from Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle?
…exactly as it is spelled, of course!
Daff-nee.
My guess would be something like this: quilguhm
I’d guess cullum.
I’m thinking something approximating “cullgum”, although for some reason my brain always substitutes “quiggle-helm”. Or perhaps it’s pronounced “throat wobbler mangrove”.
Coolgame?
I’ve been pronouncing it “kwelm”. Just 'cause that’s easy to say, and might be somewhat close.
In my brain, when I see it, it comes out will´um with a very aspirated w and a swallowed m.
But I don’t know hardly anything about Welsh. It’s supposed to be a parody of Welsh, isn’t it? But perhaps following totally different pronunciations rules?
I think it’s pronounced “fhqwhgads.”
There’s a Wiki devoted to the Baroque Cycle, whose main page, or at least a good starting point, can be found at: http://www.metaweb.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver
I find the whole structure of the site and attempt to be more bizarre than the books themselves. If this is the future of information, leave me out. But you’re more than welcome to search through the millions of links for a pronunciation.
It rhymes with “Spwlghm.”
I’ve pronounced it like so:
Q - unvoiced uvular plosive (like classical Arabic qaf)
W - as in Welsh (same vowel as English “book”)
L - like the end of English “bull”
GH - like Arabic ghayn, a voiced uvular fricative
M - like in English
Two syllables, with “w” being the first vowel and “m” serving as a sonorant, in place of a vowel (like the first sound of “Mbeki”).
I can NOT believe you beat me to that joke. :mad:
Obscurity: 1, Chastain86: 0
It’s pronounced “Mangrove Throat-Warbler.”
I never get tired of that one… 
In my head, it’s always ‘quill-m’
No, no, it’s Raymond Luxury Yacht!
The name means nothing to me, but I’d pronounce it “KWOOL-gum” First syllable rhymes with “wool”, second is an unaccented schwa.
I’m changing my answer. This makes a lot more sense.
This may just be me but I can get though whole books without bothering to figure out how to pronounce the weirder stuff. I just gloss over them. Dune comes to mind, there were a whole load of names I didn’t know how to pronounce until the film came out.
As for Qwlghm, doesn’t the pronounciation depend on whether you’re from inner or outer Qwlghm?