi/ = 1
/ʒзnα:si/ = 1

/gзnα:si/ = 5 (Hard G, "gen-NA-see")
/gз:nαzi/ = 1

/d͡ʒзnαsaɪ/ = 6 (Sounds like "genocide")

/gзnsaɪ/ or /d͡ʒзnsaɪ/ = 3 ("gen-sai" or "jen-sai")
/gзnαsi:/ or /d͡ʒзnαsi:/ = 1 

Rhymes with cow = 1​My next question is whether or not "we", the community, have the mandate to make this slightly dominant pronunciation (semi-)official. IMHO, there's both enough support for and a decent enough case to be made in favour of "jen-NA-see" (or something similar). In other words, can we agree on a pronunciation and declare, "*Look, world! We, the English-speaking D&D community have agreed to pronounce the word "Genasi" as ______!*"?

Does it even matter this much?


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## Mouseferatu

doctorhook said:


> In other words, can we agree on a pronunciation and declare, "*Look, world! We, the English-speaking D&D community have agreed to pronounce the word "Genasi" as ______!*"?




Given that there's still not a community consensus on "drow," _despite_ the fact that we _have_ gotten an official answer from WotC, I think the idea that we could get any sort of community consensus on "genasi" is about as likely to happen as the world rising up with one voice and choosing between Coke and Pepsi.



> Does it even matter this much?




No. No, it does not.


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## Drakhar

Mouseferatu said:


> Given that there's still not a community consensus on "drow,"




Wait what? How do you have multiple ways of saying Drow?

And I've always pronounced Genasi, Geh-Nah-See myself but I have heard other pronounciations so YMMV.

....no really how the hell do you say Drow in a different way?


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## Hypersmurf

Drakhar said:


> ....no really how the hell do you say Drow in a different way?




How many ways can you say "Bow"?

-Hyp.


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## doctorhook

Drakhar said:


> Wait what? How do you have multiple ways of saying Drow?
> 
> And I've always pronounced Genasi, Geh-Nah-See myself but I have heard other pronounciations so YMMV.
> 
> ....no really how the hell do you say Drow in a different way?



FWIW, i used to say "drow", as in, "D*row*, d*row*, d*row* your boat, gently down the stream...". Later, playing BGII, I heard it pronounced in-game as "drow", like "Dr*ow*! That hurts!"

I'm comfortable with the latter pronunciation, now.


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## Mouseferatu

Drakhar said:


> Wait what? How do you have multiple ways of saying Drow?




Apparently, some people really want to pronounce it to rhyme with "snow" or "no," even though the official pronunciation rhymes with "how" or "prow."


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## Fallen Seraph

Hmm... I am having a hard time trying to think best way to sound out how I say Drow. I guess, DR-ouw.


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## Morrus

Mouseferatu said:


> And, of course, Ari.




Just for my own peace of mind, am I correct in assuming "Ari" rhymes with "Harry"?


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## Cam Banks

Morrus said:


> Just for my own peace of mind, am I correct in assuming "Ari" rhymes with "Harry"?




I've been assuming it's pronounced the same way Ari Fleischer pronounces it, which is to say, rhyming with "starry."

Cheers,
Cam


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## am181d

I've always pronounced it like jen-uh-sigh. If it was pronounced jen-uh-see, it would rhyme with the beer Hennessey. "Genasi" is a fantasy word, so it should be pronounced like sci-fi and psi, as opposed to pepperoni.


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## doctorhook

am181d said:


> I've always pronounced it like jen-uh-sigh. If it was pronounced jen-uh-see, it would rhyme with the beer Hennessey. "Genasi" is a fantasy word, so it should be pronounced like sci-fi and psi, as opposed to pepperoni.



Well, the majority seem to pronounce Genasi with the emphasis on the middle syllable, (as is, AFAIK, typical with english), which mean that it wouldn't really rhyme with Hennessey.

The closest rhyme for "jen-NA-see" that I can think of is, "the chassis".


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## Mouseferatu

Morrus said:


> Just for my own peace of mind, am I correct in assuming "Ari" rhymes with "Harry"?






Cam Banks said:


> I've been assuming it's pronounced the same way Ari Fleischer pronounces it, which is to say, rhyming with "starry."




