The Vorkosigan Companion (24 page)

This suggests a definition of "Bujold fandom" I can get behind, actually: Lois once defined a genre as "a body of works in close conversation (or heated argumentation) with one another," and I think, if pressed, I might define a fandom as "a collection of individuals in close conversation—or heated argumentation, or both at the same time—with a body of works
and
with each other." On the surface we don't necessarily have a lot in common, but we do have the fact that we are all drawn to the kinds of stories Lois writes, and we have all, I think, been changed a little or a lot by spending time with her books, whether reading them alone or discussing them in a group.

In
A Civil Campaign
, Ekaterin muses on whether or not you can judge a person—Miles, in her particular case—by the quality of the company they attract and enjoy, and concludes that you can. Put it on my tombstone, someday, then—
she was a Bujold Fan, and enjoyed it very much
—and I shall be well content.

 _________

1. The role of beer in fandom has been much exaggerated; I'm just very fond of alliteration.
   
2. See www.dendarii.com for details and for the list archives.
   
3. July–December 2007.
   
4. I have no idea. But I am very grateful.
   
5. A not-quite random sampling of listee recipes may be found at www.rojizodesign.com/makosti/.
   
6. And footnotes. I don't know why; we just really like footnotes. They add verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative, or something.
   
7. Advance Reader Copies. They used to be for the exclusive use of reviewers, but now there is eBay.
   
8. For complex reasons, we don't discuss U.S. politics on the list anymore. At all.
   
9. If it's a fairly sane-looking Canadian, it's probably one of the other ones.
   
10. At least, some of it seems to happen while the sun is up.
    

The author says that we may pronounce the names as we please, but many readers wish to know how
she
pronounces them. Without getting too finicky, this is to give an indication of the syllables which are more emphasized and the approximate values of the vowels and consonants of most of the names used in the Vorkosigan universe of Lois McMaster Bujold. Brief identifications will include the work in which the person or place principally appears, if it appears little outside of that work.

This is not a complete guide to the pronunciation of all the names in Bujold's Vorkosigan universe. It contains . . . what it contains, with an attempt to cover all major characters and the minor ones whose pronunciation might be tricky. Names of persons are in alphabetic order by last name. When we have only one name for a person, it is in order just as we know it without there being a set of "unknown last name" entries somewhere, which also solves the problem of not always being able to tell whether it was the first name or last name that we knew. At least the author consistently uses European name order—given name first and family name last—so we don't have to cope with, for instance, whether Ky Tung belongs with the Tungs or the Kys.

Place and organization names are listed mixed in with the people. Even less attempt has been made to be complete. The Black   Escarpment, for instance, is not listed since it is unlikely to be a pronunciation problem. Jackson's Whole House names are listed under their House names rather than all being collected under "House."

aa—a in as, cat

ah—a in arm, father, alleluia

aw—a in awe, dawn, caught

ay—a in bay, sakeuh—u in sun, done

oy—oy in boy

oh—o in go, oat

oo—o in choose, ruse

eh—e in bend

ee—e in week

ih—i in it

ai—i in sight, like

c—either k or s will be used except for ch

g—hard g as in good

j—soft g as in germ

zh—s in vision, second g in garage

Diphthongs (besides ai, ay, and oy) will be indicated by vowels separated by an underline; for instance, ai could be equivalently written as ah_ee. Many subtle differences are ignored: the "th" in thin is not distinguished from the "th" in then, the precise pronunciation of the "u" in survey is simplified to its less continental cousin "uh," and the rolled "r" is ignored. The swallowed vowel, as the "e" in "other" or the "o" in "carton," is simply left out. Purists beware.

Syllables are somewhat arbitrarily determined, more for convenience in indicating the vowels and stresses and to avoid the confusion of overloading many consonants onto a single syllable, than for exact indication of which syllable they would be pronounced with if one said the word syllable by syllable. So feel free to let the consonants indicated at the end of a syllable migrate to the beginning of the next and vice versa. Usually the difficulty about pronouncing an unfamiliar word is to choose among alternatives, and indicating which of the possible pronunciations the author prefers is the intent here. Stressed syllables are indicated by capital letters. If there is a secondary stress in a name it is indicated by small capitals, for instance: baa-ruh-POO-truh. There are many multi-syllable names with no indication of a secondary stress, when the rest of the syllables are all pretty much equal. Again, the pursuit of minutiae has been eschewed. Ship's names are in
italics
.

