The Wall of Storms

A NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION

Many names in Dara are derived from Classical Ano. The transliteration for Classical Ano in this book does not use vowel digraphs; each vowel is pronounced separately. For example, “Réfiroa” has four distinct syllables: “Ré-fi-ro-a.” Similarly, “Na-aroénna” has five syllables: “Na-a-ro-én-na.”

The i is always pronounced like the i in English “mill.”

The o is always pronounced like the o in English “code.”

The ü is always pronounced like the umlauted form in German or Chinese pinyin.

Other names have different origins and contain sounds that do not appear in Classical Ano, such as the xa in “Xana” or the ha in “Haan.” In such cases, however, each vowel is still pronounced separately. Thus, “Haan” also contains two syllables.

The representation of Lyucu and Agon names and words presents a different problem. As we come to know them through the people and language of Dara, the names given in this work are doubly mediated. Just as English speakers who write down Chinese names and words they hear will achieve only a rough approximation of the original sounds, so with the Dara transliteration of Lyucu and Agon.