If there are any words/names you struggle with, let me know and they may be featured in future videos. If there are any mistakes or corrections you'd like to offer, please let me know. Clarification: Bijaz is a character in Children of Dune (the miniseries) but appears in the book "Dune Messiah."
Kwisatz Haderach it sounds Hebrew. Also I think your Arabic pronounciations are absolutely spot on! Especially the way you emphasise certain vowels is good. I hope they will go for these in the movie as well
I like this video; it's interesting to see the influence of Arabic on the names and titles in the Dune Universe. This influence, which is unfamiliar to many western readers, probably affects just how unique the book feels, compared to other science fiction. One thing to consider; while any difference between Herbert's pronunciation and modern Arabic pronunciations of the same words might be explained as errors caused by Herbert's western experience, there could be an in-universe explanation as well. The novels take place many thousands of years in the future, with many of our modern cultures having changed and merged together over that time (for instance, there is mention of "zensunni islam" and "mahayana christianity"). It is likely that pronunciation of Arabic words might have changed as well, with the current pronunciation merging with a more western style over time. Just a thought. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. There are some who have offered the same explanation as you did for the errors who have more of a bias than you do (they don't like the Arabic links). I think the pronunciations remain the same (colloquial or classical Arabic) because Herbert pronounced all the other phrases of non English origin to the best of his ability too such as French and even (a dead language) ancient Egyptian! I would say language was preserved through the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood who have their female ancestors for help. So even though time changes things, some things remain the same or in this case, return over time.
@@secretsofdune Good point; it's likely both. Herbert did his best to be accurate, but made various errors due to his experiences. Within the story, those erroneous pronunciations can be excused as changes due to time.
As an English speaker I find this very interesting, but after only 200+ years after the U.S. split from UK we share the same words, many with different spellings and pronunciations but essentially the same. So we can only guess at how varied cultures melded and how some words and names may have homogenized after 10,000+. The effects of culture and media are profound in the shaping of languages. Also Chani (Chah-nee) for life, the more feminine tone adds to Paul's early infatuation. For me at least.
One should never be fearful of being "corrected" 😊 although I suspect that Herbert would have been fine with whatever pronunciations his readers chose to use.
There is no wrong way to pronounce the words. Just whatever sounds right to you. There are a lot of pronunciations that I like better than the ones Frank Herbert used.
I mean, the point of the written word (especially in books) is to paint your own pictures of each scene in your mind, I personally believe names/words and pronunciations should be also left for the reader's own interpretation, so to speak. Especially with DUNE, Frank recorded SO MANY phrases, names of items/equipment, and then just didn't even describe what they were. He just left it all to the reader's imagination to make it all real. I love it.
Odd, I once listened to a dune audiobook that pronounced it chan-ee not chain-ee & at the end of the book it thanked brian herbert for help on pronunciation. So I always assumed twas correct..Oh well!
@@secretsofdune wow - you certainly no longer sound especially London…ish(!) You have a beautifully softly spoken voice. I always imagined you were from Sweden, Scandinavia or some such place.
I want to hear you read the books on Audible! Your voice is so wonderful and pleasant to the ear! An accent is not easily identified or a combination, and has a depth yet gentleness that lends itself well to this series in particular. No offense to the amazing Frank Herbert, RIP.
I’m listening to this video again in preparation for the next Dune video and forgot how soothing your voice is! Do you do audiobooks? You absolutely should.
That's very kind of you, thank you. I don't in the official capacity although I have read some audiobooks part of Dune over on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/dune-appendices-77467967?Link& I've been thinking about in an official capacity though.
Yes perhaps more accurately I should have written Gheh-Nee-Meh غنيمة - I wanted to stress the ghah sound more over the gah. As always Frank Herbert tried his best to pronounce words very accurately even Arabic words which is fantastic.
You’re very welcome. I’m very glad you enjoyed this. There is a quite a lot of Arabic words in Dune which I’m hoping to explore more in the near future!
@@chanimarin7949 I feel like my whole life is a lie. My late mother named me Chani as well from Dune. But for whatever reason I grew up pronouncing it with a soft "Ch" so its Shah-nee 😩🤦🏽♀️
Thank you for this pronunciation guide. While reading the books I was never sure if I was pronouncing certain words correctly in my head. The movie in the 1980s offered certain ways to pronounce the words but when the Sci Fi channel mini series came out their pronunciations made me doubt again.
I think Herbert Anglicized the names a bit just to make them easier for non-Arabic speakers to pronounce. Love the background you provided on the true meanings tho!
thank you, brother. finally getting into the books before i watch the new film, i didnt want to mispronounce these in my head, nor in any conversation i might encounter
These long late nights really are frying my brain. How did I make such an obvious mistake?! Thanks for pointing it out and thank you for your kind comment.
@@tommyjennings8550 Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think with Bijaz I was talking about it from where we have "heard" pronunciations from, and I was thinking of the miniseries "Children of Dune" which is where the character Bijaz appears. I should have been more clear though.
I love etymology, so pronunciations are in my wheelhouse. I'd like to think I halfway inspired this by my constant questions about pronunciations, but I have no proof of that, Lol! I'll take Herbert's pronunciations, as he is the artist that created it. This eliminates a lot of speculation, conjecture and opinion. Either way, I love this vid! 👍🏻👌🏻 🤜🏻🤛🏻
It's so interesting. I'm from Mexico so the way I pronounced the names came very close or exactly how it's supposed to. It's thanks to how spanish is read and spoken, I suppose. Thanks for the video!!
I've always pronounced Chah-nee instead of Chain-ee the whole time (it just felt like it's how it should be pronounced as if it's an Arabic (or other non-English languages) name).
@@secretsofdune Interesting, I had, for years, always read Chani, as Shah-Nee. The same 'CHA' as Chantelle. It just sounded right in my mind. More feminine and less nasally then Chain-ee ;) But I have adapted since the mini series.
