The pronunciation of Aslan

Hm.
I say "Az-lawn".
But I was watching Ebert & Ropers show (they had CON review on it!) and he said something weird, I can't remember. You can probably find it online. It was like, "Ehs-len" or something...
 
Don't know for sure how C.S. Lewis intended it to be pronounced, but if he really did choose "aslan" becuase it is the Turkish word for "lion", then I doubt one could go too far wrong prounouncing it like the Turks do. :)

In that case, it would be "ahs-lahn". I studied in Turkey when I was in high school and "aslan" was a nickname my Turkish friends gave me (because I was perhaps a bit overly agressive at soccer at lunchtime).

I went to an online turkish-english dictionary that has audio pronunciation, and was able to save the wav file of them pronouncing the Turkish word "aslan". I saved it and you can hear it by clicking here:

http://home.comcast.net/~s.sendlein/aslan.wav
 
Last edited:
Lord, I feel like such a dunce, I'd said it "A-slan" for the first four or five years...long A and everything.

Then again, I wasn't the *best* reader, and for a long time Narnia was Narainia.

Well, you know, cut me a little slack, I was only seven. *laughs sheepishly*
 
The Pronunciation of Aslan

Hi there,

I'm a new member and just returned from visiting a friend and Narnia came up as a topic, as I was using a little pamphlet with an artist's rendering of Aslan on the front for a bookmark. I mentioned to my friend that "aslan" is Turkish for "lion." (I took a term of Turkish in 2001.) And I see someone else wrote and said it is also Persian!

For some obscure reason, my Turkish dictionaries don't have pronunciation guides (??), but I found a website that pronounces the words for you (http://www.seslisozluk.com). Here's how they say it: The stress is on the first syllable and it's something like "AHSS-lun." That's as close as I can describe it - the "s" is hard and the "lan" is not exactly like a short "u," but it is definitely not a short "a." It's more like the "dark" or undotted "i" in Turkish.

Well, I hope that helps. I am happy to have found this website. I am only just starting the Narnia series and I am an adult mom! But my son finished all the books and has me absolutely excited about reading them all! We saw the movie "Narnia" last Christmas and I bought him some Turkish delight at our Turkish store here in Seattle, oddly enough called "Turkish Delight." :)

Ciao!
Janet
 
I absolutely adore how long this discussion has gone on (and I am not being sarcastic either)! My mom's eyes cannot handle light and contrast very well, thus she can't read more than half a page at a time, if that. I started reading the Chronicles aloud to her on tapes so she could enjoy the books. I'm a stage actress and my anunciation classes automatically have trained me to over-emphasize words so that they can be clearly understood, thus, upon listening to myself on tape, I sound like Ahs-lan or sometimes Ahs-lon. I've always taken dialect courses, so of course, based on where you're from, the word will automatically sound different. Cockney will be one way, Irish will sound another, Tennessee another. :) There, my two cents... well... maybe half a cent.
 
It's pronounced AZ-lan, or AZLAN, all one sylable. But, if you're in a hurry in saying it, it sometimes comes out AZ-lin.
 
Some of you must be aware that Mr. Lewis derived the name Aslan from the Turkish word for "lion." A few may be aware that "Aslan" is also a human given name among some Turk-related peoples. An important leader in Chechnya (now deceased) was named Aslan Maskhadov. Because of this ethnic association, the Russian translation of the CON that I read some years ago changed the pronunciation of Aslan's name to ESS-lan.
 
I've heard it pronounces Az-lan, As-lan, and Ahz-lan. Don't think it matters per se...we all know who we're talking about. There's lots of names in the Chronicles that are pronounced different ways.
 
Back
Top