In Which Annorah Steps On Her Soapbox : Too Many Annas

In Which Annorah Steps On Her Soapbox

Posted on August 21, 2008 - Filed Under Shaman

Gentle Readers :

It’s Draenei. D-R-A-E-N-E-I.

Three consonants. Four vowels. I realize that this word is an unusual one, as your language does not usually have dipthongs (combinations of vowels) like that. We have, however, been in major areas of Azeroth for at least 18 months now; I do not expect immediate understanding of our language, but spelling the name of my people properly would be nice, at least after all this time.

My thanks for your courtesy,
Annorah, Farseer

If you’re curious as to how it’s supposed to be pronounced, find a Draenei female and ask her to run through her /silly emotes. At some point, she’ll say “Single Draenei Female seeks blacksmith with grinding wheel to take care of me - and my gorgeous hooves.” (for the curious and impatient, it’s DRAHN-eye)

ALSO! (And some of you may be seeing this for a second time, as I did post it over on Plus Heal, so my apologies, but it’s come up!)

The Plural of Shaman is…. SHAMANS

You can look it up in a dictionary or an encyclopedia. It’s not shamen, or shaman (like the singular - kind of like moose is both singular and plural), or shamens.

Why?

The word “Shaman” is a native word from a Siberian language. It got brought in whole to English, and thus gets just an “s” on the end to make it plural like any other normal noun. Because it’s not an English compound created from two other English words, it’s not “shamen” (like man - men).

According to WoWwiki, Blizzard uses both the form “shamans” and the form “shaman” for the plural (so technically both would be OK when in game), but to truly be correct, it’s shamans.

The diminutive form “Shammy/Shammies” originated outside of Warcraft and was, in the first releases of World of Warcraft, derogatory due to issues with class balance. Now, in the more balanced world, many shamans have accepted the term simply as a more playful or lighthearted title for the class.

So stand proud, shamans, and accept no misspellings!

(AND NOW YOU KNOW!)

**Also, the proper term for a female shaman is “Shamanka” not “Shamaness” - but I’m not going to push for that one. Even if it is possibly the coolest title EVER.

**Also, also - Today is Spaceship Husband’s birthday! Whee!

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Comments

14 Responses to “In Which Annorah Steps On Her Soapbox”

Dechion on August 21st, 2008 7:49 am

Happy birthday to Spaceship Hubby.

Also thought you might get a giggle from this one… My Shamanka, and yes she is a Draeni. =)
Dechion on August 21st, 2008 7:50 am

forgetting the link FTL.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Stormrage&n=Shamanka
Flowersz on August 21st, 2008 7:52 am

Thanks for the pronunciation tip, no longer will my wonderful Flowersz be a “Drainy Shaman” but henceforth will be a Drahn-eye Shamanka!
krizzlybear on August 21st, 2008 8:13 am

If people are adamant on calling pluralized shaman as shamen, I would think it would make sense to call a female shaman a shawoman instead of shamaness. Just my two cents.
Teuthida on August 21st, 2008 8:14 am

Shamanka! Oh my God, I love it. And Teu would totally dig it.

Happy birthday to the spaceship husband!
Nic on August 21st, 2008 8:18 am

I’m pretty sure ‘Draenei’ is just plural for one ‘Draeneum’.

xD
Ratshag on August 21st, 2008 8:22 am

Dreanei…
Drienanae…
Draeninaneinaenie…
Bugger it.

Space goats.
Jagerbombz on August 21st, 2008 12:15 pm

Space Goats - Plural of Drains

Bobs - Plural of shaman
Asara on August 21st, 2008 1:37 pm

Dear Annorah,
I hate to break it to you, but in a game where the majority of the players STILL think a ROGUE is something that women wear on their cheeks when going out for the night (when rogues have been around even longer than the dear draenei).. the odds that people will be able to properly spell a complicated word like Draenei are sadly slim to none. We apologize for the inconvenience, and promise that you will never see your class nor your race misspelled on at least one blog in the blogosphere

–Asara et. al.
Itanya Blade on August 21st, 2008 2:05 pm

BAH!

Shammy Squid!
Nauloera on August 21st, 2008 2:07 pm

Happy Birthday to Spaceship Husband!

And Shamanka! Ebonywind likes that. Maybe she’ll take it up when she gets over being emoo.
Eith on August 21st, 2008 7:39 pm

Ew, just say no to gendered spellings, imo.
Euripedes on August 22nd, 2008 2:51 am

Being Canadian, I can safely say that Shaman -> Shamans is correct, if somewhat silly.

It’s just like Moose -> Meese.
Rummys Blog :: RP on August 31st, 2008 2:39 pm

[...] out what I most like about other RP blogs ‘n’ posts and trying to mimic that with a Shamanka’s [...]