I know it’s “lay-tow” but i still say “Lee-tow” it just flows better in my mind when i read. Alia however just stumped me, as i’ve heard that name (varied spellings) in real life and the pronunciations are all different, but i think i went with “Uh- lee-ah”
Yeah I think we all have our preferred natural way of saying certain names, “chah-knee” for example. I like some of the alternative pronunciations from the movie and series too.
You mentioned that the Mini-Series pronounces Chani like the Lynch film. This is in fact, untrue. They definitely pronounce her name as Chain-ee... 😉 Now, I would so love it if they pronounce many of the Arabic names like you describe in this video - and fingers crossed we don't get Har-KOH-nen as well.
Thank you for the correction. It has been a very long time since I saw the series. In the classic voice of Muad'Dib in the series I heard it as Chah-knee. I must have morphed the movie pronunciation and the series together in my head haha! I am very interested to see how they are going to pronounce things and how they'll portray the language.
I specifically remember this because on the forums of the time a lot of people hated the mini-series because they were either comparing it to the Lynch film or to their understanding or memory of the series on a whole. The pronunciation of Chani in the mini-series was one of the things a lot of people were complaining about so someone found the recording of Herbert saying it to prove them wrong.
Great video dude! Almost done with children of dune and loving everything so far. I appreciate the help with the pronunciations; extremely helpful video!
As someone who writes novels for fun, I personally feel the author's pronunciation comes first unless you're using real world languages as a base, however, over 20,000 years of language drift gives a huge amount of wiggle room to play with.
Additional comments to give the whole picture of my previosly posted thoughts on your post... I like the videos - a lot. Please keep up the good work. What's more is that even though I think that going through the correct Arabic pronunciations is unnecessary, the way that you pronouced a lot of the names (correctly) is how I imagined them when I first read the book way back when. I was worried that my previous comments might have come off negatively where that was not my intention. Apologies is that was the case.
Unless you’re thinking of something different, the miniseries does pronounce it “Chain-nee” (which brought me to this video because I thought it was always Chaw-nee).
Interesting... he alters some pronunciation... Alia sounds almost like latin Alia, Often he uses american g and j pronunciation, but most of the time he just alters accentuation of vowels.Possibly chakobsa and Galach are far more influenced by english and slavic than many people suggest...
As far as I'm concerned Frank Herbert's pronunciations are canonical. It doesn't matter if a name is of Arabic origin and pronounced differently in 2020, Frank Herbert's books are set thousands of years in the future thus pronunciations will have changed.
Frank Herbert's pronunciations are canonical as far as created terms are concerned. He pronounces things quite accurately in French and Ancient Egyptian in other instances, so his aim was most definitely to pronounce words correctly as they should be pronounced. However, that isn't always an easy thing to do with a strong foreign language like Arabic or Urdu for example. In terms of changing pronunciations due to its futuristic setting, most words he uses from the past haven't changed though, so it's not really a strong argument for the few pronunciations that have "changed" from a linguistic perspective. Arabic was pronounced the same in the 60's as it is pronounced now in 2020. As far as names alone are concerned though, I think both pronunciations are valid and both should probably be considered canonical as that was his intended aim.
@@secretsofdune Hmm, it's possible his pronunciations were unintentionally wrong ... but in most cases you seemed to reject them in favour of the Lynch movie and the TV mini-series. What is wrong, really, with "Chay-ni" or "Ay-liyah"? I've personally always preferred the Herbert pronunciation of Chani: shouldn't we respect his choices in these matters?
@@iianneill6013 We should respect him and the reality of his pronunciations, which is why I wanted to include them from the man himself. I guess it depends on whether or not you believe they are mispronounced or intentionally changed, if that's what you meant. I personally believe he was trying to pronounce things accurately in general from all the languages he drew from, without changing them. I am merely offering insight in to those pronunciations and their roots.
@@iianneill6013 Thank you very much. I had to go through hours of recordings to pick the best soundbites. I appreciate your feedback because it's really helpful to know what people think and how they perceive these things, so thanks again.
Glad I was able to shed light on it. It may have been their actual name as it can be used as a female name. Or it may simply be the word with the meaning behind it.
@@secretsofdune It's nice knowing that you replied even though the video was posted three years ago. Anyway, you were helpful not only with this word but also with the Duniverse in general. I liked dune movie so much that I've started reading the Dune books. I have a question regarding the same: there are several quotes, citations, and epigraphs referenced to Irulan's books (such as Manual of Muad'Dib) or BG File GSXXMAT9, BG archives, 10000th Anniversary Peroration, etc. Are these sources really available for reading or just made-up things?
@@nutube6291 I always try to reply to new comments because I really love hearing from people especially if they've learned something new or had a positive experience. This was my first series on this channel I believe which I'm really happy that I made. To answer your question, they are only made up books in the citation and not available to read. There is however a real Kitab al-Ibar book which is quoted in the Dune books and that was written by Ibn Khaldun which is about world history and it is renowned in the historical world.
I always thought of Hayt as pronounced something along the lines of "Hai-yeet" Additonally, some of my favorite names and words come to me though Arabic and Czech...go figure.
Noted. Thank you very much! I don't have any recordings of Frank Herbert pronouncing that name unfortunately. But if I can obtain any in future I will remember to cover it.
I'm more interested in your pronunciations than Frank's! I'm especially curious about Hwi Noree. Is it Indian or Welsh? There are lots of names to cover but I guess accuracy is a pipe dream because pronunciations change over millennia anyway. It might just be nice to hear the alternatives available.
@@maybepumpkins Thank you. With the greatest respect to Herbert, I think it's nice to go to the sources of the names and hear the true pronunciations, but with names it is flexible. Terms on the other hand are a different topic which I hope to cover soon.
