Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Lae'zel's name

The amount of in-depth knowledge about the game world that can be found in these forums often astounds me. So, is someone able to explain the apostrophe in the name Lae'zel? Which letter or letters is/are left out? And why?

Apostrophe in names does not really relate to missing letters, but rather glottal stops or syllable breaks in order to pronounce them correctly. There are plenty of real-world cultures which have names with an apostrophe, but in fantasy or sci-fi it is used as a way to make a name or word appear more alien.

For example Laezel sounds less alien than Lae'zel. Another example would be Star Trek in which you have the Klingons and their words sound like this;

• d'k tahg
• Fek'lhr
• Ghay'cha'
• Qapla'

That does not seem to be the case with Lae'zel. I have heard her name pronounced as Laezel.


But it does sound as Laezel. Her name comes from another language that uses a different script (I learned that from finding Githynaki discs). So why would transliteration place an apostrophe between the two syllables?

Her name is pronounced LaeZel, a single uttering but the Zel is slightly highlighted when uttered. If it was Laezel, it would sound like pronouncing the word Basil. If you require validation of this simply start a new game and pay attention to her pronounciation of the words such as;

• gh'ath - Pronounced GhAth
• kith'rak - Pronounced KithRak
• tsk'va - Pronounced TskVa

Pay attention to how she pronounces these Githyanki words and you'll notice the very subtle pauses and the uttered highlights of the word's 2nd half. And since we're on the topic of pronounciation, I noticed an incredible detail that some of the more common Githyanki actually mispronounce certain common words of Faerun, which I think is an awesome detail because it shows they don't really bother trying to truly learn Faerun's language. I can't for the life of me remember which word it was, but in the creche there are quite a few who really butcher the pronounciation of certain words so that the Githyanki appear more alien in the game.

We don't even have a functional Gith dictionary, let alone proper knowledge of syntax and structure. The apostrophe could even be a stand in for a silent character that is not normally pronounced, but has an extra written meaning, like sentence particles, except in text, but we just don't know. The only people that can answer these questions probably work for WOtC.

"I noticed an incredible detail that some of the more common Githyanki actually mispronounce certain common words of Faerun, which I think is an awesome detail . . ."
Or poor voice acting.

I do recall a conversation between Tav and Lae'zel where Tav was able to show her pedantic side and reprimand Lae-zel for mispronouncing 'Faerûn'. The poor thing probably had never grasped the significance of the circumflex in the subtitles. And it does show that poor voice acting is not to blame for Githyanki mispronouncing words. But perhaps they do it on purpose, to demonstrate their contempt for an inferior language.

Thanks, that seems to be a good explanation. I will pay more attention to Githyanki pronunciation.

Precisely, she also says teethlings instead of tieflings, which cracks me up since she studied a lot yet still manages to make such innocent mistakes

teethlings

Whats wrong with Teethlings ? They do have teeth ! ;*)

Next you object to Hu-Mans !!! (as Quark on Deep Space Nine spelled them)

It's probably just aesthetic. This type of poetic apostrophe doesn't tell you which syllable is stressed and which is not. The only reason we know to pronounce her name with the stress on the Zel is because of the voice acting. Putting an apostrophe in the middle of the name just makes it look more alien and less human.

That must be it. In the game, we just happened to visit a place where we were able to speak with many Githyanki. I paid special attention to the apostrophed words. Although apostrophes were liberally applied to untranslated words in the subtitles, I did not hear any effect. So yes, it is likely to be a silly adornment without any linguistic meaning, something like the heavy metal umlaut. A pity. I hoped there would be more to it.

Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!

Indeed it is and Lae'zel would approve, she has a lot of Klingon in her

Aye, most anything she does or says is worthy of story *and* song.