I See Fire | Wattys 2021/22 Shortlist | ✔

Dictionary and Pronunciations

As you have probably seen, this book contains numerous words and names in both Spanish and Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica. I am under no impression that you will know how to pronounce all of these, or know what they all mean, so this is a list of tips, translations, explanations, and approximate pronunciations. I say "approximate" because some of the sounds may not translate well into English phonetics, and/or might be unfamiliar to you if you don't know Spanish or Nahuatl. But I will do my best.

Spanish character names have not been included, a) as I consider them better known, and b) because I wanted to keep the list manageable. If you have trouble with anything that isn't on this list, drop me a message and I'll either help you out or add it!

If you are a native speaker of either Spanish or Nahuatl and have a correction (or multiple) to make to any of these entries, I am absolutely open to correction. In fact, please correct me! The point of this guide is to help readers, not to prove that I know everything, so I always appreciate the help  :) 

General Tips

●   Double L in Spanish makes a "y" sound

●   Double L in Nahuatl makes two L sounds

●   J (and sometimes G) in Spanish makes an "h" sound  

●   Roll your Spanish R 

●   X in Nahuatl makes a "sh" sound  

●   Z in Nahuatl makes an "s" sound  

●   TL is a common Nahua sound, and always sounds the same. Keep the T light, on the tip of your tongue, and swallow the L

●   I usually makes an "ee" sound in both languages  

Dictionary/Glossary/Pronunciation Guide

Any pronunciation with an asterisk(*) is an educated guess and has not been confirmed against a spoken outside source. Any pronunciation marked "unknown" is outside the realm of my educated guessing. 

All words should be in alphabetical order.