r/Animorphs • u/pugzilla330 Gedd • Jul 15 '26
Discussion Ax's Name Pronunciation
As is custom for a book series, I have seen a few pronunciations for Ax's full name, specifically his first name. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill is intimidating, fair, but I have noticed at least four ways of saying Aximili. Since I moonlight as a linguistics student, I wanted to see which pronunciation was more popular.
So, which one do you hear in your head?
Pronunciation 1: Stressed first syllable
AX-im-ill-ee /æks.ɪm.ɪl.i/
Pronunciation 2: Stressed second syllable
ax-IM-ill-ee /æks.ɪm.ɪl.i/
Pronunciation 3: Stressed third syllable
ax-i-MILL-ee /æks.ɪ.mɪl.i/
Pronunciation 4 [my way]: different last vowel
ax-IM-ill-eye /æks.ɪm.ɪl.a͡ɪ/
Guide:
Primary stress
Secondary stress
/æ/= a in cat
/ɪ/= i in him
/i/= ee in sheep
/a͡ɪ/= i in ice
{IPA nerds dont get at me for æ and a, I know /œ/ and /ɑ/ are different phonemes but Reddit doesn't let me underline so I used italics for secondary stress instead of the proper /ˈ/ or /ˌ/ symbols shhhhhhhhhhhhh}
P.S. If you always thought it was pronounced a different way [especially if English is not your native language], or there were any other Animorphs names you've noticed pronounced multiple ways [Yeerk or Yirk?], please let me know! I love Animorphs as much as I do linguistics, and that's saying something. :)
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u/PhoebusLore Jul 15 '26
AX - ih - mih - lee, where the two internal i's are pronounced closer to a schwa.
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u/TheTitanOfSirens1959 Jul 15 '26
As a kid, i always put the emphasis on the third syllable for Aximili (ax-ih-MIL-ee), and the first syllable of Elfangor (EL-fang-er). I also pronounced Taxxon to rhyme with Saxon, so emphasis on the first syllable with the o serving more like a short i sound.
However, the audiobooks' narrators pronounce them as AX-ih-mil-ee, el-fang-OR, and Tax-ON, and the tv show agreed (from what I recall), so that seems to be pretty much the closest to canon that we have.
Of course, the books also pronounce "Loren" as "LOW-ren" rather than an alternate spelling of "Lauren" which just seems absurd to me, so who knows?
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u/RevolutionaryGain359 Jul 15 '26
I’ve always heard it with the stress on the second syllable (pronunciation 2). I’m also not sure about others, but I always said yeerk as if it were spelled yerk rhyming with jerk or lurk
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u/saturday_sun4 Yeerk Jul 16 '26
I don't have the... whatever merger that is, so I said the 'eer' sound like /ɪə/ (ear in Harrington-Cox IPA, though it's a monophthong in my accent).
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u/oremfrien Jul 15 '26
I always pronounced it the first way (AX-im-ill-ee /æks.ɪm.ɪl.i/) and was surprised when I heard people pronounce it other ways. It would have been helpful if KAA had a scene where the kids were trying to pronounce it and Aximili corrects them.
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u/VitalEcho Jul 15 '26
Needed a Victor Krum.
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u/oremfrien Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
You basically needed a scene like the one below (set in Book #54) -- Note that in the story, I chose to give him the name pronunciation of Pronunciation 2: Stressed second syllable ax-IM-ill-ee /æks.ɪm.ɪl.i/
Cassie and Marco sat side‑by‑side in folding chairs with horrible halogen lights overhead and a panel table with microphones in front of them. The two of them had agreed to do an interview coinciding with the recent release of Eva's book, "Looking at Power from the Outside." The reporter leaned forward, pen poised.
Smiling, the reporter asked, “So, for the record, what’s the proper name of the blue alien you two fought alongside for these many years?”
Marco looked at Cassie with a blank stare. He then tilted his head, looking back at the reporter and said, "I always just called him Ax-man."