Cam's more or less got the right of it, though of course with Morrus being one of them there British types, we've also got cultural accents to consider. 

"The last two syllables of "safari" and "Atari" both rhyme with how my name's pronounced.


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## Sound of Azure

doctorhook said:


> FWIW, i used to say "drow", as in, "D*row*, d*row*, d*row* your boat, gently down the stream...". Later, playing BGII, I heard it pronounced in-game as "drow", like "Dr*ow*! That hurts!"
> 
> I'm comfortable with the latter pronunciation, now.




Reminds me of one of my former DMs who pronounced "Lich" as Lick (like in Lichtenstein), rather than Litch, as the rest of the group did. I'm not sure if he was right or not, to this day. We had a lot of trouble taking something seriously with a name like that, even if it was right.


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## Klaus

Mouseferatu said:


> Apparently, some people really want to pronounce it to rhyme with "snow" or "no," even though the official pronunciation rhymes with "how" or "prow."



Well, it's hard to undo more than 10 years of having it rhyming with "snow"...


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## Cam Banks

Mouseferatu said:


> Cam's more or less got the right of it, though of course with Morrus being one of them there British types, we've also got cultural accents to consider.
> 
> "The last two syllables of "safari" and "Atari" both rhyme with how my name's pronounced.




Morrus may be British, but I'm a native New Zealander. Living in the USA for 12 years hasn't helped my accent any. 

Cheers,
Cam


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## Mouseferatu

Cam Banks said:


> Morrus may be British, but I'm a native New Zealander. Living in the USA for 12 years hasn't helped my accent any.




Augh! I'm surrounded by folks as what don't talk none too good!!


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## blargney the second

Mouseferatu said:


> Augh! I'm surrounded by folks as what don't talk none too good!!



Well, you could always move away from Texas...
-blarg


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## Ranger REG

Mouseferatu said:


> Cam's more or less got the right of it, though of course with Morrus being one of them there British types, we've also got cultural accents to consider.
> 
> "The last two syllables of "safari" and "Atari" both rhyme with how my name's pronounced.



Well, bleep me. I thought it was either "airy" or "awry" (rhymes with _SG-1_ "Ori").


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## Ranger REG

Cam Banks said:


> Morrus may be British, but I'm a native New Zealander. Living in the USA for 12 years hasn't helped my accent any.



Never assimilate American-speech. They're worse. I should know, I'm born here.


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## mhacdebhandia

Mouseferatu said:


> So I pronounce it:
> 
> "jen" as in "Jennifer" or "generation"
> 
> "oss" as in "cross"
> 
> "ee" as in "Whee!" or "free."



Americans shouldn't be allowed to decide how things are pronounced - your accents don't allow for enough range!

I kid. But, srsly. The "as" in "genasi" rhymes with the "oss" in "cross"? Those are different vowel sounds, you lunatic Texan!


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## El Mahdi

doctorhook said:


> Well, the majority seem to pronounce Genasi with the emphasis on the middle syllable, (as is, AFAIK, typical with english), which mean that it wouldn't really rhyme with Hennessey.
> 
> The closest rhyme for "jen-NA-see" that I can think of is, "the chassis".




Or Tennessee (like the state and the Arrested Development song).


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## mhacdebhandia

Personally, I say "jeh-NAH-see". The "jeh" could also sound like "juh", depending on how it comes out of my mouth.


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## Amphimir Míriel

Mouseferatu said:


> Apparently, some people really want to pronounce it to rhyme with "snow" or "no," even though the official pronunciation rhymes with "how" or "prow."




 What!? No way!


edit: At least it turned out that I pronounce your name correctly...


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## Cam Banks

Ranger REG said:


> Never assimilate American-speech. They're worse. I should know, I'm born here.




It's too late. I am now in accent limbo. New Zealand friends and family think I have an American accent, while everyone here in the USA thinks I have a NZ accent. They occasionally confuse it with an Australian accent, but that's a monstrous accusation that results in painful and excruciating death for the hapless confused person.

Cheers,
Cam


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## doctorhook

El Mahdi said:


> Or Tennessee (like the state and the Arrested Development song).