I found a very ancient book dated back to 1000 years and it was written into ancient Arabic that is totally different than Arabic of nowadays so i asked an expert to read some pages and this is what he said to me: SUperior wariors from other world will come to earth to help the Mahdi who will be alone and armless and Mahdi is from Royal Hachemite blood . So either it is coincidence or the realisator was reading ancient texts Book name : The begining and The end written by EBEN Athir the Great historian and scientist of Abaside Ers.
I think you're referring to Ibn Kathir and the Arabic he wrote in was Fus'ha, the language of the Qur'an or classical Arabic. It is all very fascinating.
So interesting! I want to know the pronunciation in the new film. It's interesting the changes in the transcript between arab-english and arab-spanish. For example, the word جهاد is jihad for english and yihad for spanish, but my edition of Dune (Spanish) use the translation in the english mode (jihad). Just a bit curiosity. Thanks for the video, friend!
You're very welcome! I'm really excited to hear how they speak in Denis Villeneuve's DUNE. Translations of Dune in to other languages creates some really interesting experiences for those audiences.
@@melissasa5781 there is no name as paul or pol in arabic , letter p doesn't exist , there is only one word and it's Bol or Bawl and it means the pee or the urine . Funny fact 😅
@@secretsofdune I’m from Algeria North Africa ,for instance the Freeman are heavily inspired by the touareg they lived in the Algerian desert for centuries , and when we speak about a tribe or group of people from a specific ethnicity we use Bene , that’s why we have to many family names starting with bene .
you do realize you’re discussing the pronunciation of names some 18,000 years from now, right? how much was even known of Earth, let alone Arabic by the events in the first novel? don’t get me wrong, i dig the lesson-particularly from an etymological perspective. i just think suggesting he’s wrong is a bit much.
If you look into the origins of the Arabic he uses throughout his Dune novels as I have done, you'll understand that he brings the majority of old Arabic history and terms and places them in the far future, unchanged both in meanings, spelling and pronunciation. So whatever I've said based on that knowledge is as informed an opinion as I could possibly come to. This is also based on the fact that Herbert does a great job at pronouncing other foreign language terms with accuracy. As I've said before, some languages are harder than others. I wouldn't expect Herbert to pronouncing lines of Japanese poetry with precision, nor Arabic for that matter. He isn't wrong, but he isn't perfect either. None of us are :)
@@secretsofdune Also, the culture comes from a merging of Buddhism and Islam: zensunni. 30,000 or so years of geographic,technological, political, religious and cultural change may have at least some impact on pronunciation. Edit: I just realised that others have already kind of made this point, and they even got replies.
They should be pronounced how Herbert pronounced them because he wrote the book and invented the context for the names, and, in the extreme far future, Arabic names might be pronounced differently from how they are now.
He pronounces every language he uses accurately. Arabic is no exception. He even retains the meanings of most words in the far future. There are just a few words that may be pronounced more accurately. Certain things like accents or sometimes ability can interfere with that, but at the end of the day what he has said should be considered Dune canon.
Hi, I'm really enjoying your pronunciation videos. One name I've always wondered about is "Pardot" as in Pardot Kynes. I always thought of it as having a silent T, to rhyme with "Margot" but I've never known for sure. I've also been curious about a lot of names from the later books, such as Tylwyth Waff, etc. There's a casette/LP of Frank narrating bits of Heretics of Dune, but its rare and expensive, so I haven't been able to get a copy. Thanks again - keep up the good work!
Thank you Adrian. I drew from all those tapes and recordings so this is pretty much 99% of them. I plan to release a bonus episode in the near future with a few extras which includes those from the later books too. Unfortunately we have very little to go by.
Since Chani's name is Arabic, shouldn't it be pronounced with a guttural ch, as in channukah? And Bene Gesserit are words derived from Latin, which does not have a "dj" sound, so it should be a hard "G" on Gesserit.
Im trying to learn these while reading the story for the first time & i wish it was simply the names & their pronunciations. The unnecessary spoilers included describing each character are unappreciated. 🙄
Okay avoid these and watch the individual terms videos alphabetically. I did try to avoid spoilers as much as possible without omitting education info.
Before watching this video... I've always pronounced Harkonnen as Har-KOH-Nen. I recently learned in a rare interview with Frank Herbert that Atreides was pronounced A-tray-uh-deez. Kyle Maclachlan, to this date, is the only actor I've heard pronounce the Atreides' name properly. Dr. Kynes (in that same interview) is pronounced Keenss... not Kynes. I also heard that Fremen is actually Freemen.. not Freh-men. Chani...Chah-nee...not Chay-nee. I accept Bi-La Kaifa ("Amen", or "nothing further need be explained") as Bee-Lah Keye-ee-fah...not Bye Lah Keye-fah. Ok... now, time to rewatch the video and compare.😁
So, this is incredible, but going to come back after I finished reading and just do my best at figuring out the names, (from what I've heard I have been close or correct) since I think you spoiled a bit of the book for me with Hayt and Duncan Idaho. What I get for trying to supplement while I read haha.
Sorry about that. Part of explaining the root of the word had to come with a little spoiler. I do try to be as spoiler free as possible. I'll include extra warnings in the descriptions for next time.
@@secretsofdune you're awesome. I have absolutely fallen in love with Dune and got a little zealous with wanting to know everything, so I'll admit I had a feeling I was asking for spoilers when I clicked on your video. Turned from "just need to hear this one name said aloud to whoops get out I've learned too much", so don't apologize! Haha again look forward to going through your videos soon.
