So, we obviously have names which one might not have difficulties with being somewhat fluent in the language, such as Superman, or Wonder Woman, or Flash, but what do you do when you get to names like Garguax or Myxzptlk? Or when you have something that appears to be one pronunciation but is actually another, such as Constantine(like time) instead of Constanteen? I try and find a pronunciation online if I can, or I just try and go with it, but I’ve been having some difficulties lately
What all do you do when you come across a tricky name?
I would say watch the animated toons & movies but they change pronunciation literally in the same sentence on some characters. The 2 I learned recently from watching DC daily are Zatanna is pronounced za-tan-a, & Ra’s al ghuls 1st name is acceptable as raysh or rahs. I always said Zatannas name right but it used to bug me when people said rahs instead of raysh. The creators themselves said this on DC daily, those were the only 2 I’ve had questions about. To add to that,Talia says “it’s pronounced raysh, common mistake” in one of the animated movies. I can’t remember which cuz I’ve seen them all too many times. I’m sure someone on here knows what movie I’m referencing. She says this after someone refers to it as rahs.
in arrow it seemed as though Rahs was the man. but Raysh was the Title. For instance, when Malcolm Merlyn became the head of the League, he called himself Raysh . whereas the man who was the head of the league before him was Rahs
It wasn’t really pronounced “Raysh” on any media until the animated universe. In general the pronunciation of “-ay-” for the letter “A” is an English speaker thing. A very common mistake to apply english grammatical rules to foreign words. In arabic the “A” in Ras which is their word for “head” is pronounced as “ah”…so Batman Begins actually got it right.
I’m a long time Batman fan and my degrees are in Archaeology & Linguistics. For what its worth.
Ras Al Ghul is supposed to mean “Head of the Demon” in arabic. All though Ras Al Ghul does speak english he’s not an english speaking native. He was born to nomads wondering the arabian desert (see “Birth of the Demon”). O’Niel and Adams did co-create the character but it was editor Julius Schwartz aka “Julie” that came up with the name Ras Al Ghul. Which he got from combining the arabic words for “head of the demon”. The name was originally supposed to be arabic. In arabic there is only 1 pronunciation. Its also important to note the name was written for many years with a macron over the ā and the ū…for example Rās Al Ghūl. This macron is also found on the arabic version of the word which instructs readers to stress the sound. O’Neil never gave the name pronunciation a second thought until recent debates. But if you really had to ask anyone its “Julie”. And if you look at a more recent interview of O‘Neil he pronounces it as R-ah-s arabic version (it wont allow me to place any links, but checkout Denny O’Neil Pt. 2_ The Dark Knight’s Greatest Villians). So theres some conflict there and it does seem thats his preferred way when not question about it. And Neal Adams in the “2018 Baltimore Comic Con Exclusive: Neil Adams talks Ra’s Al Ghul” also pronounces it in the arabic way (checkout that video).
When I first encountered the character in the pages of Superboy (the old “Superman when he was a boy” version), they said it was pronounced “mix-yiz-pitel-ick.”
for me, I pronounced it Rahs because it was written as Ra’s. I associated that with Ra the Egyptian God. (who I first heard mentioned via his staff in Raiders of the Lost Ark)
