Imma Goblin

But in the version of synthesized Kardasi I've been developing, Garak's name should be pronounced more like eh-LEEM GAH-rahk, or /ɛ.ˈlim ˈgɑ.ɾɑk/. Ironically, Julian gets closest to pronouncing Garak's surname "correctly," partly because he seems to be speaking it with a subtle nod toward Arabic phonetics (he sometimes taps the r, and he often makes both vowels a little more open). Unfortunately for Julian, the conventional spelling of "Elim" seems to purposefully disobey Kardasi phonetic rules. Which is a very very Garak thing to do.

Plus, Eh-LEEM doesn't seem much harder to pronounce than EE-lim - I could maybe see it if Standard was based on a language where the stress pattern always falls on the second-to-last syllable, but it seems to be based on English, so I don't see any particular reason for the change. So personally I assume that Garak's name is pronounced exactly the way we hear him pronounce it.

I think you're absolutely correct that the show itself can't possibly have intended for Garak's name to be pronounced any other way than Garak himself pronounces it, I definitely don't disagree! But there's a long history of Star Trek languages built around a few scattered words and names—that's how Marc Okrand created Vulcan and Klingon after all—and that's what I've seen lots of other fans trying to do with Kardasi, going all the way back to the 1990s. You're also completely right that eh-LEEM wouldn't be harder to pronounce than EE-lim, but it's interesting that Garak's the only canon Cardassian character whose name starts with an E for whom that E is pronounced as a long, stressed "EE." Other Cardassians with E-names might have that vowel length (e.g. Gul Evek, ee-VEK), or the stress (e.g. Entek, EN-tek), or neither (Ekoor, e-KOOR; Enabran, e-NAH-bran), but not both. And of course there's no apparent consistency in how Cardassian names are spelled in Standard. Ultimately, I'm not at all trying to make a truth claim about the show, just playing with the fragments of language we get from character names.

But in the version of synthesized Kardasi I've been developing, Garak's name should be pronounced more like eh-LEEM GAH-rahk, or /ɛ.ˈlim ˈgɑ.ɾɑk/. Ironically, Julian gets closest to pronouncing Garak's surname "correctly," partly because he seems to be speaking it with a subtle nod toward Arabic phonetics (he sometimes taps the r, and he often makes both vowels a little more open). Unfortunately for Julian, the conventional spelling of "Elim" seems to purposefully disobey Kardasi phonetic rules. Which is a very very Garak thing to do.

Plus, Eh-LEEM doesn't seem much harder to pronounce than EE-lim - I could maybe see it if Standard was based on a language where the stress pattern always falls on the second-to-last syllable, but it seems to be based on English, so I don't see any particular reason for the change. So personally I assume that Garak's name is pronounced exactly the way we hear him pronounce it.

It's not even a Torture the Chief Episode!!!

Maybe you should have stayed on the Enterprise.

Odo receives the most crushing blow of his entire life

Needed to dump my photos of them somewhere gwah 🫩🫩🫩🫩

@ds9week day 3: from different worlds

get it julian

together we are deep space nine

DS9 "Whispers"

Javert who?

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - S2E25 Tribunal