Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

Today's comic reminded me of a favorite old topic of debate; the pronunciation of the word drow.

I've always pronounced drow like brow. So how do you pronounce drow?

Do you sat it like know, crow, grow, blow, show, and low?

Or do you say it like plow, brow, chow, how, and cow?

Another weird one in this vein is bow. If its a weapon you pronounce it like low. But if its a gesture of respect you pronounce it like cow. There are so many others like that in the English language, but that's a good start!

No matter how you pronounce drow, they are still going to make you pay for it... .

(Time machine turn, turn, turn....)

Elf 1: So you're, what, going to live underground? Like a bunch of dw--

First Drow: *smack!*

Elf 1: --ow!

Bystander 1: What did he say? They're going to live like ... dwow?

Bystander 2: What's a dwow?

Bystander 1: I dunno, but it sounds like a speech impediment. I bet he meant "drow".

First Drow: Y'all can kiss the donkey I rode in on. (Exit, in a huff.)

Bystander 2: I still don't get it.

Like this. Definitely rhymes with "ow."

It is meant to be a corruption of the elven word for 'cursed' so i guess any variation would be acceptable. Still the 'ow' one is the one you get to hear more often.

Definitely this way... I think it's 'cause that would be closest to finnish pronunciation (also known as Nokia english).

I used to use the "crow" pronuniation, but then heard it pronounced in a D&D game like "cow" and have changed my pronunciation ever since. Funny thing about fantasy words with no official language root- it's not like we can look it up in a dictionary.

There is this Publishing House here in Greece, which translates the Forgotten Realms novels. It did not translate drow or dark elf at all, just made drow rhyme with cow and left it at that!
Come to think of it, it was the best they could do...

Though, you'd best not call her a cow to her face, or you'll be saying ow to the Drow, right now. And how.

Wow.

We regularly make fun of a guy in my gaming group who came in with "Drow" as in "row." Especially since he's running the current thing, and we're killing Dark Elves Hell, est and Crooked at this point.

"Drow, Drow, Drow your boat..."

So yeah. Drow as in brow or prow.