Atlantis

[stoutfellow]

OK, another silly comics-related question or two.

Is the first vowel of "Namor" the vowel from "pot", "pat", or "pate"?

And is it "Sub-MAR-iner" or "Subma-RIN-er"?

Comments

[graydon]

I think you can tell what the particular artistic team intended by finding a splash page and looking at the relative sizes of the letters when the name gets written fancy.

My recollection is that this has not been consistent over the last however many years, so that there may not be a canonical pronunciation.

[ndrosen]

When I watched superhero cartoons as a child, I believe I heard the vowel as the a in pate. That may not be authoritative.

[filkferengi]

I've alwaysh heard NAY-mor and sub-MAR-iner.

[stoutfellow]

I remember, as a kid, using the "pat" vowel and stressing the epithet on the third syllable; I eventually talked myself out of the first, but was never sure about the second.

But then, I've always been prone to tome-deafness. I thought the great Italian scientist's name was pronounced "ga-LIL-ee-o" until, having said it that way, I was corrected (with much laughter). And don't get me started on "hors d'oeuvres".

[filkferengi]

For the latter, see Pratchett--especially Mark Oshiro's reaction upon reading Pratchett's take on same. Several Discworld books later, Mark still talks about that pun.