I was actually hesitant to use that example, because, to me, "Tennessee" seems like stress is on the last syllable, which wasn't what I was going for. It's sort of like the difference between saying, "jen-NAH-see" and "jenna-SEE".

(But I do enjoy Arrested Development, so have a cookie! :cookie: )


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## Fenes

Sound of Azure said:


> Reminds me of one of my former DMs who pronounced "Lich" as Lick (like in Lichtenstein), rather than Litch, as the rest of the group did. I'm not sure if he was right or not, to this day. We had a lot of trouble taking something seriously with a name like that, even if it was right.




Lichtenstein doesn't get pronounced as "Lick" (as in licking), it has a softer sound, mostly between "sh" and "ck", sort of a soft cough.

I pronounce all exotic names like they'd be pronounced in German, unless it's very clear that they are derived from a real language.


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## Sound of Azure

Fenes said:


> Lichtenstein doesn't get pronounced as "Lick" (as in licking), it has a softer sound, mostly between "sh" and "ck", sort of a soft cough.
> 
> I pronounce all exotic names like they'd be pronounced in German, unless it's very clear that they are derived from a real language.




Ah, sorry about that! I think that'll be the last time I take pronunciation lessons from _A Knight's Tale_!


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## Drakhar

Mouseferatu said:


> Apparently, some people really want to pronounce it to rhyme with "snow" or "no," even though the official pronunciation rhymes with "how" or "prow."




...yah, I don't think I could have thought of that without breaking my brain. It just sounds plain silly that way if you ask me.


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## Fifth Element

Sound of Azure said:


> Reminds me of one of my former DMs who pronounced "Lich" as Lick (like in Lichtenstein), rather than Litch, as the rest of the group did. I'm not sure if he was right or not, to this day. We had a lot of trouble taking something seriously with a name like that, even if it was right.



I had a DM who did the same thing. He also pronounced melee as "muh-LEE". I had another DM who insisted cudgel is pronounced with a hard 'g' in the middle.


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## Desdichado

doctorhook said:


> /gзnα:si/



My name is Hobo and I approved this message.

Although I see /jзnα:si/ and even /gзnα:sai/ and /jзnα:sai/ as suitable alternates.

To be honest with you, I don't really like the word.  Then again my attempts to come up with alternates (jinnborn, etc.) haven't really excited me either.


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## Moorcrys

I use the 'jen-NAH-see' pronunciation, although I personally like 'jen-SAI'.

I try not to use the 'jen-uh-SEE' pronunciation 'cause it sounds too much like the cream ale/beer Genesee. We already have enough things to get the table going off on a tangent -- beer races will put us over the edge.


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## Kobold Avenger

Moorcrys said:


> I try not to use the 'jen-uh-SEE' pronunciation 'cause it sounds too much like the cream ale/beer Genesee. We already have enough things to get the table going off on a tangent -- beer races will put us over the edge.



And Djinn doesn't?  

Really how often hasn't everyone gone off on a tangent about Gin, with those Djinn Genies...


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## Desdichado

Moorcrys said:


> I use the 'jen-NAH-see' pronunciation, although I personally like 'jen-SAI'.



Hey, that's a good alternative right there.

Gensai?  Djinsai?  A can see a few alternate spellings that all make sense, but all of them, at least, lack the problematic pronunciation issue inherent in genasi, as well as arguably being slightly more explicit about what it is that they are.


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## Ranger REG

Cam Banks said:


> It's too late. I am now in accent limbo. New Zealand friends and family think I have an American accent, while everyone here in the USA thinks I have a NZ accent. *They occasionally confuse it with an Australian accent, but that's a monstrous accusation that results in painful and excruciating death for the hapless confused person.*



Right. I'll try to note the differences.


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## Scribble

Sound of Azure said:


> Reminds me of one of my former DMs who pronounced "Lich" as Lick (like in Lichtenstein), rather than Litch, as the rest of the group did. I'm not sure if he was right or not, to this day. We had a lot of trouble taking something seriously with a name like that, even if it was right.




For a while I wanted it to be pronounced as "Leiche" which is the german word for corpse. Seemed cooler that way to me.


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## mlund

When I encounter a non-English word in Roman Script I tend to default to using the kind of pronunciation we use for Romanized Japanese and Classical Latin (not to be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin).

