Pronunciation Guide

This section may contain spoilers for all versions of the fic.

Many readers have asked me, puzzled, how to pronounce certain names in this fic, so here's the guide. Alphabetical order, stressed syllables in all caps; if a segment between hyphens is an actual word, it's pronounced like that word unless otherwise noted.

Places (Obvious Ones Not Included)

Acaria City
Ack-AH-ree-uh city.
Alumine
AH-loo-mine.
Merville
MEHR-vill.
Ouen
Owen, like the name. And by the way, yes, the name is written "Ouen" - I've seen somebody decide it was called "Quen", but no, that's not it.
Ruxido
RUCKS-ee-doe.
Sailance
SAI-lance. (Not sail-ance!) Simple enough. The similarity to "silence" is obviously intentional.

Fake Pokémon (Obvious Ones Included)

Chalenor
CHAH-leh-nor. No, not "CHAIL-nor".
Chaletwo
CHAH-leh-two. Duh.
Darkhan
DARK-khan. As in Gengis Khan.
Dracobalt
DRAY-co-bawlt. The secondary stress should be on "bawlt".
Dragoreen
DRAH-gore-een.
Electhrone
EH-lehk-throne. Obvious.
Emphire
Just like "Empire", except with an f sound instead of a p sound, obviously.
Fangcat
FANG-cat. =o Who would have guessed?
Freezaroy
FREEZE-ah-roy. Pretty obvious.
Leta
LEE-tuh.
Letal
LEE-tuhl. (Big surprise.)
Letaligon
LEE-tah-lig-on.
Lidreki
LIH-dreh-kih.
Molzapart
MOHL-zap-art. Can we get much more obvious than that?
Mutark
MUTE-ark.
Mysticrown
Mystic-crown. Gee, I wonder.
Natruler
NAT-ruler, with the Nat like in "Venonat". Not "NATE-ruler", even though the "nat" part comes from "nature".
Polaryu
POLar-ee-you. I know the Japanese word "ryuu" isn't pronounced like that.
Preciure
It's pronounced "pressure". Really, exactly the same.
Puragon
PURE-ah-gon. Pretty obvious.
Rainteicune
RAIN-tay-cyoon, with the "rain" part pronounced not like the word "rain", but like in "Raichu" and "Raikou" with an N after it. Yes, I know the "cune" part in Suicune is supposed to be pronounced "coon". I didn't know that when I made up Rainteicune. <<;
Raudra
ROW-drah, with the "row" like in the word that means "argument", not the one that means to row a boat.
Scorplack
SCORE-plack.
Seasar
Exactly like Caesar.
Tancat
TAN-cat. Whoa, I bet that was a lot different from how you thought it was, huh?
Thunderyu
THUNder-ee-you. I know the Japanese word "ryuu" isn't pronounced like that.
Vaxil
VACKS-ill.
Venoir
VEH-nwar. French.
Volcaryu
VOL-cah-ree-you. I know the Japanese word "ryuu" isn't pronounced like that.
Waraider
WAR-raider. Obvious one.

Version Acronyms (I Don't Think Any Are Particularly Obvious)

UMR
U-M-R. As in just say each letter.
HMMRCIG
You're supposed to say this as I do it in Icelandic: HOW-em-em-ehrr-kig. Yes, I know it makes no sense to spell out the first four letters in Icelandic and then pronounce the last three like a word. That's how you're supposed to do it anyway.
YAR
Yar. As in "Yarr", the piratey word, except with a longer A. Or, as an alternatively, like "jar" except with Y instead of J.
ILCOE
ILL-co-eh. And when it's the cardinal number ILCOEth, that's ILL-co-eth.
ILCOTEM
Just ILL-co-tem.
IALCOTN
YALL-co-ten or EE-yall-co-ten.
APO
A-P-O. Another easy one.
WTHAIRTSTA
Arguably the most difficult one yet, but I say it WHAT-tai-RIST-ah. Yes, I know I add in a couple of vowels, switch the T and H and randomly turn one T into an I, but that's how I say it and thus that's how you'll say it too. :P