Potentially stupid questions

[Cybersnark]

Because we all have them.

How is Glinn Dygan's name pronounced? Die-gan? Dee-gan? D'gan? Over the course of one book he managed to become one of my favourite characters, so I'm curious.

And, a mild Cold Equations spoiler:

Spoiler: Shakti

Does Shakti count as Soong's daughter/Data's sister?

He claims to have programmed her (and she clearly has a Data-level personality), but he never ascribes a familial relationship. Is there a technical reason (she's not a positronic-net-based life-form, doesn't have self-determination, etc), or is it formism (she's a ship, not a "person") or some vestigial unconscious sexism (he wouldn't be the first father to prioritize his sons over his daughters, though I'd expect better from Data)?

 

[JD]

While readying Plagues of Night & Raise the Dawn I pronounced Dygan, Die-gan.

 

[Melakon]

"Die-gan" (with a hard G) is my first instinct too, but I'm in the country immediately south of Canada (since I read today that some people in Latin and South America resent people from a certain country in North America calling themselves "Americans"), so maybe pronunciation is different.

If you're really in doubt, you could try writing the author to ask.

 

[JD]

Is he in Brinkmanship or the Cold Equations trilogy? Una McCormack and David Mack both post here.

 

[tomswift2002]

I read Dygan's name as Dee-gahn.

And as my college professor's used to say, 'The only "stupid" question is the one that's not asked!'

 

[Christopher]

I checked Memory Alpha's list of named Cardassians, and the only one I could find that used the letter Y as a vowel was Tekeny Ghemor. By that precedent, it might be "Dee-gan." But who knows if a terminal Y is pronounced the same as an internal Y? And since it's apparently so unusual in Cardassian names, it might be from an uncommon language/culture and thus there's no telling how it might be pronounced.

 

[Melakon]

That's a moment that could be played up in a story, too. Two characters meet, the first one mentions Dygan, the other says "Who?" and it's because the first guy is pronouncing the name differently. "Oh," the second guy says, "you're using the colonial pronunciation. He uses the imperial form." That way, we still don't know.

 

[Paper Moon]

That's a moment that could be played up in a story, too. Two characters meet, the first one mentions Dygan, the other says "Who?" and it's because the first guy is pronouncing the name differently. "Oh," the second guy says, "you're using the colonial pronunciation. He uses the imperial form." That way, we still don't know.

Haha, love it!

I say "DIE-gan". The shows' producers always seemed to give Cardassians very strong-sounding (to Anglophone American ears, at least) names, and I think "DEE-gan" would sound too... prissy? I think it sounds vaguely upper-class European (particularly French or German) and Cardassian names have never really struck me like that.

(Hopefully that made some sense...)

 

[Therin of Andor]

In Australia in 1970-71, we had a local TV series called "Dynasty" (pronounced "dinn-asty"), long before the more infamous US TV series of 1981-89 called "Dynasty" (pronounced, appropriately, "die nasty").

 

[Christopher]

In Australia in 1970-71, we had a local TV series called "Dynasty" (pronounced "dinn-asty"), long before the more infamous US TV series of 1981-89 called "Dynasty" (pronounced, appropriately, "die nasty").

Ahh, yes, I remember how I discovered that difference between the US and British (and Australian) pronunciations of the word. Back in the '80s, I attended a small Doctor Who convention whose guest was Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), and in her talk she referred to the US soap opera as "Dysentery or Dynasty or whatever." Which is a pun that could only work with a British accent, because she said it as "dis-un-tree or dinn-uh-stee," whereas for an American it would be "dis-un-tare-ee or die-nuh-stee," so they wouldn't sound at all alike.

 

[Shane Houston]

Okay. Since someone started this thread and it's called for stupid questions, I've had one for years ut been to embarrassed to ask...

How do you pronounce Aventine ? It's been driving me nuts every time I read about it in the novels.

Is it Aventine as in with the ending sounding like breen? Or does it have like a sound that sounds like pine?

 

[JD]

I've always pronounced it like "pine".

 

[Christopher]

I've heard Dave Mack say it aloud at Shore Leave, and I think he rhymed it with "pine." I know it was the opposite of what I was assuming, and I tend to default to the "-een" pronunciation in my head.

 

[Stevil2001]

Mirriam-Webster lists long "I" first, but also long "E": http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aventine

 

[Hando]

^I agree with JD.
According to the Oxford dictionary it is <ˈævəntaɪn>, so like "pine".

I would put Dygan's pronunciation as <djgan> - based on the Cardassian language found on the internet, but based on English, it should probably be <daɪgn>.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

"Ah-vin-tine" as far as my Latin teachers were concerned. I've never heard it said "Ah-vin-teen". (By the same token, Capitoline: Cah-pit-o-line over Cah-pit-o-lean)

 

[Christopher]

^Which is weird if you think about it, since Latin didn't pronounce the long i like "eye," but like "ee." So if we were being authentic to Latin pronunciation, it would be "Aven-teen."

http://wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction_vowels.html

Except, come to think of it, the actual Latin word isn't Aventine, but Aventinus (specifically Collis Aventinus, the Aventine Hill). So "Aventine" is an English word derived from Latin, not a Latin word. Which I guess is why your teachers favored an English pronunciation.

 

[Iamnotspock]

I've heard Dave Mack say it aloud at Shore Leave, and I think he rhymed it with "pine." I know it was the opposite of what I was assuming, and I tend to default to the "-een" pronunciation in my head.

As did I, until I asked Mr. Mack directly via PM. He definitely intended it to rhyme with 'pine'. Doesn't really matter though, I suppose.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

^Which is weird if you think about it, since Latin didn't pronounce the long i like "eye," but like "ee." So if we were being authentic to Latin pronunciation, it would be "Aven-teen."

http://wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction_vowels.html

Except, come to think of it, the actual Latin word isn't Aventine, but Aventinus (specifically Collis Aventinus, the Aventine Hill). So "Aventine" is an English word derived from Latin, not a Latin word. Which I guess is why your teachers favored an English pronunciation.

Yeah, it's not consistent with Latin pronunciation (in as much as that's a nebulous field polluted by Church Latin) but between High School and College the pronunciations were similar. They're no less strange than Aristotelian (Aris-to-teal-ian vs. Aris-totle-ian vs. Aris-total-ian).

As for Dygan, I'd probably say "DIE-Gun" similar to Hogan or Logan.