How do I pronounce those unspeakable names of the ancient ones?

However you want.

My brother pronounced his name as K-thul-hoo (C-thul-hu)

I use the pronounciations found in the songs of the HPL society. Look up A Very Scary Solstice, An Even Scarier Solstice, and A Shoggoth on the Roof on youtube if you're interested.

My group pronounces it Kith-u-lu

What about the other Ancient Ones?

Azathoth= A-za-toff

Nyarlathotep= Yar-la-ho-tep

Hastur= Has-tur (very easy)

Shub-Niggurath= Shub-Ni-gurath

Yig= Yig

Yog-Sothoth= Yog-so-toff

Ithaqua= I-tha*-kua (*same sound as 'thanks')

Lovecraft wrote letters in which in explained how to pronounce 'Cthulhu'. He said it was something like 'Clull-huh-loo', which doesn't help much, but the idea is that you need vocal chords different from those of a human. Then when Chaosium started making games, they decided it was easier to just pronounce it 'Kuh-Thoo-Loo', which is now the most common way I think.

This is quite an interesting question though! Here's how I do it (capitals for the emphasized syllable).

Abhoth - "AB-hoth"

Atlach-Nacha - "AT-lack-NARK-er"

Azathoth - "AZ-a-thoth"

Bokrug - "BOCK-rugg".

Chaugnar Faugn - "CHOW-guh-nar fown". Might be the trickiest one. I think the 'g' towards the end should be silent, as in 'deign' or 'feign'.

Cthugha - "kuh-THOO-gah"

Cthulhu - "kuh-THOO-Loo"

Eihort - "EYE-hort" (not much problem there, since it's not an alien word; it's German, and means 'Hoard of Eggs')

Glaaki - "GLAR-key"

Ghatanathoa - "gah-tan-a-THO-ah."

Hastur - "HAST-oor"

Ithaqua - "ith-ACK-wah"

Nyarlathoptep - "nee-arr-LATH-o-tep", or "nee-ar-lath-HO-tep"

Nyogtha - "nee-OG-tha"

Quachil Uttaus - "KWA-chill you-TOWSE"

Rhan-Tegoth - No idea. Hadn't even heard of it before the game came along. Probably just "ran-TEGG-oth".

Shub-Niggurath - "shub-***-yur-ath", although the Scary Solstice crowd say it as "shub-****-YOOR-ath."

Shudde M'ell - "shudd-MELL"

Tsathoggua - "sath-OG-you-ah", or "sath-og-YOU-ah"

Y'golonac - "igg-OL-oh-nack", or "yug-OL-oh-nack"

Yibb-Tstll - "YIBB-still"

Yig - not much choice, I feel. "Yig."

Yog-Sothoth - "yogg-SOTH-oth."

Zhar - "zarr"

Anyone got any interesting variations?

Actually Lovecraft offered several different pronunciations (he was apparently having fun with that), some as ridiculous as "Clutl-lutl" (those are "L"s).

However you want seems to be a good guess. The Call of Cthulhu RPG ones listed in the rulebooks are helpful, but are for the most part "educated guesses" and about as arbitrary as anyone else's guess. They are mostly pronounced in such a way as if an english speaker were reading them (yeah, that isn't very helpful), since the authors were english speakers, but there are pitfalls such as Nyarlat-hotep - with most people pronouncing the middle part as "th" instead of separating these two terms.

In the end it hardly matters.

As for the chaosium list, german speakers are particularly lucky, as it follows pretty much german pronunciation rules, with the only exceptions being definate english parts like "th" or "ew".

So again, do whatever you want. Alternate spellings and pronunciations are all part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu himself has many names like Tulitu, Tutu, Cthulhut, Cloo-loo, etc., etc...

Officially speaking, they are not pronouncable by humans, so why try? And no, there is no official consensus save for that of the RPG crowd. And really, they don't have much say in the manner, despite such inventions as the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, famously mis-attributed to a Robert Bloch story about Shoggoths.

Wow... they must be so ancient the pronunciations are forgotton to all but themselves...

It is more a problem of human vocal chords not being able to speak them than their ancientness. After all, they do communicate on occasion with their cults in the fiction.

thecorinthian said:

My pronounciations are right on track with yours. My only variation is Shudde M'ell. I actually pronouce it in 3 syllables (shood mah-ELL) with the accent on ell.

I've got a copy of The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia , but unfortunately, it does not have a pronounciation guide.