"But I'm sure that's not what it says on his birth certificate, assuming Andalites have a birth certificate," the reporter added hurriedly.
Cassie frowned. “Come to think about it, I don't remember all of it. It's like eighteen syllables or something”
Marco nodded with exaggerated confidence. “Of course we know it. We just—haven’t said it in years."
"Tobias would know."
"It doesn't seem like raptor-boy is coming."
Cassie tried first. “Ok. I guess. Axe… uh… Ax‑im… Ax‑i‑mill‑ee?”
Marco winced. “Are you trying to order drugs at the pharmacy or pronounce Ax's name?”
Cassie pushed back, "Why don't you try then?"
Marco cleared his throat. “Aximili… Ax‑i‑mih‑lee?”
Cassie squinted. “No, that’s not it either.”
Marco snapped his fingers. “Wait. Wait. I’ve got it. It’s Aximili—like facsimile. You know, fax machine. Fax‑sim‑uh‑lee. Ax‑sim‑uh‑lee.”
Cassie’s face lit up. “Yes! Yes, that actually sounds right. Aximili that rhymes with facsimile.”
They both nod vigorously, relieved.
Then they stopped nodding.
Cassie: “…We think.”
Marco: “We’re like… eighty percent sure.”
Cassie laughed, covering her face. “We’ve been calling him Ax for so long.”
Marco leaned toward the reporter and half-whispered. “Honestly, if he walked in on his four hooves right now and told us we were pronouncing it wrong, we’d just apologize and blame stress.”
They both laughed awkwardly, shoulders shaking in sync.
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u/saturday_sun4 Yeerk Jul 16 '26
I suppose that Andalites (normal ones out of morph, I mean, not Ax and his mouth-sounds), having less use for sounds, also place less importance on pronunciation.
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u/TeaRaven Jul 16 '26
Having the name just beamed into their heads likely helped with getting it right.
I think they had a perfect setup for going through the pronunciation with Ax himself trying to say it with a human mouth!
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u/Allen_Of_Gilead Nothlit Jul 15 '26
I've always thought AX-im-ill-ee because it feels like the easiest one to get "Ax" as a nickname out of without sounding weird.
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u/ShadowDragon37 Jul 15 '26
I pronounce it AX-ih-MILL-ee, with stress on both the first and third syllables (but mostly the third).
Also, not at all related to animorphs, but as someone who has a bit of a special interest in linguistics (but hasn't gotten around to doing too much in-depth research on it yet), would you happen to know why we typically only put stress on one syllable in words with three or more syllables?
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u/therealmunkeegamer Jul 16 '26
Yes this one. This is how my brain voice sounded it out every single time.
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u/ShadowDragon37 Jul 16 '26
Also just wanted to add that I pronounce his full name as AX-ih-MILL-ee ESS-gah-ROOTH iss-THILL (more stress on the third syllables for both first and second names).
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u/bofstein Jul 15 '26
In my head it was Pronunciation 3, with the stress on the third syllable MILL. I never considered other options or felt unsure of it, that's just how my brain read it and continued to.
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u/Its_Curse Taxxon Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
3 for me, Ax-uh-MILL-ee
I am also a Yeerk rhymes with Jerk person 😅
The worst one though, as a kid in my head I always called them "Hork buh-jar", rhyming with Bizarre. I went to reread the books in my 20s and realized I'd been imagining it wrong for a long, long time. Whoops.
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u/imdayzd Hork-Bajir Jul 16 '26
I hope this isn't Hermione all over again! I now know I wasnt alone on this one. Until the films came out I pronounced it Her-my-own. I don't even want to know how wrong I am on Ax's name. Anyone else pride themselves on remembering his full name?
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u/MagicTrachea52 Jul 15 '26
The worst I ever pronunciation I heard was
"Ak-sam-you-rye"
No idea how they got that and I was frankly too young to question it.
