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Does anyone know of an official pronunciation of the name "Jadis", for the White Witch, in CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia?

I've heard variations on the "a" as:

  1. ā: as in "jay" (seems common in the US)
  2. ä: as in "yacht" (seems common outside the US)

I suppose variations on the "J" could exist as:

  1. j: as in "jay" (I've only heard Jadis pronounced with this "J")
  2. zh: as in "je ne sais quoi"
  3. y: as in "Johannes"
  4. h: as in "jalapeño"

Has Mr Lewis spoken to this, or has his estate? What about the animated film, the live-action films, and the BBC radio dramatization (and how official would these be)?

I see no offering at WikiNarnia nor Wikipedia.

I've seen suggestions that the name "Jadis" could be connected to the French jadis ("long ago") and the Persian jadu ("witch"), which could lend credence to consonant (2) and vowel (2) listed above.

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  • 1
    This answer would strongly imply that the pronunciations in the Focus on the Family production of Dawn Treader are correct and accurate, making it Jah-diss (with a hard J and a hard ah like Ja-ck) rather that jay-dis.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 30, 2017 at 19:26
  • In case it helps someone, she bears the very same name - same writing at least - in the French edition of the book. It happens that Jadis is a French name meaning "a - very - long time ago". It basically means ages ago but with a very formal tone. That's a word you don't hear often. Given the context in which this character appears, I thought it was a pretty spot on name. This particular word in French in pronunced : ʒa.dis
    – Sarkouille
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 15:35
  • 1
    The accepted answer to another question includes correspondence with the pronunciation consultatn for the FOF series, who got his pronunciations from C. S. Lewis himself. (scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/15467/…)
    – pojo-guy
    Commented Apr 13, 2018 at 22:27
  • I am crazy about this name! I myself heard it pronounced "JAY-dis" in the BBC version of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe & "JAH-dis" in the Disney version, but I prefer the French pronunciation "Zha-DEES". It always comes out of my mouth the American way though, because that's the way I first heard it.
    – Jadis Goldsworthy
    Commented Apr 30, 2021 at 21:00
  • I've always pronounced it to rhyme with TARDIS - I don't think that quite fits any of the pronunciations in your list?
    – Astrid_Redfern
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 12:35

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