If I´m being honest, I find it difficult to "trust" American authors when it comes to pronunciation and spelling. English has what feels like no consistent pronunciation (don´t even get me started on the different dialects) and uses diphthongs instead of "clean vowels", as found in most European and Asian languages, and possibly even more regions. When an American author creates or chooses a name, it could literally be pronounced in any way, as shown in this video. Some As are pronounced as American As, while others are pronounced like the phonetic As. Why do they use the same letter for different sounds? I don’t get it. So, whenever I can, I just stick to phonetic (and logical) pronunciations. (It gets a bit more complicated when names are based on languages with different scripts that are not one-to-one transcribable into Latin letters, such as Arabic or Mandarin, etc.)
In fiction the author is ultimately the authority with regard to reference to his work. Arabic pronunciation of today's names/word may not be the same hundreds or even thousands of years from now.
Frank Herbert's pronunciations will always be considered canon, and rightfully so. Name pronunciations are flexible even today, so there definitely is leeway when it comes to name pronunciations.
I still want to know how to pronounce Shadout Mapes. Also, these names don't all have to be pronounced like the original Arabic since this is 20,000 years in the future, and the pronunciations probably would have changed.
This is a common remark given, however, Frank Herbert himself pronounced other terms in French and even in Ancient Egyptian with accuracy. So it's more believable that he was trying to pronounce the Arabic in the correct way too, but that is easier said and done. Overall he made a good effort.
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If there are any words/names you struggle with, let me know and they may be featured in future videos. If there are any mistakes or corrections you'd like to offer, please let me know. Clarification: Bijaz is a character in Children of Dune (the miniseries) but appears in the book "Dune Messiah."
Shadout mapes, how is that pronunced?
Tleilaxu, Axlotl, Hwi Noree, Nayla?
Kwisatz Haderach it sounds Hebrew. Also I think your Arabic pronounciations are absolutely spot on! Especially the way you emphasise certain vowels is good. I hope they will go for these in the movie as well
Correction: Chani is definitely pronounced Chain-ee not Chah-nee in the miniseries.
What actually bothers me most in the Lynch movie is how awfully they pronounce Piter de Vries. Should be pronounced 'Peeter de Vrees'
I like this video; it's interesting to see the influence of Arabic on the names and titles in the Dune Universe. This influence, which is unfamiliar to many western readers, probably affects just how unique the book feels, compared to other science fiction.
One thing to consider; while any difference between Herbert's pronunciation and modern Arabic pronunciations of the same words might be explained as errors caused by Herbert's western experience, there could be an in-universe explanation as well. The novels take place many thousands of years in the future, with many of our modern cultures having changed and merged together over that time (for instance, there is mention of "zensunni islam" and "mahayana christianity"). It is likely that pronunciation of Arabic words might have changed as well, with the current pronunciation merging with a more western style over time.
Just a thought. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. There are some who have offered the same explanation as you did for the errors who have more of a bias than you do (they don't like the Arabic links). I think the pronunciations remain the same (colloquial or classical Arabic) because Herbert pronounced all the other phrases of non English origin to the best of his ability too such as French and even (a dead language) ancient Egyptian! I would say language was preserved through the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood who have their female ancestors for help. So even though time changes things, some things remain the same or in this case, return over time.
@@secretsofdune Good point; it's likely both. Herbert did his best to be accurate, but made various errors due to his experiences. Within the story, those erroneous pronunciations can be excused as changes due to time.
@@opey2dope Exactly! I think you're one of the few who actually gets that.
My parents named me after Chani in Dune in 1980, but they pronounced it "Shawnee."
Hey fellow chani lol
Hello
Me too but they pronounce it chah-nee or chah-ny
Loving this Chani-chain
Oh my goodness, you guys have precious names guard them well 😭
As an English speaker I find this very interesting, but after only 200+ years after the U.S. split from UK we share the same words, many with different spellings and pronunciations but essentially the same. So we can only guess at how varied cultures melded and how some words and names may have homogenized after 10,000+. The effects of culture and media are profound in the shaping of languages. Also Chani (Chah-nee) for life, the more feminine tone adds to Paul's early infatuation. For me at least.
I was raised on "Chah-nee" too and I completely understand where you are coming from.
I’m afraid to watch this, in case I’ve been wrong all along.
One should never be fearful of being "corrected" 😊 although I suspect that Herbert would have been fine with whatever pronunciations his readers chose to use.
Yeah, there's another video by another youtuber about the name "harkonnen". That was a painful watch O_o
There is no wrong way to pronounce the words. Just whatever sounds right to you. There are a lot of pronunciations that I like better than the ones Frank Herbert used.
I will always pronounce Chani as Chah-nee
It's really strange. I was the same, until I produced this video. Now I find myself constantly saying Chain-ee...
As will I.
I mean, the point of the written word (especially in books) is to paint your own pictures of each scene in your mind, I personally believe names/words and pronunciations should be also left for the reader's own interpretation, so to speak. Especially with DUNE, Frank recorded SO MANY phrases, names of items/equipment, and then just didn't even describe what they were. He just left it all to the reader's imagination to make it all real. I love it.
Odd, I once listened to a dune audiobook that pronounced it chan-ee not chain-ee & at the end of the book it thanked brian herbert for help on pronunciation. So I always assumed twas correct..Oh well!
I pronounce it as ‘Channy’ 😂🤷🏼♂️
Mate, your Arabic pronunciation is brilliant! Have you spent time in the middle east?
Thank you! I have actually! I have worked in Saudi Arabia and have visited Egypt many times. Though I'm originally from London, I have Egyptian roots.
@@secretsofdune wow - you certainly no longer sound especially London…ish(!) You have a beautifully softly spoken voice. I always imagined you were from Sweden, Scandinavia or some such place.
@@BlueGrenadeTom Very kind of you thank you. Funny you should say that. I also have German/Ukranian roots if that helps haha.
I love how the background is just spice in the air
Thanks for doing this, so many want to be Dune experts that do a terrible job with names I totally laugh out loud.
