This article, His Dark Materials terminology, details the various terminology used in the His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman comprising Northern Lights , The Subtle Knife , and The Amber Spyglass...

 trilogy written by Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...

.

Alternate naming and other words

To enhance the feeling of being in a parallel universe, Pullman renames various common objects of our world with historic terms or new words of his own, often reflecting the power of the Magisterium (Pullman's version of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

) in Lyra's world. The alternative names he chooses often follow alternate etymologies

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

, while making it possible to guess what everyday object or person he is referring to. Below are some of the significant renamings as well as new words the author has developed entirely on his own.

• Aerodock: Airport.
• Æsahættr: (literally "God-destroyer") The formal name of the subtle knife; deemed the "last knife of all"
• Anbaric: Electric
  Electricity
  Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
  
  . From anbar, Arabic for amber
  Amber
  Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
  
  ; the English word "electric" is based on the Greek ήλεκτρον (élektron), meaning "amber". Both words derive from the electrostatic properties of amber
  Triboelectric effect
  The triboelectric effect is a type of contact electrification in which certain materials become electrically charged after they come into contact with another different material and are then separated...
  
  .
• Atomcraft: Research into particle physics
  Particle physics
  Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
  
  , specifically using uranium
  Uranium
  Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
  
  .
• Brantwijn: Brandywine.
• Cauchuc: Rubber
  Rubber
  Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
  
   and possibly also plastic, from the Native American word cauchuc or caoutchouc meaning the sap of the rubber tree.
• Celestial geography: Celestial navigation
  Celestial navigation
  Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is a position fixing technique that has evolved over several thousand years to help sailors cross oceans without having to rely on estimated calculations, or dead reckoning, to know their position...
  
  .
• Chapel: A scientific laboratory.
• Chaplain: The head of a scientific laboratory.
• Chocolatl: Sometimes hot chocolate
  Hot chocolate
  Hot chocolate is a heated beverage typically consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar...
  
  , sometimes "a bar of chocolatl" (a chocolate
  Chocolate
  Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
  
   bar). From chocolatl, the Nahuatl
  Nahuatl
  Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
  
   word for chocolate.
• Chthonic Railway Station: An underground railway
  Rapid transit
  A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
  
   station. "Chthonic
  Chthonic
  Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
  
  " is from Greek
  Greek language
  Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
  
   χθονιος (chthonios), meaning pertaining to the earth
  Earth
  Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
  
  ; earthy.
• Cloud-Pine: A type of wood used by Witches for "flying" (akin to broomsticks in other literature)
• Coal-silk: Nylon
  Nylon
  Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides, first produced on February 28, 1935, by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station...
  
  , a synthetic fibre made from coal, was invented as a substitute for natural silk.
• Coal spirit: Petroleum
  Petroleum
  Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
  
   or other hydrocarbon
  Hydrocarbon
  In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....
  
   fuels derived from it.
• Dæmon
  Dæmon (His Dark Materials)
  A dæmon is a manifestation of a person's soul in the Philip Pullman trilogy His Dark Materials. Humans in every universe are said to have dæmons, although in some universes they are visible as entities physically separate from their humans, and take the form of animals, while in other universes...
  
  : The animal embodiment of a human's soul. It is pronounced 'demon'
• Dust
  Dust (His Dark Materials)
  Dust in Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is a mysterious cosmic particle that is integral to the plot. In Northern Lights, Lord Asriel reveals the origins of the term "Dust" to be from a passage from the slightly alternate version of the Bible in Lyra's World: "In the sweat of...
  
  : Dark matter
  Dark matter
  In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
  
   or dark energy
  Dark energy
  In physical cosmology, astronomy and celestial mechanics, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted theory to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding...
  
   (although as more of a "life force"); in the real world, particles which make up most of the mass of the universe, but which cannot be directly observed.
• Experimental Theology: Physics. A term derived from the fact that the Magisterium (see above) controls scientific research in Lyra's world.
• Electrum: An occasionally used Latin word for amber
  Amber
  Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
  
  ; see "anbaric" above.
• Fire-Mine: A geothermal vent in which the panserbjorne work in metallurgy
  Metallurgy
  Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
  
  ; supposedly impenetrable to humans and witches.
• Gyropter: A helicopter
  Helicopter
  A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
  
  .
• Marchpane: Marzipan
  Marzipan
  Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal. Persipan is a similar, yet less expensive product, in which the almonds are replaced by apricot or peach kernels...
  
  . In reality, "Marchpane" is an archaic word for "marzipan".
• Naphtha
  Naphtha
  Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons, i.e., a component of natural gas condensate or a distillation product from petroleum, coal tar or peat boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons. It is a broad term covering among the...
  
