Meanings of the Names of the Characters?

[Relayer]

I thought "get it" in this case meant that Joyse is normally a woman's name, spelled "Joyce" ... and that this relates to the gender roles.

[Cameraman Jenn]

Wow. Some great and interesting posts in here. I never gave the names this much thought. I have always pronounced Artagel with a hard G.

[wayfriend]

Me, too. ar-TAY-gil. Like "far bagel".

[Cameraman Jenn]

I pronounce it more like Ar tah gull. More of an ah then a long a like bagel.

[rdhopeca]

I always pronounced it Ar tah jel as in a "j" like jelly.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I also read Geraden with a hard G as well.

[IrrationalSanity]

Soft "G" all the way here Jer-eh-dun and Art-uh-jell. Accents on the first syllable.

[Relayer]

I'm in the jelly camp. Or maybe zh-elly.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I say it Ger AH den. Hard G. I used to read Kragen as Kray gen like the auto parts store until I read it after starting at my current job. Igor pronounces the work Krah gen hard G and a heavy Russian accent so my re-read since starting there I could not get Krahgen out of my head, with Russian slight tongue tap on thr r as well. In case anyone is unfamiliar with what I am talking about imagine if the name was K'ragen or imagine a spanish roll with only one tongue click and a bit harder of a click as well.

[Relayer]

Ah, right. I was only thinking of Arta-zhell

Geraden with a hard G.

[IrrationalSanity]

I always thought it would be an interesting study to see if you could accurately determine a person's "mother tounge" by having them pronounce a list of made-up/nonsense words. You would compare their instinctive choices to the defaults of various languages. No matter how well they had learned the language they are presently speaking, the language they learned first should leak through.

[Aranion]

Surprised no one's remarked on Quillon; "quillons" are the protective bar or part of a sword - the quillons are what keeps the enemy's blade from hitting your own hand. And Quillon certainly acts thusly; he is the protection of the king's plans from Joyse's enemies (until he's killed, at least).

And I've always pronounced Geraden's name with a hard g, though differently than others here: "guh-RAD-ehn." Artie's name also with a hard g: "ar-TAY-gull."

[Linna Heartbooger]

He was almost at a loss for words when I asked him why the names in Mordant's Need had such a French feel to them.

A small country with a court full of vain, useless nobles plotting and playing games of intrigue!?!? Cool, I'd not really observed the "French feel" to the names.

So do you think SRD was maybe doing it unconsciously because of how the "appropriateness" of the names affected him?

[Cord Hurn]

He was almost at a loss for words when I asked him why the names in Mordant's Need had such a French feel to them.

A small country with a court full of vain, useless nobles plotting and playing games of intrigue!?!? Cool, I'd not really observed the "French feel" to the names.

So do you think SRD was maybe doing it unconsciously because of how the "appropriateness" of the names affected him?

I think this very likely. The conversation danlo relates that he had with SRD on MN names (in a post danlo made earlier in this thread) seems to confirm that the French influence wasn't conscious on SRD's part, at least in regard to some of the names used.

[Cord Hurn]

I always pronounced it Ar tah jel as in a "j" like jelly.

What rdhopeca said! Some sense of Artagel's swashbuckling nature is lost for me when his name is pronounced with a hard "G" sound. Art-ah-jel just sounds BOLDER to my ears, somehow!

[Cord Hurn]

Stead (the adulterous son of the Domne): the place or role that someone or something should have or fill (used in referring to a substitute), as in Stead is filling the role of lover for the husbands of various women. (It fits!)