No.
Golem = go-lem
Solemn = soll-um
They don’t rhyme anymore than hippopotamus rhymes with chrysanthemum.
What Johnny said. I’m a long-time D&D player, and I’ve always pronounced “golem” with a long “o”.
Also, for what it’s worth: pronunciation of גולם and גָּלַם
Golem rhymes with Bowl 'em
Solemn rhymes with Column
Doesn’t rhyme for me. Never mind the Goh- vs soll- bit, the second syllable is different too - it’s -Lem for the Golem, but -Lim for Solemn.
It won’t settle the argument, but for me they rhyme. FWIW, it is likely that for nearly all of you “sad” and “bad” rhyme, but not for me "the first has a lax “a” and the second a tense “a”. The same distinction between the modal “can” and noun “can”. There is no truth about pronunciation. It is just what you say. Even if you pronounce the “b” in “debt” or the “t” in “often” I cannot say you are wrong, only different. All Canadians pronounce “schedule” as if it were “shedule” while all Americans say it as “skedule”.
Do you? You say pronounce, but do you actually say the diphthong in /oʊl/? Because I say [oɫ].
In non-IPA, I don’t add the extra “ooh” sound to the Oh vowel when it is in front of an L.
Nope. Gollum and solemn rhyme, though. There’s an idea for a little poem, in the style of Ogden Nash.
Gollum
Was solemn
In Parth Galen
Not so much, no.
Ok, breaks on for a moment, as everyone here is happily going along with the idea that ‘solemn’ has a ‘saw’ sound in it. Doesn’t to my British ears. Both Gollum (from LOTR, which is British) and solemn have a very short ‘o’, no ‘aw’.
I don’t think I’ve ever had cause to use the word golem, and wouldn’t know how to pronounce it. I would assume a (very) short ‘o’.
Yep. That’s what I came in here to post—that if you want a rhyme with solemn that word would be Gollum not Golem.
Gollum: gɑl ǝm
Golem: go lɛm
Solemn: sɑ lǝm
No, they don’t rhyme to me. However, I do rhyme Gollum and solemn.