B—
Barrayar

BA—
Brothers in Arms

BI—"The Borders of Infinity"

C—
Cetaganda

CC—
A Civil Campaign

DD—"Dreamweaver's Dilemma"

DI—
Diplomatic Immunity

EA—
Ethan of Athos

FF—
Falling Free

K—
Komarr

L—"Labyrinth"

M—
Memory

MD—
Mirror Dance

MM—"The Mountains of Mourning"

SH—
Shards of Honor

VG—The
Vor Game

WA—
The Warrior's Apprentice

WG—"Winterfair Gifts"

Agba—AAG-bah—Quaddie in charge of work teams getting clamps open during the disassembly of Cay Habitat. (FF)

Ahn—AAN—Lieutenant, meteorology officer at Lazkowski Base. (VG)

Aime Pass—AI-mee PAAS—Pass through the Dendarii Mountains taken by Gregor, Cordelia, and Piotr during Vorda  rian's Pretendership. (B)

Anafi, Ser—aa-NAA-fee, SUHR—Agent of Rialto Sharemarket Agency that lent Tien Vorsoisson money he invested in a Komarran trade fleet. (K)

Apmad—AAP-maad—Vice President, GalacTech Operations. (FF)

Arata, Tav—ah-RAA-tah, TAAV—Captain, Kline Station Security, friend of Elli Quinn. (EA)

Arozzi—aa-ROH-zee—Komarr Terraforming Project, Serifosa Branch, engineer substituting for Radovas managing the Waste Heat section, also involved in Radovas and Soudha's other project. (K)

Aslund—AAS-luhnd—A system off the Hegen Hub that is wary of Barrayar. (VG)

Athos—AA-thohs—Planet within two-month sub-light   voyage of Kline Station settled by a religious sect that banned women from the planet. (EA)

Auson—AW-sn—Captain of the
Ariel
in the Oseran Mercenaries, captain of the
Triumph
in the Dendarii Mercenaries. (WA)

Avakli—ah-VAH-klee—Doctor, rear admiral, biocyberneticist researching Simon's illness. (M)

ba—BAH—Caste of sexless aides and servitors to the haut of the Celestial Garden. (C)

Baneri—BAH-nee-ree—Marilacan leader, killed at the siege of Fallow Core. (BI)

Bannerji, George—BAA-nr-gee, JORG—Captain, GalacTech Company Security, Shuttleport Three, Rodeo, accidentally shot Tony during the attempted escape. (FF)

Barrayar—BEHR-ah-yahr—System off the Hegen Hub through Pol and Komarr, its wormhole connection to the rest of human space closed just after it was colonized, leading to several centuries of isolation and regression. (All except FF)

Baruch, Cynthia Jane—baa-RUHK, SIHN-thee-ya JAYN—Doctor, geneticist who built the original ovarian cultures for Athos, and put herself into her work. (EA)

Beatrice—BEE-uh-trihs—Marilacan lieutenant, tall, redhead, lost in the escape from Dagoola IV. (BI)

Beauchene Life Center—BOH-shayn LAIF SEHN-tr—Medical facility on Escobar specializing in cryo-revival. (MD)

Benar, Fehun—bay-NAHR, FAY-huhn—Commander of an orbiting Felician ore refinery and a friend of Major Daum. (WA)

Benin, Dag—BEH-nihn, DAAG—Ghem-colonel in charge of the investigation of Ba Lura's death. (C, CC)

Beta Colony—BAY-tah KAH-luh-nee—Second extra-solar colony, first successful one, founded from the U.S. before the advent of wormhole technology. (DD, FF, SH, WA, CC)

Bharaputra, Vasa Luigi—baa-ruh-POO-truh, VAA-suh loo-EE-jee—
Baron, head of House Bharaputra on Jackson's Whole, maker and seller of clones (and his own customer). (BA)

Bianca—bee-AHN-kah—Doctor and psychiatrist, he married into a pharmaceutical company and wants more control. (DD)

Bollan Design—BOH-lahn dee-ZAIN—Small engineering firm specializing in odd and experimental Necklin field generators and custom repairs especially of obsolete jump ship rods. (K)

Boni, Tersa—BOH-nee, TR-zah—Medtech, Escobaran, in Personnel Retrieval and Identification for nine years, made sure it was done right for her daughter. (SH)

Bonn—BAWN—Barrayaran engineering lieutenant at Laskowski Base, ordered to have his men clean up a fetaine spill. (VG)

Bonsanklar—BOHN-saang-klahr—Large seaside resort in Vorkosigan District. (B)

Borgos, Enrique—BOHR-gohs, ehn-REE-kay—Escobaran, doctor of entomology rescued with his bugs and lab equipment by Mark from his creditors on Escobar. (CC)

Bothari, Konstantin—boh-THAH-ree, KOHN-stehn-tihn—

Armsman to (in order): Aral Vorkosigan, Ges Vorrutyer, Aral Vorkosigan, Piotr Vorkosigan, Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, and Miles Vorkosigan; absolutely loyal to the Vorkosigans and absolutely deadly, but not absolutely sane. (SH, B, WA)

