English phonetics and orthography are known worldwide for being ridiculously overcomplicated and messy. When we start using words and names from 20 different languages it gets even worse.
Also, many languages pronounce long I as "ee" and long E as "ay", with "ai" literally being written A-I ("ah-ee"). English just happened to have this most horrible series of vowel shifts at some point, and accents are quite varied in pronunciation even within individual landmasses.
And the letter Y: that thing came from the ancestor of the letter U, and some people still think it's a consonant. Even when making full "long vowel" sounds in English it keeps switching between "ee" and "ai" at the ends of words (easy, lazy, crazy, daisy, really, absolutely, boy, etc. vs. try, cry, my, fly, buy, etc.), and the vast majority of the times it's found mid-word, it's either to prevent a double I, or strictly etymological (<- like that (short version of "ee": "i") and xylophone ("ai")).
So, my point is: the pronunciation of the Y in "Zyra" could have been either "ee" or "ai" with equal probability, and every one of you who acted like people were idiots for thinking of one over the other are the reason why, if the sun were to suddenly expand into red giant tomorrow and kill everyone, it would be OK. Just thought I'd let you all know.
??
Senior Member
