How do you pronounce Praetorium?

I automatically read it as "pray" but figured it should probably be "pre" since that's what the ae/æ double-letter does, e.g. encyclopaedia and encyclopedia are pronounced the same.

"Pray-ends-fast-dear-god"

æ is a weird/fun one.


In Latin, its pronounced as an I.

In Queens English, its pronounced as an A (in trap, hat, bask)

In North American English (Canadian and American specifically), it gets weird, because both the A and the E can be æ sequences (thanks, language), and its almost always pronounced as an E , if the e or æ come before a consonant sound (generally a double R or T) which is instantly followed by another vowel sound.

That even gets its own ær pronunciation guide, and will vary (that word being its own ær sequence!) in pronounciation by region, with some saying it as indistinguishable from very, and some giving it a harder a or ah.

I pronounce it "oh-dear-god-not-again"

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I automatically read it as "pray" but figured it should probably be "pre" since that's what the ae/æ double-letter does, e.g. encyclopaedia and encyclopedia are pronounced the same.

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This is due to one of several vowel shifts that has occurred in the history of English and not really reflective of how ae should be pronounced in a foreign word that hasn't been assimilated into standard English.


The pronunciation will depend on how far back you want to pull pronunciation rules from. Classical Latin? Probably prah-ay-toh-ree-yoom. Vulgar latin or Italian-Latin? Pray-toh-ree-yoom. Seventh Astral Era Garlean? Probably just pray-tory-um. The Scions would likely pronounce it closer to preh-tory-um or pruh-tory-um with a very quick first syllable, since most unstressed syllables in conversational English have their vowels reduced to schwas.

Just keep in mind that while a lot of Garlean names and terms are Latin-based, they're not typically pronounced with Latin pronounciations. More likely, the characters will pronounce them how a modern English speaker would pronounce them--"wrong".

And here I've been calling it "The long one".

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Seventh Astral Era Garlean? Probably just pray-tory-um. The Scions would likely pronounce it closer to preh-tory-um or pruh-tory-um with a very quick first syllable, since most unstressed syllables in conversational English have their vowels reduced to schwas.

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Yeah, that's more or less how I'm pronouncing it. Thanks for the explanation.

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Originally Posted by Doki

Pray-Return-to-Wake-ing-Sands-ium

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No... NNOOOOOO

Most players just after tomes doing this roulette, 'prae' they don't get this instance.

That outta clear it up for ya!

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Originally Posted by Iscah

I automatically read it as "pray" but figured it should probably be "pre" since that's what the ae/æ double-letter does, e.g. encyclopaedia and encyclopedia are pronounced the same.

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From what I learned about this vowel context (and this is just going off recollection and not looking anything up), is that one of the two vowels becomes silent, but assists the dominant vowel. In the case of Praetorium, they couldn't just take out the 'e' because then many would pronounce it 'Pruh-toh-ree-um'. If pronounced 'Pree-toh-ree-um', you could take out the 'a', and it would still retain the long 'e'.

I don't know if that is correct, but that is how I deduced that it is pronounced Pray, and not Pre.