Atlach-Nacha - "AT-lack-NARK-er"

That pronunciation fascinates me. I've always done "AT-lack NAW-cha", but that could be very "American" of me.

Chaugnar Faugn - "CHOW-guh-nar fown". Might be the trickiest one. I think the 'g' towards the end should be silent, as in 'deign' or 'feign'.

Hmmmm. I agree with the "G" rule, and have always prounounced it "SHOG-nar fawn". But seeing that rule in black and white makes me wonder if the FIRST word isn't the same: "SHAWN-yar fawn" or "SHOWN-yar fown".

Glaaki - "GLAR-key"

"GLA-key" or "GLAW-key", but only because I like how that sounds over "GLAR".

Ithaqua - "ith-ACK-wah"

I slide the "kuh" sound to the last syllable, and move the emphasis: "ITH-a-kwah".

Rhan-Tegoth - No idea. Hadn't even heard of it before the game came along. Probably just "ran-TEGG-oth".

Same kinda thing: one change, move emphasis. "RAWN-teh-GOTH".

Tsathoggua - "sath-OG-you-ah", or "sath-og-YOU-ah"

I end up with only three syllables: "sah-THOG-gwah".

Zhar - "zarr"

Although, one of my cultists likes "ZURR", which is closer to "Zuul".

Listening to the new video about the card game, it turns out Cthulhu really is pronounced Kh-Thoo-Loo

Hastur: has-ter

Shub-Niggurath: Shab-Ni-gu-rath

Yog-Sothoth: Yog-So-Thoth

I know this is a dangerous question. We all know that Lovecraft was a racist (thought black's hatched from eggs). Was Shub Niggurath intentionally refrenced to a black goat (black devil) or did Lovecraft just not think this one through nor care too?

darkkami said:

I don't think there's much ambiguity about it - I'm pretty sure he meant to the '-niggur-' part to mean 'black'. The words 'Shub-Niggurath' could very loosely be said to mean 'Black Goat'. I can't remember what language the 'Shub' part comes from, but it's another one of HPL's bits of dodgy linguistic fudging-together. He probably borrowed the name from a reference in Time and the Gods , where Dunsany mentions an old god called 'Sheol-Nugganoth'. Except it changed it to 'Niggurath' just to make it a little bit more racist. The man was a total bastard after all.

You dare speak their names aloud?

You can just say "That Which Is Not To Be Named" but it gets a bit confusing when you're trying to choose which of twenty-odd AOs to play against.

Not as confusing as the Hurrrrrr... the phhhtttttnrrr..... the **** ****** *** ** ** *********.

You're not allowed to even mention him.

Me and a friend played that as rule once. Got two devourings right away when one guy said his name and my friend explained why he was devoured. Great start.

I better have this thread elder sign protected with all these names being spoken, just incase someone actually pronounces one of them correctly.

We were pronouncing Y'ha-nthlei as Clanethli Like the Welsh place

Heh, Spirit you have the rorshach wana-be for your avatar.

The Niggur in Shub-Niggurath is likely simply due to the color and to invoke satanic imagery of black goats - I doubt that HPL had racist motives for that name, simply because he is pretty blunt with all the other things in his name. I'm not sure I'd call him a bastard though - he was a nice fellow to the people he knew, including non-"aryans".

Anyway, Knuckles Eki, the people at FF don't know how to pronounce them either, so you can ignore whatever you heard them say in their video. There is no official pronunciation since the creator of Cthulhu gave several different ones. There is no single answer, and there should not be one.

@Darkkami

What's this eggs business? Is that some kind of american lingo for ignorant racists, or did you read somewhere that he thought that? If the latter, then I'd like to know where - it wasn't in the biography I read, and would be interesting to know, since HPL was a pretty bright feller. (I'm guessing it's an idiom though, as that would simply be awfully silly).

Read it a very long time ago in a Lovecraft biography. He said some odd things about women too. I will try to find the book to source it.

I should clarify. He believed they hatched from eggs rather than being born or created by a God. Like adam and eve. He also believed blacks laid eggs too.

here is a documentary on him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WC3yA0OCuk&eurl=http://www.poetv.com/video.php%3Fvid%3D55463&feature=player_embedded

Thanks for the link.

...are you sure you aren't confusing this with his poem about the creation of blacks? Because that was a racist poem, i.e. it used poetic imagery.

re-reading your post, I guess you either did mean that or you are confused on some issues. Lovecraft was an atheist, so he did not believe in supernatural creation stories or gods. He dismisses these in quite a few letters.