Ge = "Geh," since there is no "soft" G in Classical Latin or Romanized Japanese (heck, the Romans didn't even have a "J," they just used "i" as a Consonant, making a "y-" sound in front of other vowels).

Note well that the Roman letters used to spell "Julius Caesar" are actually correctly pronounced - "Yoo-lee-us-Kigh-Sar" and written IULIUSCAESAR. You don't pronounce Cicero or Virgil as "Sissero" or "Verjil" either. 

At any rate, what does this have to do with Genasi? *Romanization*. When you romanize a word that comes from a language that doesn't use Roman Characters (like Japanese), you shouldn't use "soft G" or "soft C" when you find the sounds of a "J" or "S." You are just aping the sounds of the native language into your own script, so you use the "pure" script rather than the exceptions.

Ergo, when I see a purely fabricated word in a fantasy setting I automatically assume it has been Romanized from whatever make-believe fantasy language it came from - and therefore there is no "Soft G" or "Soft C" to be had.

"Genasi" as a Romanization from another language would most likely be "Geh-Nah-See." "Genasi" as a mutated derivative of "Genie," however, would be completely different. Considering the Genasi-Genie-Djinn thing is muddled and tenuous at best in 4th Edition I'm just going with "Geh-Nah-See" until I see a definative pronunciation guide.

- Marty Lund


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## Hella_Tellah

mlund said:


> When I encounter a non-English word in Roman Script I tend to default to using the kind of pronunciation we use for Romanized Japanese and Classical Latin (not to be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin).
> 
> Ge = "Geh," since there is no "soft" G in Classical Latin or Romanized Japanese (heck, the Romans didn't even have a "J," they just used "i" as a Consonant, making a "y-" sound in front of other vowels).
> 
> Note well that the Roman letters used to spell "Julius Caesar" are actually correctly pronounced - "Yoo-lee-us-Kigh-Sar" and written IULIUSCAESAR. You don't pronounce Cicero or Virgil as "Sissero" or "Verjil" either.
> 
> At any rate, what does this have to do with Genasi? *Romanization*. When you romanize a word that comes from a language that doesn't use Roman Characters (like Japanese), you shouldn't use "soft G" or "soft C" when you find the sounds of a "J" or "S." You are just aping the sounds of the native language into your own script, so you use the "pure" script rather than the exceptions.
> 
> Ergo, when I see a purely fabricated word in a fantasy setting I automatically assume it has been Romanized from whatever make-believe fantasy language it came from - and therefore there is no "Soft G" or "Soft C" to be had.
> 
> "Genasi" as a Romanization from another language would most likely be "Geh-Nah-See." "Genasi" as a mutated derivative of "Genie," however, would be completely different. Considering the Genasi-Genie-Djinn thing is muddled and tenuous at best in 4th Edition I'm just going with "Geh-Nah-See" until I see a definative pronunciation guide.
> 
> - Marty Lund




This.  Exactly this.

GET OUT MAH HEAD CHARLES!


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## Cam Banks

mlund said:


> Considering the Genasi-Genie-Djinn thing is muddled and tenuous at best in 4th Edition I'm just going with "Geh-Nah-See" until I see a definative pronunciation guide.




How is it tenuous and muddled? Elemental humanoids with a name that sounds like genie? That's more convincing than your default pronunciation routine, I should think.

Cheers,
Cam


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## demonsquidgod

I just want to cast my vote for jen-ah-Sigh, or sometimes gen-ah-SIGH.

The ee ending has always sounded silly to me.


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## RogueMonkeyChief

For whatever it adds to the discussion, the Planewalker's Handbook says the following in the Genasi entry on page 71:



> The genasi are planetouched beings, the descendants of a union of a human and an elemental creature (often a djinni, hence the name genasi).


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## doctorhook

RogueMonkeyChief said:


> For whatever it adds to the discussion, the Planewalker's Handbook says the following in the Genasi entry on page 71:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The genasi are planetouched beings, the descendants of a union of a human and an elemental creature (often a djinni, hence the name genasi).
Click to expand...


This is probably the most substantive answer yet.


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## mattdm

demonsquidgod said:


> I just want to cast my vote for jen-ah-Sigh, or sometimes gen-ah-SIGH.
> 
> The ee ending has always sounded silly to me.




