A Pronunciation Thing

[kaasirpent]

I'm curious. I heard someone say "Cthulhu" on a podcast, and it differed from my own pronunciation, so I thought I'd take an informal-yet-über-scientific poll to find out how a reasonably diverse-yet-geeky cross-section of random people pronounce it.

[Poll #1169619]

No, I won't ask how you pronounce "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," because, I mean...it's just like it's spelled. Please.

Note: I'm not asking for you to point me at Wikipedia or for you to look it up. Just answer honestly how you pronounce it when you pronounce it. Come on, you know you have. You're a geek.

Also, did any of you know about Cthulhu: The Movie? Vast and diverse are the things you can find on Google without really trying.

Comments

[goldispikes.livejournal.com]

cuh-THUL (aspirated th-type sound)-hoo.

I have no CLUE if that's correct, but that's how I say it.

[kaasirpent]

So the second 'h' gets aspirated as in, say, the name Mahmoud?

[goldispikes.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[geek-72.livejournal.com]

my pronunciation is more like "sith-thulu"

[dorsai.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it with the initial 'cuh' very short - as though it were written C'thooloo.

My wife is in the process of making a clay Cthulhu - which has been named Bob so as to avoid this problem. :)

[kaasirpent]

I do the same thing, but it's close enough to 'cuh THOO loo' as not to matter, as I see you also decided. :)

In fact, the first time I encountered His Dread Name, I pronounced it something like <hold your mouth in a configuration as though you're about to make a 'k' sound, but instead, make only a token hint at a 'k' and say> THOO loo. Sounds a lot like a sneeze, actually. :)

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

I never say it at all.

[kaasirpent]

You have a knack for finding the one response I forgot to include on my polls that a normal, sane person would use. :)

[cylver.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the proper pronunciation is more like cloo-loo, but I don't pronounce it that way, for fear of waking the sleeper.

[kaasirpent]

Those wacky...uh...whomevers. If you can get 'cloo-loo' from Cthulhu and 'croo EEN yuh' from Cruithne, I suppose even Gaelic makes sense. :)

[adsmguy.livejournal.com]

There's only one way to pronounce it: Khlûl'hloo