You're very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. Kind of trying to set the record straight with this and offer some deeper insights. Second part coming soon!
I want to hear you read the books on Audible! Your voice is so wonderful and pleasant to the ear! An accent is not easily identified or a combination, and has a depth yet gentleness that lends itself well to this series in particular. No offense to the amazing Frank Herbert, RIP.
That truly means a lot. Thank you so much. I hope to read some of my favorite excerpts in the future at least.
A lot of my fav names are Arabic…and I had no clue lol. Now I want to add Arabic as a language to learn, it’s absolutely beautiful. 🥰
It really is a beautiful language. One of my favorites.
Pretty good video! I was quite interested in the meaning behind some of the Arabic names and terminologies. Keep up the great work!
Many thanks! There are so many meanings behind the names alone, I hope to cover them more in the future.
I’m listening to this video again in preparation for the next Dune video and forgot how soothing your voice is! Do you do audiobooks? You absolutely should.
That's very kind of you, thank you. I don't in the official capacity although I have read some audiobooks part of Dune over on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/dune-appendices-77467967?Link&
I've been thinking about in an official capacity though.
Spoil of war = gha-NEE-mah, Herbert's stress on the middle syllable is correct!
Yes perhaps more accurately I should have written Gheh-Nee-Meh غنيمة - I wanted to stress the ghah sound more over the gah. As always Frank Herbert tried his best to pronounce words very accurately even Arabic words which is fantastic.
Thank you for this video. I love Dune and I find Arabic language fascinating, so this was very interesting.
You’re very welcome. I’m very glad you enjoyed this. There is a quite a lot of Arabic words in Dune which I’m hoping to explore more in the near future!
I prefer used arabian prononciation it's more deep
named my daughter chani...pronounced
chawnee
loool my name is Chani too from Dune, but my pronounciation is Chah-nee XD
@@chanimarin7949 I feel like my whole life is a lie. My late mother named me Chani as well from Dune. But for whatever reason I grew up pronouncing it with a soft "Ch" so its Shah-nee 😩🤦🏽♀️
Heey Chani thread lol
This video helps understand the Dune books a lot more
I’m very happy to hear that.
On page one of the first book. Figured I'd stop myself there.
Thank you for this pronunciation guide. While reading the books I was never sure if I was pronouncing certain words correctly in my head. The movie in the 1980s offered certain ways to pronounce the words but when the Sci Fi channel mini series came out their pronunciations made me doubt again.
I think Herbert Anglicized the names a bit just to make them easier for non-Arabic speakers to pronounce.
Love the background you provided on the true meanings tho!
thank you, brother. finally getting into the books before i watch the new film, i didnt want to mispronounce these in my head, nor in any conversation i might encounter
The mini series actually pronounced Chani correctly.
Thank you for this! Only error is that Bijaz was in Dune Messiah, not Children of Dune.
These long late nights really are frying my brain. How did I make such an obvious mistake?! Thanks for pointing it out and thank you for your kind comment.
@@secretsofdune I look forward to more of these it's been really insightful!
@@tommyjennings8550 Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think with Bijaz I was talking about it from where we have "heard" pronunciations from, and I was thinking of the miniseries "Children of Dune" which is where the character Bijaz appears. I should have been more clear though.
I love etymology, so pronunciations are in my wheelhouse. I'd like to think I halfway inspired this by my constant questions about pronunciations, but I have no proof of that, Lol! I'll take Herbert's pronunciations, as he is the artist that created it. This eliminates a lot of speculation, conjecture and opinion. Either way, I love this vid! 👍🏻👌🏻 🤜🏻🤛🏻
Thank you.
As an arab I much prefer the Arabic prononciation because dune is an allegory of the relationship between the saudi arabia and the US... and oil lol.
Oil is definitely in there. Frank Herbert has explicitly mentioned that CHOAM IS OPEC in Dune.
Secrets of Dune I am a firm believer of “death of the author” so I dont really care what frank Herbert says but its pretty obvious that spice is oil
Interesting. I much preffer the arabic pronounciation. It is very close to my original idea how to pronounce it when I first read it.
That's really interesting and I'm glad to hear that!
In Morocco, Hayt is the name of a berber dance of my wife's tribe. It is pronounced hy-ate.
Very cool. what is the dance about?
It's so interesting. I'm from Mexico so the way I pronounced the names came very close or exactly how it's supposed to. It's thanks to how spanish is read and spoken, I suppose. Thanks for the video!!
You’re very welcome! That’s really interesting to know. It’s also cool that the first Dune film was shot in Mexico!
I've always pronounced Chah-nee instead of Chain-ee the whole time (it just felt like it's how it should be pronounced as if it's an Arabic (or other non-English languages) name).
You and me both!
@@secretsofdune Interesting, I had, for years, always read Chani, as Shah-Nee. The same 'CHA' as Chantelle. It just sounded right in my mind. More feminine and less nasally then Chain-ee ;) But I have adapted since the mini series.
The miniseries pronounces it "CHAIN-Y", which is how I pronounce my cat's name.
Your cat: "Meow'Dib!"
@@hlcepeda You're amazing
Thu-fur Paw-at
I love this thread
On October 22nd in 🇺🇸 movie theaters the SPICE WILL FLOW!
this is like guide to the races of star wars but non ironic i love you mister dune
Good. I just started reading this trilogy.
That’s great. Hope you find these videos useful!
Dude your voice is such a pleasure to listen to, bravo
Well I wasn't expecting such a nice comment today. Thank you for that! Sometimes I hear the complete opposite. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it.
I know it’s “lay-tow” but i still say “Lee-tow” it just flows better in my mind when i read. Alia however just stumped me, as i’ve heard that name (varied spellings) in real life and the pronunciations are all different, but i think i went with “Uh- lee-ah”
Yeah I think we all have our preferred natural way of saying certain names, “chah-knee” for example. I like some of the alternative pronunciations from the movie and series too.