I think ee sounds silly when it's emphasized jenna-SEE, but could work pretty well with the n belonging to the second syllable and emphasized as je-NAHsee or even hard-g geh-NAHsee.


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## dead

I downloaded a set of audio files a few years ago that pronounced several Planescape words. Amongst them was genasi and it was pronounced with a hard G: Geh-Nah-See.

I could have sworn I downloaded this from WotC but I can't quite remember. The same audio file pronounced Sigil as Sigg-il, though, which suprised me. (I pronounce it Sij-il.)


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## dead

dbl post


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## Zustiur

doctorhook said:


> Rhymes with cow = 1[/COLOR]Thankyou for including that. You have no idea how close I came to snorting my drink due to the sudden fit of laughter. I was mildly amused when I saw it the first time. Seeing it quoted and counted in an 'official' tally almost had me on the floor.
> 
> I used to read it as Gensai, having not bothered to look at how it was spelt.
> I now say jen-AH-see as it is spoken in our group. But I think I prefer jen-AH-sigh.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cam Banks said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> They occasionally confuse it with an Australian accent, but that's a monstrous accusation that results in painful and excruciating death for the hapless confused person.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ranger Reg said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Right. I'll try to note the differences.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> It's easy. Kiwi's say Bro' when Aussies say Mate. And Kiwis get all embarrassed when they get caught saying "G'day" near an Aussie.
Click to expand...


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## Monte At Home

> jen-AH-see




This.


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## Shemeska

Monte At Home said:


> This.




And I think we have an answer.


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## jbear

mlund said:


> When I encounter a non-English word in Roman Script I tend to default to using the kind of pronunciation we use for Romanized Japanese and Classical Latin (not to be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin).
> 
> Ge = "Geh," since there is no "soft" G in Classical Latin or Romanized Japanese (heck, the Romans didn't even have a "J," they just used "i" as a Consonant, making a "y-" sound in front of other vowels).
> 
> Note well that the Roman letters used to spell "Julius Caesar" are actually correctly pronounced - "Yoo-lee-us-Kigh-Sar" and written IULIUSCAESAR. You don't pronounce Cicero or Virgil as "Sissero" or "Verjil" either.
> 
> At any rate, what does this have to do with Genasi? *Romanization*. When you romanize a word that comes from a language that doesn't use Roman Characters (like Japanese), you shouldn't use "soft G" or "soft C" when you find the sounds of a "J" or "S." You are just aping the sounds of the native language into your own script, so you use the "pure" script rather than the exceptions.
> 
> Ergo, when I see a purely fabricated word in a fantasy setting I automatically assume it has been Romanized from whatever make-believe fantasy language it came from - and therefore there is no "Soft G" or "Soft C" to be had.
> 
> "Genasi" as a Romanization from another language would most likely be "Geh-Nah-See." "Genasi" as a mutated derivative of "Genie," however, would be completely different. Considering the Genasi-Genie-Djinn thing is muddled and tenuous at best in 4th Edition I'm just going with "Geh-Nah-See" until I see a definative pronunciation guide.
> 
> - Marty Lund



I'll put my vote in for [jén-aa-see]. I think that the root word (djinn or genie) gives the right clue. I'm not sure why you would romanise a word that seems to have arabic origins, but if its a question of taste then sweet as, but seems just as 'tenuous' if not more than the connection between djinn and genasi. 

Also the word genesis springs to my mind when I think of Genasi. Something elemental, the building blocks of creation.

From a linguistic point of view without even trying to link its origins to the word djinn 
gen- at the beginning of a word is always pronounced with a soft [dz] g:

gendarme
gender
gene, genealogical,genealogist etc.
general, generality,generalization, generalize etc
generation
generator
generic
generous, generosity
genesis
Genevese
genial, genialty,genially etc
genie 
genital
genitor
genius
genocide, genocidal
genre
gent, gentleman, gently etc.
genuflect
genuine

I havent found one hard [g] g in any word beginning with (gen-) in the dictionary.
Its also interesting to note that the plural of genie can also be genii which again looks quite like the ending of genasi. So one genasi, two genasii? That's quite cool.

For an exotic variation of the word how about with a Spanish pronounceation?
[hen-aa-si]


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