How do you pronounce Drow?

Jolanthus

Since so many people here want to play as one I figure they'd at least know how to say it.

Personally I rhyme it with bow and sow.

Though the different pronunciations don't irk me as much as people pluralizing it as Drows... It's like sheep, one sheep, a flock of sheep. One Drow, a house full of Drow.

Silverstar

Similar to cow but with the c replaced. It's how the crazy fanatic in BGII's Government District says it and it's the only voiced dialogue with the word I remember.

Permidion_Stark

I rhyme it with cow and now. And I think the plural is Drow. One Drow, two Drow, a whole bunch of Drow.

I could be wrong though.

Jolanthus

I think they voice it in the underdark "The Drow rule supreme!" But I could be imagining it

Jolanthus

@Permidion_Stark you're right on the pluralization.

Cheesebelly

@Permidion_Stark : So we can paragon Drow to Sheep then?

I myself pronounce it as they say it (The drow rule supreme!)
Although I called them "Drow" as if you read it "Draugh" or simply as "Draw", that mostly because I am native Slavic speaker (you can understand that I also read Ilyich's dialogue with a Slavic accent for the exact same reason XD)

Permidion_Stark

Other useful terms:

Drowsy - to look a bit like a Drow.

Drowsing - what Drow bards do.

Phælin

Jolanthus said:

I think they voice it in the underdark "The Drow rule supreme!" But I could be imagining it

I think this one here is an adjective... or is there "drowish" ? I also say "drow" similar to "draw", but I never thought about plural form... probably because I don't pay much attention to this while playing the polish version of the game, heh.

CCarluNN

Hmph, dos shinduago lodias shlu'ta naut tangis' telanth udossta dazzan!

Jolanthus

@CCarlunn True, Ilythiiri is much easier to work out as there is less room for interpretation.

Veldrin ser dos, abbil.

AndreaColombo

I've always made it rhyme with "crow". It really weirds me out to make it rhyme with "cow"- takes away all the cool factor from it.

Drugar

AndreaColombo said:

I've always made it rhyme with "crow". It really weirds me out to make it rhyme with "cow"- takes away all the cool factor from it.

I've always had it rhyme with Xvart.

You...kind of have to twist your mouth a bit but it's doable.

Eiler

Apparently both are technically correct and Gygax evidently rhymed it with 'blow' but other people close to him rhymed it with 'cow'. (You have a similar thing going on with the word lich and other words.)

Both are actually accepted. Earlier monster compendiums had multiple accepted pronounciations for a number of creatures including drow and lich.

Current convention however seems to prefer drow rhyming with 'cow'.

Jolanthus said:

Since so many people here want to play as one I figure they'd at least know how to say it.

Personally I rhyme it with bow and sow.

Though the different pronunciations don't irk me as much as people pluralizing it as Drows... It's like sheep, one sheep, a flock of sheep. One Drow, a house full of Drow.

SydBarret

Jolanthus said:

Since so many people here want to play as one I figure they'd at least know how to say it.

Personally I rhyme it with bow and sow.

Both words you chose to illustrate your opinion can be pronounced either way, just like Drow. Bow can rhyme with cow (a polite bow) or dough (bow and arrow), and sow can rhyme with know (sow seeds) or now (if it refers to a female pig).

Dee

I pronounce it with a rolled "r" and a certain amount of self-righteous haughtiness. The only instances of the word being spoken in BG2 had both of those things, so I figure it must be part of the pronunciation.

Fake_Sketch

COW ALL THE WAY!

The_New_Romance

According to Wikpedia's sources, both cow and crow are okay. I prefer the "cow" one, though, as I feel it sounds better. The root of Drow is "dhaerow", and if you pronounce that the crow way it sounds too much like diarrhea to my ears :P

Sallparadise

D to the cow, with a roll on the r, kinda like a german roll in sterben

kilroy_was_here

I pronounce it however Viconia tells me I'm supposed to, along with the lowered gaze and slight bow. That way I get to wake up in the morning. :P

reedmilfam

Permidion_Stark said:

Other useful terms:

Drowsy - to look a bit like a Drow.

Drowsing - what Drow bards do.

I thought Drowsing is what we do on the Internet. See? You learn something new every day!

Bigity

I pronounce them D-E-D.

Schneidend

Drow as in brow or cow or how, imo.

Jolanthus

SydBarret said:

Both words you chose to illustrate your opinion can be pronounced either way, just like Drow. Bow can rhyme with cow (a polite bow) or dough (bow and arrow), and sow can rhyme with know (sow seeds) or now (if it refers to a female pig).

Yeah, it was a bit of a joke. If I back both horses in the race I can't lose.

Roller12

Viconia, a drow or a cow: that is the question.

neleothesze

As mentioned before, in the Underdark they pronounce it like draugh/draw but I can't get myself to say it like that. The first time I saw the word I thought of it as Drow(like go, slow, row ...) and it stuck. Ah well..

Lemernis

I pronounce it in my head as rhyming with now.