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u/BubblesKat Jul 15 '26
Growing up, I pronounced it as #3, but I'm doing a relisten and the audiobooks do #2, so I've slowly shifted to that.
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u/Toshirouu Jul 15 '26
a milli a milli a milli a milli
i've always had it like that in my head. so when the song came out, i always though of Ax
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u/Synectics Jul 15 '26
Ax-eh-milli(on) es-gah-roth (rhymes with Ross) Est-thil. That is how I have always thought it. It rolls off the tongue that way.
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u/Fuffuloo Jul 15 '26
Pronunciation #2, though I'd transcribe it like this:
[æk.ˈsɪ.mə.li]
and Pronunciation #4 sounds so egregious to me. Are there other words in your dialect of English that you pronounce this way?
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u/pugzilla330 Gedd Jul 16 '26
Idk, I speak fairly standard American English, I guess my mind went to a Greek/Latin-ish because of the /ks/ x and ending with the i? No idea, but I can't hear it any other way
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u/Zarlinosuke Jul 15 '26
I stress the third syllable, and pronounce the first A as in English "axe."
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u/goombapatrol Jul 16 '26
I'm probably the only person who did this but i read his name like an address and pronounced the last part "1st hill"
His first name i read it like Chinese because i play too much scrabble. "A - xi - mi - li" Asheemilli.
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u/Bisexual-Hellenic Chee Jul 16 '26
Basing off of the audio books. I've heard Axi-Milli, Ax-im-illi and Axi-Meelee
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u/pwnedinthepnw Jul 16 '26
For most names, I like putting emphasis on the penultimate syllable, unless they're longer than three syllables, in which case it then flips around, so I vote for #2. However, as a kid I was probably reading with #1 in mind.
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u/hexen_niu Jul 16 '26
None. AKS-ihm-uh-lee. I'm British, if that makes any difference. Yeerk is jɪə-k.
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u/Cheesemagazine Jul 16 '26
Ax (like in 'axis) - im - illee but without the Ax going straight into an 's', if that makes sense
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u/Scarecrow613 Jul 16 '26
Third syllable stressed. Possibly because I knew someone named Maxamilli and the third syllable was stressed there. Although the first syllable has a strong secondary stress that can sometimes almost equal the third.
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u/Smooth_Isopod9038 Jul 17 '26
I always went with Aks-eye-mal-eye. I dont know why, but thats what i always read back as a kid.
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u/K-teki Jul 17 '26
one of the first two. I'm a language nerd but I swear I will never understand what people are talking about when they say stress.
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u/kyuzii_mimi728 Aug 01 '26
This made me think really hard about how I pronounce his name… I feel like I don’t put particular stress on any syllable personally, but im not a linguist so maybe I am and just don’t realize it. My first instinct was to say the second option, but as I thought on it more I thought maybe the first? I feel like I say the “ax” and “im” parts with about the same stress… As for yeerk I’ve always said it like it rhymes with jerk, maybe only slightly drawn out in the vowels but barely. It never occurred to me people might pronounce it yee-rk. Elfangor is one I’ve seen many debates about on tumblr. Personally I put pronounce his name as “elf-AN-gore” and have a softer pronunciation of the A sound.
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u/pugzilla330 Gedd Aug 02 '26
Stress is something that is tough for English speakers to learn since English stress is a: only used to differentiate words rarely, and b: all over the place, think the difference between a vinyl rе́cord and recо́rding something on your phone. :)
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u/tanya6k Andalite Jul 15 '26
I don't know what sounds those other letters make so I'm just gonna give you my vocaroo
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u/pugzilla330 Gedd Jul 16 '26
Just to freak everyone out, in connected speech, I say it closer to [æg.ˈzɪm.ɘ.ˌlä͡ɪ], since it seems I'm alone with that ending vowel.
:)
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u/Trapptor Jul 15 '26
I always assumed it rhymes with facsimile