I always pronounced it with a hard "g", like "begin gold" without the "be"..
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I always pronounced it with a hard "g", like "begin gold" without the "be"..
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Hard (as in "ginkgo").
I always pronounce it gin as in "gin" and gold as in "gold", so put me down for one soft G and one hard G.
Clearly, that is how this entirely fictional word is pronounced.
Has DC ever given an official pronunciation?
Dave Elyea said:
I've always assumed hard G (well, two of them). But on reflection, I recall that Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny used the exclamation "By gingold!". I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the initial G was intended to be soft, so that Ralph's cry would sound like "By Jingo!"
Hard "g" for both.
Of course, I always pronounced it Thay-Nos as well, so what do I know?
Interesting, not only in the differing ways we pronounce certain words from comics, but in the fact that I think there's a tendency to presume everyone else says it the same way one himself does. For example, it never occurred to me that some folks might pronounce these differently than I do:
gingold (jin-gold)
Sub-Mariner (sub-MARE-in-er)
Jameson (as in "J. Jonah") (JAME-son)
Magneto (mag-NET-o)
"Mon-El", which I originally construed as "MUN-el", was the only one for which I ever saw a precise pronunciation. In the letter column of Action Comics # 382 (Nov., 1969), Richard Jochner of San Leandro, California, wrote:
What is the correct pronunciation of Mon-El? My friend and I have different ways of pronouncing it and would like to know the correct one.
To which, Mort Wesinger (or, more likely, E.Nelson Bridwell) responded:
It's pronounced "Moan-Ell"---you know, "moan"---like the Editor does when he sees a batch of letters pointing out boo-boos.
From the moment I read that, back in '69, I immediately changed the way I pronounced "Mon-El" to the way that editorial response indicated. After all, it came from the best authority. But what has always surprised me is how some folks, who pronounced the name differently, after I informed them of how the Superman editor established the proper pronunciation, insisted that their pronunciations were still correct.
It goes back to how people can be illogically stubborn about things connected with grammar, even tangentially. Continuing to pronounce "Mon-El" differently from how DC said it was pronounced is the same thing as telling the sixth president, John Quincy (who pronounced the "c" like a "z", as "Quinzy") Adams that he was wrong and his middle name was pronounced "Quin-see".
But, barring any sort of official establishment of the proper pronunciations for "gingold" or my other examples above, I'll gladly allow it's a matter of individual taste. And if, somewhere, an official pronunciation has been established, and it's different from mine, I'll gladly change mine.
In the case of Namor, we have long-standing editorial insistence that Sub-Mariner be pronounced like "Ancient Mariner" (MAR-iner), and I have an issue somewhere that even mocks the "mar-EEner" pronunciation, despite generations of readers probably pronouncing it that way. That's how I initially said it, too.
They're now in position to put Subby into the MCU, so we'll finally get the definitive.... No, a lot of people will stay say, SubmaREEner, and it's not like a fictional character can complain.
I knew a kid in the 70s who pronounced "Gene Simmons" with a hard G. "Geen Simmons." I don't know if Witz/Klein/Simmons got that a lot, but I imagine he would complain, and he's only a semi-fictional character, so he can.
Funny, I always assumed that "Mon-El" was pronounced "Mawn-Ell".
Growing up in Boston, I learned early on that "Quincy" was pronounced "Kwinzee"..
In Legion of Three Worlds*, Winath was pronounced three different ways: WIN-ath, WINE-ath and Win-AYTH.
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