The name Vaeriel may or may not seem strange depending on your linguistic background, but
unless you're very familiar with my work, you'll be wrong about its meaning and origin.
First, let's talk about the pronunciation. The name is pronounced /vˈɛ͡ɹiəl/. That might look scary if you're
unfamiliar with the IPA, but it's not terrible
(I promise). The /v/ is the same as English v
, the
ˈ means that the following vowel is stressed, /ɛ͡ɹ/ is pronounced the same as English air
. The /i/ is pronounced like the i
in English machine
, and the /e/ is pronounced like the u
in English nut
. Finally, the /l/ is the same as the l
in English full
. So, when you see
Vaeriel, think vair-ee-ull
. If you don't speak English, then just look at the IPA
and pronounce it as best you can (hooray Anglocentrism!).
With that out of the way, where does Vaeriel actually come from?? Put simply,
it's a word in a conlang I made called Verik. In
Verik, vaeriel means storyteller
, though it does have strong cultural associations
on Vaikéno, the conworld where Verik is used.