You mentioned that the Mini-Series pronounces Chani like the Lynch film. This is in fact, untrue. They definitely pronounce her name as Chain-ee... 😉
Now, I would so love it if they pronounce many of the Arabic names like you describe in this video - and fingers crossed we don't get Har-KOH-nen as well.
Thank you for the correction. It has been a very long time since I saw the series. In the classic voice of Muad'Dib in the series I heard it as Chah-knee. I must have morphed the movie pronunciation and the series together in my head haha! I am very interested to see how they are going to pronounce things and how they'll portray the language.
I specifically remember this because on the forums of the time a lot of people hated the mini-series because they were either comparing it to the Lynch film or to their understanding or memory of the series on a whole. The pronunciation of Chani in the mini-series was one of the things a lot of people were complaining about so someone found the recording of Herbert saying it to prove them wrong.
Great video dude! Almost done with children of dune and loving everything so far. I appreciate the help with the pronunciations; extremely helpful video!
Thanks I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Fabulous stuff, friend. Thanks!
As someone who writes novels for fun, I personally feel the author's pronunciation comes first unless you're using real world languages as a base, however, over 20,000 years of language drift gives a huge amount of wiggle room to play with.
Actually, Chani’s name in the mini-series was pronounced “chain-ee”.
Thanks for this video! I'm very happy to hear about the Arabic influences.
You’re welcome! Hopefully I’ll be making more videos on that soon.
I like more the font used for the names in this video than the one for the 2020 film.
I enjoy Simon Vance's pronunciations.
I always pronounced Jamis as JAM-MISS
Great video, I as a native portuguese speaker was pronouncing the most of the names kinda of right hahaha.
Thank you I appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes having a foreign tongue like Portuguese is very useful for the Dune terms.
Additional comments to give the whole picture of my previosly posted thoughts on your post...
I like the videos - a lot. Please keep up the good work. What's more is that even though I think that going through the correct Arabic pronunciations is unnecessary, the way that you pronouced a lot of the names (correctly) is how I imagined them when I first read the book way back when. I was worried that my previous comments might have come off negatively where that was not my intention. Apologies is that was the case.
Unless you’re thinking of something different, the miniseries does pronounce it “Chain-nee” (which brought me to this video because I thought it was always Chaw-nee).
I think I mixed the 1984 movie and the miniseries together in my head and made a mistake.
Interesting... he alters some pronunciation... Alia sounds almost like latin Alia,
Often he uses american g and j pronunciation, but most of the time he just alters accentuation of vowels.Possibly chakobsa and Galach are far more influenced by english and slavic than many people suggest...
I've been enjoying this series of 'how to pronounce' videos after having been suggested your channel by Quinn's Ideas. Subscribed!
Thank you Adib. Glad you like them.
As far as I'm concerned Frank Herbert's pronunciations are canonical. It doesn't matter if a name is of Arabic origin and pronounced differently in 2020, Frank Herbert's books are set thousands of years in the future thus pronunciations will have changed.
Frank Herbert's pronunciations are canonical as far as created terms are concerned. He pronounces things quite accurately in French and Ancient Egyptian in other instances, so his aim was most definitely to pronounce words correctly as they should be pronounced. However, that isn't always an easy thing to do with a strong foreign language like Arabic or Urdu for example. In terms of changing pronunciations due to its futuristic setting, most words he uses from the past haven't changed though, so it's not really a strong argument for the few pronunciations that have "changed" from a linguistic perspective. Arabic was pronounced the same in the 60's as it is pronounced now in 2020. As far as names alone are concerned though, I think both pronunciations are valid and both should probably be considered canonical as that was his intended aim.
@@secretsofdune Hmm, it's possible his pronunciations were unintentionally wrong ... but in most cases you seemed to reject them in favour of the Lynch movie and the TV mini-series. What is wrong, really, with "Chay-ni" or "Ay-liyah"? I've personally always preferred the Herbert pronunciation of Chani: shouldn't we respect his choices in these matters?
@@iianneill6013 We should respect him and the reality of his pronunciations, which is why I wanted to include them from the man himself. I guess it depends on whether or not you believe they are mispronounced or intentionally changed, if that's what you meant. I personally believe he was trying to pronounce things accurately in general from all the languages he drew from, without changing them. I am merely offering insight in to those pronunciations and their roots.
@@secretsofdune Fair enough. And I appreciate the time you took to research this, as well as the sound clips of Herbert's pronunciations.
@@iianneill6013 Thank you very much. I had to go through hours of recordings to pick the best soundbites. I appreciate your feedback because it's really helpful to know what people think and how they perceive these things, so thanks again.
Leto is a Titaness in Ancient Greece. She is the mother of Artemis and Apollo.
I have first noticed the word "Hayat" on my neighbor's house a long time ago. I didn't know its meaning until now.
Glad I was able to shed light on it. It may have been their actual name as it can be used as a female name. Or it may simply be the word with the meaning behind it.
@@secretsofdune It's nice knowing that you replied even though the video was posted three years ago. Anyway, you were helpful not only with this word but also with the Duniverse in general. I liked dune movie so much that I've started reading the Dune books. I have a question regarding the same: there are several quotes, citations, and epigraphs referenced to Irulan's books (such as Manual of Muad'Dib) or BG File GSXXMAT9, BG archives, 10000th Anniversary Peroration, etc. Are these sources really available for reading or just made-up things?
@@nutube6291 I always try to reply to new comments because I really love hearing from people especially if they've learned something new or had a positive experience. This was my first series on this channel I believe which I'm really happy that I made. To answer your question, they are only made up books in the citation and not available to read. There is however a real Kitab al-Ibar book which is quoted in the Dune books and that was written by Ibn Khaldun which is about world history and it is renowned in the historical world.
