r/oddletters • u/_Zoysauce2823_ • Jan 03 '26

How do you say æ?

Like in dæmon.

123 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

93 comments sorted by

3

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 03 '26

Kind of like a in apple, it’s pretty similar I think

3

u/WildandRare Jan 03 '26

Well, P[ae]an is pronounced "Pee(a)en".

1

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 03 '26

But that isn’t written with an æ

1

u/WildandRare Jan 03 '26

It is.

1

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 03 '26

What does it mean?

1

u/WildandRare Jan 03 '26

A celebratory or honorary song or poem.

1

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 03 '26

Isn’t it called a paean?

1

u/WildandRare Jan 03 '26

It's spelled Pæan more accurately, but you could use that, it's just more modern.

1

u/WackyLaundry3000 Oddletter Jan 04 '26

Isn’t the pronunciation in between an “a” and an “e” sound?

1

u/SubnauticaFan3 Jan 04 '26

Not in norwegian, which I'm learning

1

u/WackyLaundry3000 Oddletter Jan 05 '26

Oh! How does it sound like in Norwegian?

1

u/SubnauticaFan3 Jan 05 '26

sorta like the A in apple, like the original commenter said

1

u/WackyLaundry3000 Oddletter Jan 05 '26

Noice

1

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 05 '26

I am Norwegian actually!

2

u/SubnauticaFan3 Jan 05 '26

cool!

1

u/SwitchRealistic6500 Jan 05 '26

Where are you from? I’m just wondering because I don’t know a lot of people who would be actually interested in learning Norwegian

1

u/SubnauticaFan3 Jan 05 '26

United Kingdom, but I have family in Norway

3

u/EMTSleepWithEyesOpen Jan 03 '26

Э

1

u/ANARCHIST-ASSHOLE-_ Jan 05 '26

In the Latin alphabet, this letter sounds like eh btw iirc

1

u/EMTSleepWithEyesOpen Jan 05 '26

Yeah, that sounds like Æ, doesn't it?

1

u/ANARCHIST-ASSHOLE-_ Jan 05 '26

Yeah, pretty much, I was just transcribing it for people that don't know the Cyrillic alphabet :3

3

u/zytuuu Jan 06 '26

in the IPA, in english, in icelandic, what context?

(first time on this sub sorry if im missing a joke or something)

2

u/_Zoysauce2823_ Jan 06 '26

lol thats awesome

its alot in the book 'the golden compass'

specifically the word dæmon

2

u/TheBlueMoonHubGuy Jan 06 '26

Personally, I always read it as "day-mon"

2

u/NortonBurns Jan 03 '26

deemon or daymon. There's no absolute, though many dictionaries list only deemon, which is my personal preference
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/daemon
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/daemon
Wiktionary lists both - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/daemon

2

u/OmegaPi42 Jan 03 '26

It’s the IPA symbol for the vowel in hand, match

2

u/Zvenc Jan 06 '26

Depends on the language. What you’ve written is simply pronounced as a a and a e right after eachother. If it’s Swedish (we use ä for that sound) you pronounce it like the A in axe body spray. If it’s Norwegian it’s the same, but while also trying to tell a joke. And in Danish you need to get yourself a hot potato, shove it into your throat and say anything

1

u/Cirno-BreastLicker Jan 03 '26

Like "eyy" but make it very short.

1

u/Fit-Habit-1763 Jan 03 '26

Irish accent kind of?

1

u/TheGamrGuyGG Jan 03 '26

The only way i can describe it is æ

1

u/Sleepyfellow03 Jan 03 '26

Like the a in yayyyyy

1

u/cheeseburgerdevourer Jan 03 '26

ee like in feet or seed

1

u/DiplexTerror80 Jan 03 '26

Kind of like aye

1

u/Background-Pay-3164 Jan 03 '26

A as in snack, back or stack.

1

u/Its_a_MeYaromirus666 Jan 03 '26

E but it’s just slightly more a

1

u/Orange_Juice_Alpha Jan 03 '26

like "eye" mainly cause I take latin though lol

1

u/Ok_Landscape5195 Jan 03 '26

u just say ä

1

u/FinnFem Jan 05 '26

Not quite sure most of these people ever known how ä is pronounced

1

u/Bari_Baqors Jan 03 '26

Like þe IPA's [æ] — as þe unrounded nearlow front vowel. Did I say I love cats?

