Interesting topic! Good idea for a thread, Rose!

I don't have any of the books with me right now, but a lot of Lewis's names that I can think of off the top of my head are words/names that English-speaking people in the Western world would generally be already familiar with, therefore would know how to pronounce. Either that or they are names that could really only be pronounced one way, such as "Bree", "Tumnus" or "Nikabrik". (< spelling? )

All of the four Pevensie names are names which most people would know, and the same goes for "Polly" and "Jill". (But I'd actually never heard of the names "Eustace" of "Digory" before being introduced to the Chronicles. Maybe these two are more well-known in Britain; I don't know...) So it seems that the majority of the names of the characters from our world would, I think, be known to most readers. (Even the people from England who are not main characters - the ones who I can think of at the moment anyway, - have names that are generally known, eg. Queen Helen, Eustace's parents, etc.)

And many of the creatures (not humans, mind you) from Narnia that come to my mind at the moment have names that are either common English words or made up of such words, for example: "Puzzle", or "Puddle" and "Glum" to make "Puddleglum".

However, it's true: I can think of some exceptions to this theory, (and, interestingly enough, these exceptions seem to me to be mostly occuring in the names of humans from Narnia or the surrounding countries, i.e. not Narnian creature names, and not humans from our world). Names like "Rilian", "Tirian", or "Aravis", (as you mentioned, Rose), are names that could be pronounced more than one way. (To respond to your wonderings, I've always pronounced "Aravis" with the first syllable sounding like the word "air", and the second one sounding like "this", but that's just me. )

As far as I can remember, in the Audio Dramas I've listened to (which are quite a few) the names of characters and places for which the pronounciation is not obvious are spoken like I have always pronounced them, with few exceptions. One such exception is the name "Aslan". I've pronounced it as if the "s" is a "z" ("Az-lan"), but, from what I remember, the audio dramas I've heard have it spoken with the "s" having its regular sound ("Ass-lan"). At the moment, that is the only name in any audio dramas/books (that I've heard) that I can recall which is pronounced differently than how I've said it.

To my knowledge, Lewis never made it clear how these not-commonly-known-names were meant to be pronounced. So I guess the pronounciation is up to each individual reader. How very different he was from his peer and fellow writer J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote extensively on the topic of the pronounciation of his works' names!

I've always thought "Aravis" was pronounced with the first two syllables having a short "a" as in "man" - neither "air" nor "are". The last syllable I think rhymes with "this".

But one that really jarred in one of the special features on the DVD of VDT was the narrator referring to "cal-OR-men" (i.e. the stress on the second syllable). I've always thought of it as "CAL-or-men" (the stress on the first syllable).

I don't usually put a lot of effort into analyzing how I pronounce a word, King_Erlian, but I've been staring at your two options for Calormen and wondering which is closer. I think I do the second, with possibly a little extra stress on the third syllable. Huh.

But we're in agreement on Aravis.

You made lots of good points, Nellie! I've always pronounced Aslan somewhere in between Azlan and Asslan... sort of with an "S" sound, but not belaboring on it, if that makes sense. Like you, I tend to pronounce Aravis like "air," but I find myself waffling back and forth on the last element. I'll make up my mind one day, I suppose, or else the film adaptation will probably do it for me.

I've always pronounced Calormen with the emphasis on the first element. I must have missed the funny pronunciation in the movie.

It was always CAL-or-men, a-RAV-is and COR-i-a-kin for me. I wonder if Douglas Gresham knew, from hearing Lewis speak of them, and told the correct pronunciation, or whether they made it up for themselves.

It was always CAL-or-men, a-RAV-is and COR-i-a-kin for me. I wonder if Douglas Gresham knew, from hearing Lewis speak of them, and told the correct pronunciation, or whether they made it up for themselves.

Same here. "Ara" like in "O'Hara" and "vis" like "vicissitude". XD But as a child, I always read "Aslan" in my head as "Azlahn". Definitely never read it with a short A sound like in "land". It was difficult switching to the "real" pronunciation at first. I probably still read it my original way from time to time, but it no longer sounds unnatural to hear people say it the "real" way.

I've been listening to the BBC Radio versions of the Narnia Chronicles and they pronounce "Calormen" as "cal-OR-mun" and "Calormenes" as "cal-OR-muns". I'm going to carry on calling them "CAL-er-men" and "CAL-er-meens". The other thing which grated a bit was them pronouncing the first syllable of "Archenland" as "ark" when I've always thought it should be pronounced "arch".

From what I remember, I used to say:

Pevensie - Peh-VEN-see
Calormen - KAL (rhymes with Pal)-er-mun
Calormenes - KAL-er-meens
Aravis - ARE-uh-viss
Aslan - Z sound for the S, otherwise like they say on the movies.
Jadis - First syllable rhymes with Bad, second syllable ISS, accent on first syllable

And when I was first reading I was only seven and I called Eustace "ESS-tiss"

Here's all of the pronounciation I always thought were kind of iffy.

Pevensie - puh-VEN-see, eventually became PEH-ven-see for me.
Calormen - KAL-er-man, later kuh-LOR-men
Archenland - ARR-tchun-land (I know that's probably wrong)
Coriakin - kor-RYE-uh-kin
Jadis - JAY-dis
Miraz - muh-RAZ (like the Slavic surname)
Aravis - AIR-ruh-vis
Lasaraleen - laz-uh-ruh-LEEN
Digory - DYE-goh-ree
Rilian - RILL-ee-yun
Tirian - TEER-ee-yun
Erlian - AIR-lee-yun
Aslan - AZ-lahn
Ramandu - ruh-MAHN-due

I've always pronounced the names like how the Focus on the Family pronounced it because that's how I first got into Narnia. It was always awkward saying it out loud because I'm never sure how to say words I've only heard in an English accent with my American accent. It was also jarring when I heard "Jadis" pronounced "jay" in the movie.