If there's one thing I hate, it's when my colleagues in Winterhold misspronounce my title. It's "Arkh-mage" dammit! Only a quarter of you say it right, and you call yourselves magi? Hmm, maybe I'm the one that needs to look into this...

After much deliberation with Merriam Webster my quest to find the correct pronunciation of "Archmage" is still inconclusive. Detrimental to the cause is the apparent fact that Archmage is, in fact, not a word in the English language (at least, not according to Merry). So, I hoped that by anolyzing the pronunciation of the prefix "arch-" in various words I would be able to apply a rule even to a made up word. What I found was that when arch- is followed by a consonant it is pronounced "arch" (as in archbishop or archduke), while when followed by a vowel it is pronounced "ark" (as in archive or archaic). This would lead me to believe that since an "m" follows the arch, Archmage would be prounounced as spelled. However, "archenemy" does not follow this rule. Additionally, I cannot rule out "e" as an exception to the rule, due to words like "archetype" and "archeology." As such, though Archmage would appear to be pronounced in a certain manner, there is nothing to prove that it isn't an exception to the rule like "archenemy."

However, on dictionary.com, the French cognate "archimage" does register, but dictionary.com says it is prounounced "arkh-ih-mage" while google translate says it is pronounced "arsch-ee-mazh" (I know, [censored] google translate, but the French language is not in my repertoire (little joke there) and so I have no better resource, correct me if you can please).

Due to the fact that it is not technically a word in the English language and so cannot be declared to follow the apparent rule or be an anomaly, plus the confusion over how the French cognate is pronounced in English, plus the fact that Bethesda hasn't even made up their mind over the course of two games, I hereby declare the word "Archmage" to be pronounced "Arkh-meyj." Rebuttals?

tl;dr

I say Arkh-Meyj, however, both are acceptable. End of story.

The French pronunciation would be ahr-[harsh h]-ee-mahzh. Since most English words with ch that originate in French are pronounced as 'k', except for the exceptions you listed above, the most correct English pronunciation is arkh-meyj.

I say Ark-mayg.

But that's probably more down to my Australian accent.

What an interesting topic. I always surmised that the "Arch" was short for "Archaic", so I pronounced it arch but also, it could also be arcane, hmmm.... I like a thread that gets my brain gears whirring!

As an antecedent denoting high(est) rank, it should follow established pronunciations where arch is used for said purpose. Archbishop and archduke are the contextual models that should be used when coining new titles of similar ilk.

-Sheldon

I say Arch-meyj and so does just about everyone I know.
Why not settle for there being 2 varient pronounciations of it just like in the real world.

There's no confusion about the French pronounciation, Google has it right.

Some French words with Arch as a prefix are sometimes pronounced Ark but never with the letter i following. It's a Greek prefix by the way, probably meaning in this case something life "First Mage".

No.. it's just 'Arch' as in 'overarching'. You are over/above the other Mages, the highest among them.

It's arch-bishop, and arch-deacon, not ark. Why should arch mage be different? It is, however, Tam-rugh, not Tam-ree-el, and Bow-mer, not Boz-mer.

I've always read it as Arch-meyj, just sounds better imo. I guess Ark-meyj roll off the tongue better though.

Then again, I'm not a native english speaker so my opinion is sort of void ^^

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/

Ah, this is true. I hadn't thought of it. What he said.

By the way, if something originates in Greek, it usually still follows the pronunciation rules of words that originated in French, because English is basically French (long words) + German (short words). English words which originate from Greek tend to be long.

Eh?
Even the priest in Whiterun says Tam-ree-el

And how did you get Bow-mer from Bosmer.

I say Boss-mer.

Archangel

From Mk's posts in the Imperial Library :


On "Tam! RUGH!" (09/09/09):
In any case, it's the True name of the world.
Imagine an ape (Marukh) struggling to say "Tamriel" and you get "Tam! RUGH!"

The bo-mer thing is buried in the library in some dev's in character discussion, may take me a while to find, sorry, back later.

Arkh, it's Arch - meyj.

Mmm, you could put that down to language evolution now though?
Tam-ree-el is as much the pronunciation as anything else, its the most common and about the only used pronunciation in the game.

As is the case with many words within the English language (and I'm sure many others around the world)

wow, really? It's archmage, people, not "ark" mage! I like how OP points out that with other titles, like archbishop, archduke (which is interesting to be found in an English dictionary, btw, since it was only ever used by the Austrian rulers, and thus it was only ever used in an official capacity in German), and archangel, it is pronounced "arch". The examples of "ark" sounding words (archive, etc...) are not titles; arch- is not being applied as a prefix in those words.

Edit:


this

*facepalm*

this thread's IQ level just dropped into the negatives

Care to elaborate?

Archangel is indeed pronounced "ark-angel." Check the phonetics in the dictionary. And yes, archive isn't using the prefix (my bad), but "archetype" does use the prefix (arch- meaning great, prominent, or first, and archetype being a prominent type of something). Also, I would remind you that "arch-" is not a title, it is a prefix, so archbishop means great or first bishop when broken down.


By the way, great job on the assumptions of what "arch-" means guys. "Overarching," "short for archaic," "just a title," keep it up, maybe we'll get something about foot mages sometime soon XD

Will always be Arch to me.

Yes, that is kind of an issue when trying to anolyze our language

I actually think the pronounciation has nothing to do with the correct spelling, it is spelt ARCH and is pronounced howeverthe[censored]youlike!