pro·nun·ci·a·tion

It's clear that >G likes to populate the Multiverse with unusualness in various forms, which is generally quite nice.  However, while unusualness when it comes to names is fine (heck, who doesn't know a kid named Thiago, amirite?), in a couple of instances, they've slipped past unusualness directly into near-unpronounceability, to me at least.  How am I supposed to pronounce:

• Hoefle (warden of The Block).  Maybe it's "huffle".  Maybe it's "how-fle".  Maybe it's "how-flee".  No idea.
• L'epeiste (musketeer in La Capitan's deck).  Maybe it's "lay-epistay".  Maybe it's "laypistay".  Maybe it's "laypeest". Maybe it's something else even Frencher that hasn't occurred to me yet.

Are there any other unpronounceables I've forgotten?

I tend to pronounce the Warden's name as "HER-ful" ("oe" as in "oesophagus").

L'Episte seems straightforward to me - "leh-PEEST".

Hoefle and L'epeiste are names from German (I believe) and French, respectively. I would expect anyone who speaks those languages to be able to pronounce them.

I know little of how to pronounce German and am rather rusty with how to pronounce French. That being said, I'm willing to take a stab[1] on how to pronounce L'epeiste: Lu A pA Est' .  http://www.infoplease.com/pronkey.html

[1] Stab, get it?! See, it's funny because L'epeiste translates to one who uses the epee, which is a sword! Oh, never mind.

Akash'bhuta?

Ah-kash-boot-ah

With Ambuscade, is it Ahm-Boo-Skahd or Ahm-Boo-Skayd?

Well, seeing how he's French, I pronounce his name "AM-bus-KAHD" (with the "u" sound as in "push").

That's roughly how we've been pronouncing it, but I've heard people pronounce it "-Skayd".

Per Christopher:

• Mere - Mer'-ae
• Taiaha - Tie-a'-ha

I always just call the warden "Warden Hasselhoff".

L'épéiste - lay-pay-eest. The "ay" vowel sound is a little shorter than I'd use in my Derbyshire-ish English accent, and the "pay" syllable is slightly stressed. Although it takes me a while to get out of the habit of sounding out French words as if I'm singing them, which is my primary use for French at the moment. If you're singing it sounds more like lay-pay-ees-tuh, so now you can sing the name correctly as well. ;)

Hoeffle - according to Google Translate, her-fl, accent on the first syllable. My German is practically non-existant though, so I'm trusting Google on that one.

Also, Schertzo of Frost and Flame. Italian. Skairt-zoh, stressed "air", last syllable rhymes with "no" . Approximately, since it's hard to write out sounds that are slightly "foreign" without using the IPA, which is not known to most people.

But Google Translate's your friend for at least approximate pronunciation.

After some discussion while playing with friends, we renamed  L'epeiste "Le Pete" because we couldn't agree on pronunciation. :P

Some of the Ennead/Tomb of Anubis guys are a bit weird as well. I still can't make my head believe that Nuit isn't pronounced as in French, ~nwee, rather than nut.

Anyone have thoughts on Urshe and Shamise? Does the final E make a sound? I'm currently using a schwa sound (a kind of "uh" like at the end of my name, Anna) but I have no idea if that's correct or not.

I actually picked this one up from playing Mark of Kri (PS2).

Ur-shae

Sham-eece

Here are how I tend to pronounce stuff...

Mere = "MEER"

Taiaha = "ty-AH-ha"

Scherzo = "SHER-zo" (or possibly "SHAIR-zo")

Nuit = "NOO-it"

Urshe = "URSH"

Shamise = "sham-EESS"

Incidentally, in case anyone brings it up, it was confirmed some time ago by Christopher that LIlian's cohorts' names are pronounced "HEW-gin" and "MEW-nin". I always pronounce the former with a hard G which I hope is right, but I can't remember, now whether this was confirmed as well.

Thanks, that makes sense.

The "ch" is a hard C sound like in kick, and the "z" like in pizza, kind of a tz.

I'm pretty sure it's a hard "g" too, like in gin.

"Gin" is a soft G. A hard G would be as in "grab".

I should do an open Google Hangout some time and just go through and pronounce any word you folks have questions about.

Great....so when is it?

It might be a little hard to have all the cards in front of your and just read them off. I suggest you take your notebook out and just start reading.

Better yet, do an open hangout and allow people just to ask all questions!

...If he did that, when would he sleep?!

I think, if you did do such a hangout, that we be playing a game of sentinels at the same time. 

http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/others/hugin-and-munin/

http://www.ourbabynamer.com/meaning-of-Shamise.html

Yeah. Apparently I was a sleep-deprived idiot when I wrote that.

Christopher? Oh, he doesn't sleep, anyway…

Huh, seen no straight answer on Hoefle yet.

My German IS a little rusty, but if I'm not mistaken, the e at the end wouldn't be silent.  The oe is a stand-in for ö, which isn't QUITE pronounced like "er," but that's a good approximation for native English speakers.  To actually get the right sound, you need to purse your lips like you're going to make an "oo" sound, but then make an "oh" sound through that pursing.  The -le at the end would be "luh."