@@secretsofdune Thanks 😊
New movie also says it Chah-nee
I always thought of Hayt as pronounced something along the lines of "Hai-yeet" Additonally, some of my favorite names and words come to me though Arabic and Czech...go figure.
I love this video and it’s a great resource for Dune readers and fans.
I was hoping to find out how tf you pronounce Iakin Neyfud.
Edit: Excellent video btw! 👍
Noted. Thank you very much! I don't have any recordings of Frank Herbert pronouncing that name unfortunately. But if I can obtain any in future I will remember to cover it.
@@secretsofdune Cool, thanks! I've been a Dune fanatic for almost a decade and Neyfud's name drives me crazy to this day lol. Again, excellent video 👍
I'm more interested in your pronunciations than Frank's! I'm especially curious about Hwi Noree. Is it Indian or Welsh?
There are lots of names to cover but I guess accuracy is a pipe dream because pronunciations change over millennia anyway. It might just be nice to hear the alternatives available.
@@maybepumpkins Thank you. With the greatest respect to Herbert, I think it's nice to go to the sources of the names and hear the true pronunciations, but with names it is flexible. Terms on the other hand are a different topic which I hope to cover soon.
I speak Spanish so I pronounce everything like in Spanish besides Kwisatch Haderach.
I've always thought that Alia was pulled from the Latin aliā for "others" or "different".
I found a very ancient book dated back to 1000 years and it was written into ancient Arabic that is totally different than Arabic of nowadays so i asked an expert to read some pages and this is what he said to me:
SUperior wariors from other world will come to earth to help the Mahdi who will be alone and armless and Mahdi is from Royal Hachemite blood .
So either it is coincidence or the realisator was reading ancient texts
Book name : The begining and The end written by EBEN Athir the Great historian and scientist of Abaside Ers.
I think you're referring to Ibn Kathir and the Arabic he wrote in was Fus'ha, the language of the Qur'an or classical Arabic. It is all very fascinating.
I could see the Arabic tones to the names but I did not know that they were real words.. Thank you
You're very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
So interesting! I want to know the pronunciation in the new film.
It's interesting the changes in the transcript between arab-english and arab-spanish. For example, the word جهاد is jihad for english and yihad for spanish, but my edition of Dune (Spanish) use the translation in the english mode (jihad).
Just a bit curiosity.
Thanks for the video, friend!
You're very welcome! I'm really excited to hear how they speak in Denis Villeneuve's DUNE. Translations of Dune in to other languages creates some really interesting experiences for those audiences.
Love this video, your voice is a pleasure to listen to.
That's very kind of you, thank you.
Thank you
I was hoping Princess Irulan would be included.
I'll include it when I make an episode on extras.
Secrets of Dune thank you! 😊
Ok... this didn't quite cover the names I figured it would, but still, a nice and informative video. Thank you for sharing.
Very beautiful animation!
Thank you. Very kind of you!
The way I pronounce Chani is Schaani
Now you're just showing off! Haha, that's a really nice way of saying it actually and i like it!
Actually, the miniseries did pronounce Muad'Dib's concubine as Chay-nee.
It says in the book that hayt is pronounced like hate.
What about Paul? Is it like native English /pol/ or German /paul/?
@@melissasa5781 there is no name as paul or pol in arabic , letter p doesn't exist , there is only one word and it's Bol or Bawl and it means the pee or the urine . Funny fact 😅
Your Arabic pronunciation is perfect do have Arabic origins ❤️❤️❤️
Shukran Azzedine. I do have some Arabic roots yes, but it isn't my mother tongue. I do love the Arabic language though. Where are you from?
@@secretsofdune I’m from Algeria North Africa ,for instance the Freeman are heavily inspired by the touareg they lived in the Algerian desert for centuries , and when we speak about a tribe or group of people from a specific ethnicity we use Bene , that’s why we have to many family names starting with bene .
you do realize you’re discussing the pronunciation of names some 18,000 years from now, right? how much was even known of Earth, let alone Arabic by the events in the first novel?
don’t get me wrong, i dig the lesson-particularly from an etymological perspective. i just think suggesting he’s wrong is a bit much.
If you look into the origins of the Arabic he uses throughout his Dune novels as I have done, you'll understand that he brings the majority of old Arabic history and terms and places them in the far future, unchanged both in meanings, spelling and pronunciation. So whatever I've said based on that knowledge is as informed an opinion as I could possibly come to. This is also based on the fact that Herbert does a great job at pronouncing other foreign language terms with accuracy. As I've said before, some languages are harder than others. I wouldn't expect Herbert to pronouncing lines of Japanese poetry with precision, nor Arabic for that matter. He isn't wrong, but he isn't perfect either. None of us are :)
@@secretsofdune Is English your second language?
Exactly. Do we all need to change our pronunciation of John or Michael?
@@anypercentdeathless First.
@@secretsofdune Also, the culture comes from a merging of Buddhism and Islam: zensunni. 30,000 or so years of geographic,technological, political, religious and cultural change may have at least some impact on pronunciation. Edit: I just realised that others have already kind of made this point, and they even got replies.
They should be pronounced how Herbert pronounced them because he wrote the book and invented the context for the names, and, in the extreme far future, Arabic names might be pronounced differently from how they are now.
He pronounces every language he uses accurately. Arabic is no exception. He even retains the meanings of most words in the far future. There are just a few words that may be pronounced more accurately. Certain things like accents or sometimes ability can interfere with that, but at the end of the day what he has said should be considered Dune canon.
@@secretsofdune I understand. It's just my personal opinion. I feel that the writer's intent is sacrosanct.
This is very helpful thank you so much🧡🤎
Glad that you found it useful. You're welcome!
Very interesting i love this book sm and luckily i speak arabic so i m very familiar with that kind of words and prononciations 😊
Nice!
