ALSALDA
a tale of treachery, loyalty and of seismic cultural change
as seen through the eyes of four main characters.
Detah
Thirteen winters-seen. Daughter of the Mistress of First Granary at Isle Ardy. Been nowhere, knows everything (because, as she says, she eavesdrops on her father, the granary trader Master Bukarn).
Demekn
Brother of Detah. Recently returned from Dal Uest where he served as an assistant lore-man. He now trains as an eblan (to the disappointment of Bukarn’s Ulvregan family at Luktosn’s Hold).
Eblan Erspn
Brother to Mistress Siradath of Sapapsan’s Granary at His Indwelling. As Eblan Head Man, it is for him to uphold the Alisime traditions.
Captain Horsemaster Megovis
Second-in-command to Horsemaster Krisnavn, Commander of the Saramequai Division of the King’s Regiment. He doesn’t trust the eblann—for reasons he prefers to forget.
First episode: Detah, 18th August.
crispina kemp 
Looking forward to Alsalda. How about a nice pronunciation guide to the more esoteric people or place names. Are the sounds in my head the correct ones?
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Well, prime to remember is the accent is always on the first syllable. So De-tah, De-mekn, Al-salda. Names ending in -n (as with Demekn) sound just a little bit clipped, not quite Demeken. Names ending -ah tend to be ‘schwa’ sounds, or if you prefer -ar (without sounding the ‘r’). And vowels are mostly long. (All of which stands for the Alisime names. Dal Uest is slightly different. Of course.) The ‘U’ of Uest is pronounced more as a tight ‘w’. Megovis has short vowels in first syllable, long in the second, whereas Krisnavn has both vowels short. Really, that’s all you need know. Alsalda is A as in apple, sald as in scald, and the schwa to end. Mostly the names are phonetically spelled (no odd spellings here because no odd standardisation has halted development.) The only thing I’d add to that is that Uestin (language spoken in Dal Uest) is Indo-European, and so has certain endings similar to e.g. Latin. But I take your point, and if anything unusual crops up, I’ll add a pronunciation note at the end.
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The ‘w’ hint on Dal Uest is good. I have been mentally pronouncing Alisime as Ali-seem. Good? I am sure many books I have read I’ve sounded it to my liking but not to the author’s intent..English having all those exceptions you know. Although, I don’t need an exception to be wrong. I remember as a kid I loved the word inexorable….only to find I had been putting the emphasis on the ‘or’ and not the ‘ex’ like I should. The ‘or’ made it sound even more relentless in my mind so that is where I went. Thanks for the great tips above!!
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I smile, here, for there is a vast difference between the American and English as to where to place emphasis–to the point where they sometimes seem two different languages, only semi-intelligible (e.g. to English ears the American pronunciation of ‘aluminium ‘ makes it sound more like a river deposit., whereas I’m sure to American ears the way we Brits pronounce it makes it seem more of a ‘minion’!)
BTW, I need to amend last night’s reply (should not answer comments at night when not fully alert!). The ending ‘-ah’ is a long ‘a’ as in ‘tar’, while without the ‘-h’ it’s the short schwa. Also, going over some of the names in my head, I realise the Uestin names have emphasis on the penultimate syllable–but most names are 3-syllables so this makes it the 2nd; except a few are longer . . . see what I mean. The ‘-n’ ending in Uestin counts as a syllable even though it is to ‘-en’ what schwa is to ‘-ah’.
The only other query might come up with the use of the double-dot ‘umlaut’ (already seen in PP). It’s used when 2 vowels lie together to indicate that the second vowel is also sounded (i.e. it isn’t a diphthong). Basically all letters are sounded.
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I suppose generally I am not far off and I tend to pronounce names in the way that sounds prettiest or feels natural. Fun to recognize the differences though in they way different people might look at the same word.
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As you’ve probably noticed, I have an almost obsession with language, so yea, I have to agree. BTW Alisime is pronounced Alis-ime. Als = River, -ime = people. The inserted -i- makes it possessive, the way we use ‘s. The -ime extension is possibly the only time these people use a long -i (as in eye). And yes, we do pronounce words in a way most comfortable to us which Steven Pinker explains is what underlies all language change.
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So not ‘Al is seem’ but rather ‘Als-eyme’ like that. If I have that right I’ll change my mental pronunciation. Its fiction but I like to be correct or match the author’s intent ya know!! Obsession with language is one of the best obsessions there is!!
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Requested pronunciation guide scheduled for next week (Wednesday). And it will be on the Alsalda menu, so always available.
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That will be interesting!!
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