Séasònnë (pronunciation & Windows keyboard shortcuts)

[The G-Meister]

Here are some keyboard shortcuts which can be used to type "Séasònnë" the way it is displayed in game.

All of the Alt codes require the numbers to be pressed on the numpad and Num Lock to be on. The Alt button must be held down and the numbers can be tapped once. The symbol will appear when you let go of the Alt key. The AltGr key may only appear on select keyboards, and provides much quicker typing of two of these symbols. The AltGr dead key codes require you to hold AltGr and press the accent you wish to add, then release and press the letter you want to add it to, although this only works with US-international keyboards and some others.

Spoiler: How to use Num Lock

With most keyboards I've seen it appears as a little 1 inside a lock which is situated in the top right corner of your keyboard. It will have a green light underneath, which will either be on or off. If you press the Num Lock key, it should toggle the light. On means on and off means off. Some may not have a Num Lock button at all (mine does not), in which case assume it to be on at all times.

é
Alt + 0233
AltGr + e
AltGr + ', e (not to be confused with `, and is normally above the forward slash)

ò
Alt + 0242
AltGr + `, o (not to be confused with ', and is normally to the left of the 1 key)

ë
Alt + 0235
AltGr + ", e

Pronunciation
Although they're most likely only decorative, I'm speaking as if they're intentional (in which case whoever decided to put the accents where they are needs some grammar lessons!). I'm also no expert on phonetics, but I have basic knowledge of a few languages and Wikipedia at my disposal. Also there are so many other ways these accents are used, I'm just trying to get to a reasonable assumption in a resonable amount of time. I could spend hours writing an essay on the whole Wikipedia articles on the letters, their accents and vowel pronunciation if I needed to

The graves, acutes and diaereses normally have an impact on a way a certain letter or the syllable they're in is pronounced, as oppose to using the standard letter. Many normally don't appear in the English language, but here the ò is the only one that does not.

The é is generally used to signify that the syllable it's in is pronounced, as in words such as café (pronounced caf-AY, not cayf) and fiancé (fee-on-SAY, not fee-ANSE). In this situation it has little to no significance, as the "séa" would be pronounced anyway.

However in some other languages, it's used to denote where the syllable it's in is stressed (as in, receiving the loudest part of the word, as I've denoted in CAPS for the past couple examples.) A good example of this is the word "obey", a two syllable word with the stress on the second syllable. It is pronounced either oh-BAY or uh-BAY, the former only tending to be used when trying to speak loudly, slowly and dramatically in a god-like fashion. If you instead put the stress on the first syllable it becomes OH-bay or OH-bee. The stress changes the way the vowel sounds, and makes the word sound entirely different. The accent on the Séa helps us distinguish it from a "Sih," and the stress interpretation may help us later.

Now onto the ò. There is no use for this in the English language so far as I've seen/heard. In French, is it used to distinguish two homonyms (words that sound the same eg, draw (doodle) and draw (a card)) from one another when writing. In this case, we've got enough other accents and extra letters to give this title some characteristic difference from "season", therefore I think we can give that one a miss.

In some other languages, it's used to extend the vowel sound. This means that an o would sound like it does in "fox", but an ò would sound like it does in "home". This is a more feasible description and means our second syllable would be pronounced "zone".

So far I've been assuming that "Séasònnë" has three syllables - Séa, sòn, and në. This is all to do with the ë on the end. In English it is used to distinguish that e from the vowel before it, like in names such as Chloë (KHLOW-ee, not KHLOW) and Raphaël (raff-eye-EL, not raff-ALE).

"Now, there's no vowel before this ë," you might ask, and this is very true. However, it is actually used this way properly in the language, and seen as we happen to have two "n"s, I think it would be a reasonable assumption to assume we add the third syllable instead of blending two and three together. It's also quite rare for a single syllable to have multiple accents.



So, tl;dr, my best interpretation would be "SEE-zone-ee" or "SEE-zone-ay", depending on your preference or accent. I prefer the latter, and that's what I'll be using.



P.S. I have two important tests tomorrow. If you take anything away from this, don't let it be from my attitude to revision :/

 

[Ariadna]

Before reading this I pronounced it Sea-Sonne (double n like in "penne") aaaaaaand I guesss I'll still read it like that, Your both versions, even though they are correct, would sound stupid in my Polish lack of accent.

Now go and procrastinate more! Studying is hell, I can't focus for more than 10 seconds and really - I have never needed to study to become below average scoring IT student who's happy with his life. You ain't gonna get a second lifetime!

 

[The G-Meister]

The tests went pretty well anyway, so hopefully no worries there. I can understand why you wouldn't say that, as it sounds plain wrong. If the accent is supposed to be on the first syllable then the "sòn" part would be a "zun" not a "zone". This was an interpreted pronunciation for the English language, and it might be completely different in Polish, so you have yet another excuse!