C is for Caedus.

Since you all didn't get my rant for my last comic, I'll start off the new format with it.



For those of you who don't know, Jacen Solo (son of Han Solo and Leia Organa for those who really don't know (yes they got married for those who really really don't know)) has become a Sith Lord. His has taken the name Darth Caedus. Since the books don't come with pronunciation guides, I was a bit confused by how best to pronounce it.
Continue reading.My first thought was Cay-dus. since that's what it looks like. But then I thought, hmmm maybe that C sounds like an S, which would make it Say-dus. Which of course sounds a lot like Sadist, which considering Jacen's experiences with the embrace of pain, would make a great deal of sense. So I've been reading the last few books, alternating my pronunciation of Caedus between Kay-dus and Sadist. Finally I got around to looking it up and it turns out I was completely wrong. It's /kie'duss/. (sounds like Hide us.) So wiki has this to say about the origin of the word.

Caedus is an invention based on the Latin verb cædo, cædere (the noun form of which is cæsum, not cædus) which means "to cut" or "to kill": which accurately describe Jacen's increasingly violent tactics towards civilians and his murder of his own loved ones.[source?] However, caed is also an early Welsh word which translates as battle. It is also reminiscent of the Spanish word "caido", which means "fallen".

Now I'm not sure what part of that would lead me to know how to pronounce this correctly. I looked up some more. It turns out that Caedo in latin is Chay-doe (yes better was wrong, but it's not like Bob is going to call her on it.) There's a place online called Caedes, which they say is pronounced kayds. But anyway, The official site says it's KIE-duss so who am I to argue.

Though while I'm on the subject, let's take a look at some of the other names on that site. We'll start with an easy one, Borsk Fey'lya - BORSK FAE-lee-yaa. Now I've always pronounced this pretty much the way they do there, though I have to say that the apostrophe really throws me off. More on that later. This next one really messed with me, Joruus C'baoth - joe-ROOS suh-BAE-oth. I always pronounced this as Jorus KA-boath (like boat with a th at the end.) This all leads me to a bigger question. Why is it that sci fi writers chose to spell names so freaking weird. I mean I can understand that when dealing with alien species, chances are that their names are going to sound really foreign to us humans. However, we're reading a story that's written in English, in the real world. Even if we assume that the heroes in the story we are reading speak and write English, and that this alien species has decided that his name is spelled that way in English, why the hell do we have to read it that way? The Author can choose to spell it anyway he wants to. If it's pronounced suh-BAE-oth, then why the hell don't you spell it Suhbayoth? I mean really? What are you gaining by writing it that way? What's the apostrophe for anyway? In the names like O'neal and others that have the apostrophe in them, it's a contraction. at least I think it is, I've always thought that it hearkens back to the clan names meaning Of Neal. So even if C'baoth is some kind of freaky contraction in what ever language he happens to natively speak, if it's not part of the story, why do we need to know this? And it's not just Star Wars, it's all over Sci Fi. Why? Is it just to make people think that they are too dumb to read it? Do they really wish to limit their audience that much? I learned to read by sight. I was reading quite well before I ever heard of phonics, so reading strange words like this out of any rational context is hard for me. I've heard Dune is a really great book, but because I can't pronounce so many words in it, I never get past the first page.

Then again I think this is only a symptom of the problem, and not the cause. The cause of course is the written English language itself. Lets look first at Caedus. There's the C. C sometimes sounds like K, and it sometimes sounds like S. never does it sound like C. No one knows what C sounds like, except like K or like S or sometimes CH, which based on where my tongue goes when I make that sound really sounds a lot like Sh anyway, but we can deal with that later. The question is why do we have C? The letter is 100% redundant, and there's really no good way to know when it sounds like K or when it sounds like S. I'm sure there's rules somewhere in those phonics books I ignored in grammar school, but as with all of those rules, I'm sure I can find an exception for each of them (and I bet not one of them tells you how to pronounce it when it's followed by an apostrophe.) Then there's the highly pompous looking ae combination. I tried to think of words that have ae in them. the only one that came to mind was ceasar (which is latin by the way, which should actually make Caedus sound like seedus, but hey why be picky) Looking thru this list of words however gives me a lot more, most of which I can't pronounce anyway. but based on that list, and the words on it I can pronounce. I can say with certainty that ae, sounds like ee. it also sounds like the a in air in aerobic and Ay in names like Norma Rae. I don't know why we continue to use that anymore either. (though looking I don't think we do that much anymore thankfully.) There are of course hundreds of more examples like this. I don't know why we continue to make the written English language so complicated. Why do we have homophones? In spoken language, there is no difference between there, their and they're. Yet in written language there is. Couldn't we figure out what the word means based on the context in the same way we do while listening?

I know I'm not going over new ground here. The written language has been source material for comics thru out the ages. (we won't go into the whole through/thru debate now either) I'm guessing the reason we don't fix it, is that we don't know who would fix it. There's not a world wide consortium on the written word. maybe there should be, I don't know. but in the end, I guess it doesn't matter anyway. You could fix the language, but in the end all the old letters and rules will still be there, and there will always be some sadistic writer out there who choses to twist those rules in cruel and novel ways to ensure that I don't read his books.