Bothari-Jesek, Elena—______-JEH-sehk, ay-LAY-nuh—daughter of Konstantin Bothari, childhood friend of Miles, Ivan, and Gregor, apprentice to Commodore Tung and captain in the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet, married to Bazil Jesek, later retired as a merchant captain. (All except EA, DI, FF, SH)

Brownell—brah_oo-NEHL—Betan Port Security officer attempting to arrest Arde Mayhew. (WA)

Brun—BRUHN—Captain in the Imperial forces, Security commander in Barrayaran trade fleet escort. (DI)

Calhoun, Tav—kaal-HOON, TAAV—Owner of the
RG 132
who accepts a deed of Vorkosigan land as security on payment for it. (WA)

Canaba, Hugh—kah-NAH-bah, HYUU—Doctor, geneticist working for Bharaputra Labs, target of clandestine pickup from Jackson's Whole by the Dendarii Mercenaries. (L)

Cappell—kah-PEHL—Mathematician in the Waste Heat Management section of the Komarr Terraforming Project, Serifosa Branch. (K)

Cavilo—kaa-VEE-loh—Commander of Randall's Rangers, promoted herself by assassination disguised as accident. (VG)

Cay, Daryl—KAY, DAA-rihl—Vice President, R&D, biological, and major stockholder of GalacTech, a geneticist, he had a vision for humans in zero gravity. (FF)

Cecil—SEH-sl—Major in personnel at the Academy, personally involved in deciding every cadet's first assignment. (VG)

Cee, Terrence—SEE, TEHR-ehns—L-X-10 Terran-C,   experimental result of Faz Jahar's genetics project on Cetaganda. (EA)

Cetaganda—see-tuh-GAAN-duh—Empire of eight planetary systems plus "allied worlds." Tried and failed to conquer Barrayar, Vervain, and Marilac. (C, DI)

Chalopin—CHAA-loh-pn—GalacTech Shuttleport Three Admin  istrator, Rodeo, she is annoyed with Van Atta for bypassing her authority in handling his escaping quaddies. (FF)

Chenko—CHEHNG-koh—Doctor, neurologist on Miles's team at ImpMil diagnosing his seizures. (M)

Chodak, Clive—CHOH-daak, KLAIV—Dendarii sergeant, key to saving Miles and getting Gregor home. (VG)

Clogston, Chris—KLOHG-stn, KRIHS—Captain, Senior Fleet Surgeon, has to take up forensics and a nasty nanotech-engineered virus on the fly. (DI)

Corbeau, Dmitri—kohr-BOH, d-MEE-tree—Ensign in the Barrayaran Imperial forces, he fell in love with Garnet Five on Graf Station, touching off a chain of   circumstances resulting in a diplomatic crisis. (DI)

Couer—KOO-her—Commodore, one of the few surviving senior officers in the invasion of Escobar; he helped Vorkosigan with cleanup. (SH)

Croye—KROY—Imperial Security lieutenant at Barrayaran Embassy on Beta Colony, in charge of watching Miles while he is there. (WA)

Csurik, Harra—SHUH-rihk, HAA-ruh—Hiked to Vorkosigan Surleau to speak her complaint when her village speaker would do nothing about her murdered baby. (MM)

Csurik, Lem—______, LEHM—Accused of his daughter's murder, but unwilling to convict the true killer by his words. (MM)

Csurik, Raina—______, RAY-nuh—The murdered daughter of Lem and Harra. (MM)

D'Emorie—deh-EHM-oh-ree—Imperial Security major of Solstice, engineering analyst investigating the Waste Heat Management's experimental station. (K)

D'Guise—d-GEEZ—Doctor, cryonicist at Imperial Military hospital diagnosing Miles's seizures. (M)

Dagoola IV—duh-GOO-lah FOHR—Location of Cetagandan prison camp for Marilacan prisoners of war. (BI)

Dal, Harman—DAHL, HAHR-mn—Cover identity for ghem-Colonel Millisor on Kline Station. (EA)

Darobey—DAH-roh-bay—One of the mutineers under Radnov. (SH)

Daum, Carle—DAA_OOM, KAHR-leh—Felician major that hired Miles and the
RG 132
to take "agricultural supplies" to Felice. (WA)

Dea—DEE—Doctor and lieutenant, assistant to the Regent of Barrayar's physican, also competent as a large animal veterinarian. (MM)

Degtiar, Rian—DEHG-tee-ahr, RAI-ahn—Cetagandan haut-lady, Handmaiden of the Star Crèche, serious geneticist and member of the inmost ruling circle. (C)

Dendarii—dehn-DEH-ree-ee—Mountain range on Barrayar; also the name borne by a galactic mercenary troop led by Admiral Miles Naismith. (All except SH)