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Q&A If I write a word with a letter that isn't used, will I confuse my reader?

Pronunciation is part of aural speech and cannot be wholly derived from the written form of languages, at least not in English. There are thousands of real place names that people pronounce differe...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:52Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25847
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:52:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25847
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:52:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Pronunciation is part of aural speech and cannot be wholly derived from the written form of languages, at least not in English. There are thousands of real place names that people pronounce differently. If you are going to make up place names in a written work that no one will ever hear pronounced, then different people are going to pronounce them in different ways.

Bringing back old letters is not going to happen and using them will not fix your pronunciation issues. There is a formal notation for writing down actual pronunciation, but it is unreadable to those not trained in it. Nothing else is precise and one more letter would not make it so.

But the real question is, why do you care? What does it matter if some people pronounce your made up words differently from what you imagined? Do they enjoy the story less as a result?

If you really do care, I think you have two options.

1. Provide a pronunciation key for the names in your book.

2. Create names whose default pronunciation matches what you have in your head. 

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-04T20:05:23Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 5