Hi, I'm really enjoying your pronunciation videos. One name I've always wondered about is "Pardot" as in Pardot Kynes. I always thought of it as having a silent T, to rhyme with "Margot" but I've never known for sure.
I've also been curious about a lot of names from the later books, such as Tylwyth Waff, etc. There's a casette/LP of Frank narrating bits of Heretics of Dune, but its rare and expensive, so I haven't been able to get a copy.
Thanks again - keep up the good work!
Thank you Adrian. I drew from all those tapes and recordings so this is pretty much 99% of them. I plan to release a bonus episode in the near future with a few extras which includes those from the later books too. Unfortunately we have very little to go by.
th-cam.com/video/ZFDxeZAV1ew/w-d-xo.html
1:22 Didn't know that Frank Herbert predicted the Bee Movie.
I for sure prefer “Chain-ee” the other way is just strange to me haha but I guess I’m the strange one
I wonder how did he pronounce Scytale.
I might have it somewhere lying around. I was thinking of doing a bonus edition with the rest of it on there.
Since Chani's name is Arabic, shouldn't it be pronounced with a guttural ch, as in channukah? And Bene Gesserit are words derived from Latin, which does not have a "dj" sound, so it should be a hard "G" on Gesserit.
I'm not familiar with Chani being an Arabic name. I know Shani is a Hebrew name. That's as close as I could find.
The miniseries actually pronounces it Chainy
Someone show this video to Reading Dune Podcast, please.
Kwisatz Haderach, Knick knack paddywack
Thank you ! Nice content as usual !
That's very kind of you. Thank you! Really happy you enjoy it.
Im trying to learn these while reading the story for the first time & i wish it was simply the names & their pronunciations. The unnecessary spoilers included describing each character are unappreciated. 🙄
Okay avoid these and watch the individual terms videos alphabetically. I did try to avoid spoilers as much as possible without omitting education info.
Unless you're referring to the Syfy miniseries Bijaz dies at the end of Dune Messiah, and is not in Children of Dune.
Your eyes remind me of the Buddist wisdom eyes on the rounded building in Nepal
That is beautiful. Thanks.
I always thought Thufir was "Too-Fear"
These names are just a reflection of Frank Herbert’s genius
I completely agree and I am glad you see it. He was so well read especially in Arab history.
@@secretsofdune not just Arab buddy he also used a lot of Turkish and Hebrew
@@AntAciieed Turkish and Hebrew in what sense?
Before watching this video...
I've always pronounced Harkonnen as Har-KOH-Nen.
I recently learned in a rare interview with Frank Herbert that Atreides was pronounced A-tray-uh-deez. Kyle Maclachlan, to this date, is the only actor I've heard pronounce the Atreides' name properly.
Dr. Kynes (in that same interview) is pronounced Keenss... not Kynes.
I also heard that Fremen is actually Freemen.. not Freh-men.
Chani...Chah-nee...not Chay-nee.
I accept Bi-La Kaifa ("Amen", or "nothing further need be explained") as Bee-Lah Keye-ee-fah...not Bye Lah Keye-fah.
Ok... now, time to rewatch the video and compare.😁
Seriously prefer the second pronunciation since thats what ive used my whole life. My sister Alia has also been pronouncing it wrong. Ah lea
Thank you. Great video.
Glad you liked it!
So, this is incredible, but going to come back after I finished reading and just do my best at figuring out the names, (from what I've heard I have been close or correct) since I think you spoiled a bit of the book for me with Hayt and Duncan Idaho. What I get for trying to supplement while I read haha.
Sorry about that. Part of explaining the root of the word had to come with a little spoiler. I do try to be as spoiler free as possible. I'll include extra warnings in the descriptions for next time.
@@secretsofdune you're awesome. I have absolutely fallen in love with Dune and got a little zealous with wanting to know everything, so I'll admit I had a feeling I was asking for spoilers when I clicked on your video. Turned from "just need to hear this one name said aloud to whoops get out I've learned too much", so don't apologize! Haha again look forward to going through your videos soon.
@@TechnicolorMammoth Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you're enjoying Dune!
huh I always pronounced Leto as let-o. Not lay-tow or lee-tow
If I´m being honest, I find it difficult to "trust" American authors when it comes to pronunciation and spelling. English has what feels like no consistent pronunciation (don´t even get me started on the different dialects) and uses diphthongs instead of "clean vowels", as found in most European and Asian languages, and possibly even more regions.
When an American author creates or chooses a name, it could literally be pronounced in any way, as shown in this video. Some As are pronounced as American As, while others are pronounced like the phonetic As. Why do they use the same letter for different sounds? I don’t get it. So, whenever I can, I just stick to phonetic (and logical) pronunciations.
(It gets a bit more complicated when names are based on languages with different scripts that are not one-to-one transcribable into Latin letters, such as Arabic or Mandarin, etc.)
That’s a sensible rule I guess.
In fiction the author is ultimately the authority with regard to reference to his work. Arabic pronunciation of today's names/word may not be the same hundreds or even thousands of years from now.
Frank Herbert's pronunciations will always be considered canon, and rightfully so. Name pronunciations are flexible even today, so there definitely is leeway when it comes to name pronunciations.
man i was out here just thinking Leto was pronounced like Jared Leto
Liet is pronoced Monique or was it tamiesha maybe Tamara
Can you do these without spoilers?
Yeah, i got spoiled..... ಥ_ಥ
I still want to know how to pronounce Shadout Mapes. Also, these names don't all have to be pronounced like the original Arabic since this is 20,000 years in the future, and the pronunciations probably would have changed.
This is a common remark given, however, Frank Herbert himself pronounced other terms in French and even in Ancient Egyptian with accuracy. So it's more believable that he was trying to pronounce the Arabic in the correct way too, but that is easier said and done. Overall he made a good effort.