Audiobook narrators

[nwhiker]

I think audiobook narrators are some of the most incredible performers ever. They singlehandedly breath sound into the universe created by the author.

Some of them will make me listen to the crappiest books, just because the reader was so awesome. A rare few times, however, I've ditched a book because the reader was so bad, though that doesn't happen often, and a few times I've gone on to just read the book.

I do have three whines, about words I think they shouldn't miss, and much too often do:

Siobhan. Hint: it's not see-oh-ban.
Plait.
Chisholm.

Also, it's gif like garden, not like the peanut butter. Don't care what the guy who invented it says, the majority of people say gif not jif!

I am VERY sympathetic to people who mispronounce words because they've never said them, and only seen them written, it's something I still deal with. But those three are common enough, I think, that people should have a good idea.

Additional word: dour. Does not rhyme with sour!

Comments

[camelsamba]

How do people mis-pronounce Chisholm? (And how many different books does it appear in that you would have noticed this as a trend??)

But yeah, I noticed some mispronunciations recently, and yeah, it bugs me. A little less so when it's read-by-author (looking at you, Melinda Gates - in her case, not mispronunciations but gawd-awful pronunciations of Hispanic surnames, especially since she grew up in Dallas.)

[nwhiker]

Chiz-holm. Series of books, three different readers, two missed it. Drove me batty!

[camelsamba]

I'm questioning how i would have pronounced it, but probably the same as Chisum (a street in Roswell, named after some cattle baron IIRC) (ah yes, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-johnchisum/ )

[camelsamba]

(which would be "chiz-um")

[nwhiker]

Right. Not Chiz-holm! :)