I just finished listening to The Dune Audio Collection. The thing that I took away from listening to those snippets of Frank Herbert reading his story was how he heard the words that he created, when he spoke them himself. Almost none of the words sounded the way I would pronounce them if I were to speak them, having never heard them before. It really is interesting how much the reader puts themselves into the story.
It’s just that it took me awhile to realize what a CH was, not to mention the extra syllable in Atreides. And while I hear the X in Bene Tleilax while reading, I always pronounced “Tleilaxu” with a “Hu” on the end and no X sound. It was a chance to peer into his mind as he was reading. I was grateful for the insight.
