Very interesting. I’ve been wondering about this for years. So in the home Realms: Beh-HAHL or Bahl? Low-vee-A-tar or Low-VEE-a-tar? MAY-lar or MAH-lar? Mahsk or Mask? MERR-kool or MER-kul? In the home Realms:
Bahl
Low-VEE-a-tar or Low-VIE-ah-tar (Southern)
MAH-lar
Mask
MEER-kool (Myr = “Meer,” just as Tyr is “TEER”)
But across Toril, as across our real world, you will hear a wide variety of pronunciations. And the gods hear them all. ;}#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2019
Ed, thank you so much for indulging my curiousity, but this now brings up another question. Since gods hear whenever their name is spoken (as a kind of cacophonous white noise), doesn’t that confuse things if the god’s name is the same as a common word, like “soon” or “mask”?
— AdamDravian (@AdamDravian) January 30, 2019
Yes. Even gods can’t concentrate on everything at once (though if they’ve ALREADY decided to focus on particular individuals or places, they CAN filter out everything else and “be there” as eavesdroppers). And a good thing for us mortals, too! We get away with…#Realmslore 2/3) …a lot that gods might otherwise punish. (You might say the art of being an effective god is mastery of multitasking.) Please note: when a deity's name is uttered in prayer, in a temple, while clutching a holy symbol, or by a paladin or someone making a…@Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2019
3/3) …sacrifice/offering, it "sounds different" to divine ears (and so can be told apart from other utterances and soundalikes, so someone saying "mask that before you paint the trim" or "The bread'll be done soon" isn't heard by those deities in the same tone as their names).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) January 30, 2019