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'Khaleesi' Has Been Pronounced Incorrectly Throughout Game Of Thrones

'Khaleesi' Has Been Pronounced Incorrectly Throughout Game Of Thrones

This knowledge has come a little bit late now admittedly, but hey, good to know

Jake Massey

Jake Massey

As we all know, Game of Thrones has a huge global fan base, who are currently waiting with eager anticipation for the 8th and final series.

Down the years, millions have been captivated by the show, and many who have re-watched each episode and read all the books probably think they know everything there is to know about it.

However, the likelihood is that you don't know how to properly pronounce 'Khaleesi' - as even the characters in the series have been saying it wrong all along.

via GIPHY

This may seem like a load of bullshit, but it isn't, because David Peterson says so. As the linguist responsible for creating all of the languages in the show, including Dothraki, he really should know.

Peterson said the mispronunciation of Daenerys Targaryen's title had grown to be a 'real thorn' in his side, but conceded the annoyance had stemmed from his own incorrect decision.

He dropped the bombshell while discussing the task of building a language from George RR Martin's original selection of words on The Allusionist podcast, according to Digital Spy.

He explained: "I wanted to make sure if something was spelled differently, it was pronounced differently. That worked pretty well for everything except the word 'Khaleesi'. Which is just a real thorn in my side.

"There's no way it should be pronounced 'ka-LEE-see' based on the spelling. So I had to decide am I going to re-spell this thing because I know how people are going to pronounce this, or am I going to honour that spelling and pronounce it differently? I made the latter decision and I think it was the wrong decision."

Everyone has been pronouncing Khaleesi wrong this whole time.
HBO

He continued: "Changing the spelling to 'Khalisi' would have fixed all my problems. 'EE' and 'I' can't be pronounced the same because they're spelled differently. If I want to honour George RR Martin's spellings, [that] gives us the pronunciation CHA-LAY-eh-see."

So there you have it, it's CHA-LAY-eh-ee. We should have known, except of course, we never could have, because who the hell reads Khaleesi and goes, 'ah, that looks like it should be said CHA-LAY-eh-see'?

Besides, the final series is coming, so it's a bit late now really; bless Daenerys though for biting her lip this whole time while countless rude pricks got it all wrong... Siobhans far and wide can empathise.

The first episode of series 8 of Game of Thrones will air in the UK on Sky Atlantic on 15 April.

Featured Image Credit: HBO

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film