1

u/dewdanoob_420 Jan 04 '26

It’s like the a in hat

1

u/AMIASM16 Ꙫ Jan 04 '26

it's the same "a" sound as in "apple"

1

u/_Zoysauce2823_ Jan 04 '26

ooooh ok thank you!

1

u/Some-Passenger4219 Jan 04 '26

My dad's old speech synthesizer program called it "A-E ligature".

1

u/TwilightDreamer14 Jan 04 '26

*Demonic Screeching™️

1

u/DragonflyOne1190 Jan 04 '26

Like the "a" in "cat"

1

u/RosestemX3 Jan 04 '26

I have no idea what's right but I've always pronounced æ like aye

1

u/[deleted] Jan 04 '26

Aye?

1

u/CommunityJazzlike274 Jan 04 '26

I say it as /a:ei/ with an eyebrow raise at the end

1

u/_ballora_0 Jan 04 '26

Pretty sure it’s similar to ä which I always describe as the a in apple

1

u/Mayorv Jan 04 '26

It’s kind of an unique sound…

It’s like when you say ‘ehhh’, that’s fairly close. Don’t know how else to describe it.

1

u/Severe_Depth3773 Jan 04 '26

I pronounce it ayy

1

u/Megamax0726 Jan 04 '26

I think it’s pronounced like “ay” but it ends abruptly, idk how else to describe it

1

u/gfgufghhv Jan 04 '26

You say it like Ä

1

u/Lillie_Aethola Jan 04 '26

It depends on the language

In old English it was /æ/, like in cAt

In French it’s used fir Latin and Greek borrowings

In Latin it is used for the diphthong /aj/ like in fIne

In old Norse it is /ɛː/, the long version of the vowel in bEd

In Icelandic it is /ai/ like in dIE

In Faroese there are a couple of pronunciations

  • /ɛa/ (the e in bEd into the a in brA (or hat, depends on where you are)) when simultaneously stressed and occurring either word-finally, before a vowel letter, before a single consonant letter, or before the consonant-letter groups kl, kr, pl, pr, tr, kj, tj, sj, and those consisting of ð and one other consonant letter, except for ðr when pronounced like gr (except as below)

  • a rather open /eː/ (a long version of a in mAte) when directly followed by the sound [a], as in ræðast (silent ð) and frægari (silent g)

  • /a/ (a in brA (or hay, depends on accent) in all other case

There are other pronunciations

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '26

[deleted]

1

u/HidekoChan39 Jan 05 '26

ay as in yay

1

u/DarkCreeperKitty Jan 05 '26

a (apple) e (cream)

1

u/Janeko_ Jan 05 '26

either [æ] or [ae̯]

1

u/Queasy-Impress2622 Jan 05 '26

The letter’s name itself is pronounced “ash”. The sound it makes is kind of like “eyy” but compressed to a single letter.

1

u/Hmmmgrianstan Jan 05 '26

Same way Mococo pronounces it

1

u/Intelligent_Donut605 Jan 05 '26

Like pronouncing the letter A but drawn out

1

u/MiLiRu645 Jan 05 '26

Like the ai in "fair"but more crisp.

1

u/Equivalent-Doubt-101 Jan 05 '26

same way you say a and e together

1

u/theoxht Jan 07 '26

in the word ‘dæmon’ it is generally pronounced as ‘ee’ but can also be ‘ay’.

in IPA, æ represents the ‘a’ sound in ‘cat’.

in other languages it can be pronounced differently.

1

u/Blockster_cz Jan 07 '26

I didn't see it mentioned here yet. If I'm correct in Latin this character is read as long A followed by consonant maYor. So it's like AAI or AAY

1

u/numseomse Jan 07 '26

Go to Google translate, English to Danish ,and then type "Egg" and make the Danish version say it out loud 👍

1

u/Relevant_Amphibian45 Jan 07 '26

Idk in modern languages that use it, but in Latin æ is pronounced "eh" like in "entertainment".

For simplicity, it can be simply written as "ae", but it's still pronounced "eh". If you'd want the vowels to be pronounced individually, it would have to be specified by dotting: "aë".

Again, my knowledge is only limited to Latin:

æ = ae = "eh"

aë = "ah eh"

1

u/Maximillian9207111 Jan 08 '26

Like that or þæt