Proper pronunciation of "Saelig"

[The Dude67]

*Please correct me if I'm wrong*
In the description of the game on the store page, an "æ" is used. This is called as æsc. From research I've done, the Anglo-Saxons would've pronounced it like the "a" in cat. The next possible line of confusion is the "g". In Anglo-Saxon documents, the "g" is unmarked but can make either the modern "g" sound or the modern "y" sound in yellow. Nowadays, Anglo-Saxon scripts tend to have their g's marked "ġ" to indicate the "y" sound. This also goes for the "i" but with the "i" or "ee" sound. "ee" being marked with an "ī" (macron over the i).

Therefore, I've come up with the following pronunciations:
S-ah-lee-yuh
S-ah-lee-guh
S-ah-li-guh
S-ah-li-yuh

Am I over thinking this?

[Beckstation]

Its more like S-a-lig, from what I know. But theres more than one way people say it, and people say it to how it suits them which is cool.

[The Dude67]

Originally posted by Beckstation:

Its more like S-a-lig, from what I know. But theres more than one way people say it, and people say it to how it suits them which is cool.

So my third one is the closest then. Thanks for the reply.

[Zeno]

ae usually is the English way of using Ä.

As simple as that.

Ä has it's own pronounciation, but you can type a word involving Ä and let your audio player play it, this should show you how it is pronounced properly.


Maybe this helps:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/s%C3%A6lig


"I am fluent in German and English, I am very very sure it is pronounced like SÄLIG.

Hope I could help. Enjoy the game.

[osvaldo01]

I'm Dutch and we still use this, in English almost forgotten, word. We write it as "zalig" with the a pronounced as the last a in "mama" and the g as, the hard Dutch, ggg...

It means something feeling very good or tasting very good. Also the pope can declare someone zalig, that's something between an ordinary person and a saint...

[White Knight]

https://www.howtopronounce.com/saelig/

Not sure if this is helpful but it's pretty close to what I thought it might be.

[Zeno]

Originally posted by osvaldo01:

I'm Dutch and we still use this, in English almost forgotten, word. We write it as "zalig" with the a pronounced as the last a in "mama" and the g as, the hard Dutch, ggg...

It means something feeling very good or tasting very good. Also the pope can declare someone zalig, that's something between an ordinary person and a saint...

The Dutch zalig is pretty much the German " Seelig " . Same meaning, almost same pronouncation.

btw, how it is pronounced differs from dialect to dialect.

[hasph]

In danish we use the word and would pronounce it Salig, even though we use the letter Æ, it is not in the word nowadays.

Sounds most like nr 2 here:
https://www.howtopronounce.com/saelig/

[adriankowaty]

Anglosaxon language was barbarized form of latin mixed with north german (saxonic) words. That meaning, I'm preety sure that it's pronounced "Selig" with S spelled similar to Spelled or like Z(it's depending on the accent), E spelled exacly like ae/ or A with umlaut in German, L spelled like reaLLy, I spelled like english "ee" and G spelled like geoGrafy.
I'm preety sure that it's hard to spell to someone with "soft" languages (romance mostly), because it mostly utilizes germanic character spellings, with ae digraf working exacly like E/A with umlaut in germanic languages.

[The Dude67]

æ is pronuonced like the a in cat according to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY9RXpBjiMA&list=PLX2L8KuRbPMA7ay3Y-mgUmBtdXFWzN2KP
https://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/old-english-lessons/lesson-0-alphabet-and-pronunciation/


Using the Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon dictionary, it means "blessed" or "fortunate"
http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/026225

Therefore, I personally think it would've been pronounced either Sah-leeg or Sah-leey if the spelling were of it's time. (The anglo-saxons didn't place macrons over "i" or mark "g" to indicate a different sound like we do today when representing it)

[adriankowaty]

Originally posted by ⎛The ค็็็็็็็:

æ is pronuonced like the a in cat according to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY9RXpBjiMA&list=PLX2L8KuRbPMA7ay3Y-mgUmBtdXFWzN2KP
https://ealdaenglisc.wordpress.com/old-english-lessons/lesson-0-alphabet-and-pronunciation/


Using the Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon dictionary, it means "blessed" or "fortunate"
http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/026225

Therefore, I personally think it would've been pronounced either Sah-leeg or Sah-leey if the spelling were of it's time. (The anglo-saxons didn't place macrons over "i" or mark "g" to indicate a different sound like we do today when representing it)

æ is simply latin ae, which is used as A mit unmlaut in German and e in Polish.
And yes, basically in English the vowel simillar to it is "a" in cat.

[Dave]

Just randomly passing by, decided to take a nosey at the hub for this game and saw this thread. Thought I'd throw ye's a bone, granted I haven't a baldy when it comes to this language but.. sometimes words really are just simply pronounced how you read it.

It could literally just be sae - lig (say - lig) or it could be pronounced entirely different to how it's read. The only other language that I know of that has both of those things happening is Irish.

Cad a léann tú nach bhfuil á labhairt ar an mbealach céanna

(Cad) (a) (lay - un) (to) (knack) (whale) (aw) (law - rit - ch) (ayr) (un) (mir - lach) (key - enna)

Translation: What you read is not spoken in the same way.

Of course, dialects probably come into play (same with Irish) so the pronunciation may vary. But, like I said, sometimes words really are pronounced literally how you see them. So that may be the case when it comes to old English whether or not it takes from the Brittonic languages I have no idea as I don't read too much into their side of history but England's natives were once (still are?) insular Celts themselves, debatable considering the Roman Empire invaded them etc. I suppose, and they spoke their own version of a Celtic language: Brythonic etc. the Irish, Welsh and Scottish (possibly) are Gaels though which speak Goidelic languages.

I'll stop now before I go off on a long winded ramble haha.

[White Knight]

The way the OP is treating "g" reminded me of Irish as well. The language spoken by the people in this game would be influenced by thousands of years of interactions between various Celtic peoples, Gauls, etc. Then you have the waves of invasions from the Angles and Saxons and that lot. It's not unreasonable to suggest a weird sounding "g" at the end of a word might wind up in the Eastern Lowlands of Britain.

The OP's YouTube link of Old English is the best evidence I've seen yet but my mind still hears "say-lig" when I read the word.

I can't think of any language that isn't an excellent example of how messed up words and sounds and meanings can be (even Esperanto). I'm quite sure all of the people in the Dark Ages couldn't agree on how every word was pronounced either.

Now I'm wondering, does literacy contribute to this problem? In an oral culture, you can only know a word by hearing it spoken. Avid readers are often attrocious at pronunciation.

Of course, the best response was the very first response.

Originally posted by Beckstation:

...But theres more than one way people say it, and people say it to how it suits them which is cool.

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

I just use my Nordic ancestory to familiarise with the name, so I pronnounce it 'say-liiighh', and I kind of soften the 'g' to slurr it more as if it is almost not sounded. All in all I think the name of this game is awesome!

[Atorcoppe]

I forgot to put an answer in here. Basically, from what I have read the Anglo-Saxons said the ash letter much like the a sound in the word cat. And then the rest of the word is as normal.