  : Oil (as in oil-lamp, rather than naphtha-lamp), a petrochemical like kerosene
  Kerosene
  Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
  
  .
• Night-ghast: A Nightmare
  Mara (folklore)
  A mare or nightmare is a spirit or goblin in Germanic folklore which rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams . The mare is attested as early as in the Norse Ynglinga saga from the 13th century, but the belief itself is likely to be considerably older...
  
   (in the mythological sense).
• Oratory: An individual church.
• Ordinator: A computer (from the same root as ordinateur (French) and ordenador (Spanish)).
• Philosophical: Having to do with the study of physics
  Physics
  Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
  
  . In our own world, physics
  Physics
  Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
  
   were once considered a part of philosophy
  Natural philosophy
  Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
  
  .
• Photogram: A photograph, more primitive than those in our own world but able to be developed in multiple ways.
• Projecting lantern: A magic lantern
  Magic lantern
  The magic lantern or Laterna Magica is an early type of image projector developed in the 17th century.-Operation:The magic lantern has a concave mirror in front of a light source that gathers light and projects it through a slide with an image scanned onto it. The light rays cross an aperture , and...
  
   used for photograms. (Pullman
  Philip Pullman
  Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
  
   noted in Northern Lights
  Northern Lights (novel)
  Northern Lights, known as The Golden Compass in North America, is the first novel in English novelist Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy...
  
  s Lantern Slides addendum that he based the projector in the book on one his grandfather owned.)
• Shadow (particle): See Dust
  Dust (His Dark Materials)
  Dust in Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is a mysterious cosmic particle that is integral to the plot. In Northern Lights, Lord Asriel reveals the origins of the term "Dust" to be from a passage from the slightly alternate version of the Bible in Lyra's World: "In the sweat of...
  
  .
• (Experimental) Theologian: A physicist
  Physics
  Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
  
  . From "Natural Theology" meaning science.
• Tokay: Is either an Anglicized form of tokaji
  Tokaji
  Tokaji is the name of the wines from the region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary and Slovakia. The name Tokaji is used for labeling wines from this wine district. This region is noted for its sweet wines made from grapes affected by noble rot, a style of wine which has a long history in this region...
  
   (a famed wine of the Tokaj-Hegyalja region in Hungary), or a reference to Tokay d'Alsace, a name for pinot gris
  Pinot gris
  Pinot gris is a white wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot noir grape, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name but the grape can have a brownish pink to black and even white appearance...
  
   created in the Alsace
  Alsace
  Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
  
   region of France. The golden color of the wine in the book fits the latter definition.

People and locations

The history of Lyra's world is also very different from our own; most obvious is the settlement of the New World in Lyra's universe was dramatically altered. Pullman underlines this and other variations by using archaic or alternate names for otherwise familiar people and regions.

• Beringland: Northwest America, specifically Alaska
  Alaska
  Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
  
   and the Yukon Territories of Canada
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
  . Named for the explorer who first set out in the region, Vitus Bering
  Vitus Bering
  Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
  
  
• Brytain: A phonetically identical respelling of the region of Britain
  Great Britain
  Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
  
  . It has echoes of "Brython
  Brython
  The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
  
  ", a word for ancient British people and the lands they inhabited.
• Cathay
  Cathay
  Cathay is the Anglicized version of "Catai" and an alternative name for China in English. It originates from the word Khitan, the name of a nomadic people who founded the Liao Dynasty which ruled much of Northern China from 907 to 1125, and who had a state of their own centered around today's...
  
  : The medieval European name for China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
  .
• Corea: A phonetically identical respelling of the country Korea
  Korea
  Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
  
   (used both in Cittàgazze and Lyra's world). This spelling was used prior to the current one, with a "K".
• Eastern Anglia: East Anglia
  East Anglia
  East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
  
  , particularly Lincolnshire
  Lincolnshire
  Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
  
  , the region where John Faa
  John Faa
  John Faa, the King of the Gypsies, was a historical character from Scotland, a contemporary of King James IV. Although historical sources place him in Dunbar, in the east of Scotland, much folklore associates him with the Galloway/Ayrshire border. He appears as a character in at least two novels,...
  
  's gyptians live; in Brytain it has remained fenland with the Dutch influence remaining strong.
• Eireland: Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
  , as referred to in the Cittàgazze universe. Presumably a mixture of Ireland's Irish-language (Éire
  Éire
  is the Irish name for the island of Ireland and the sovereign state of the same name.- Etymology :The modern Irish Éire evolved from the Old Irish word Ériu, which was the name of a Gaelic goddess. Ériu is generally believed to have been the matron goddess of Ireland, a goddess of sovereignty, or...
  
  ) and English-language names.
• Gyptians: Boat-dwelling "Gypsies" (Roma). In reality, the word "Gypsy" is derived from "Egypt
  Egypt
  Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
  
  ". Gypsies were once thought by "native" Britons to have come from Egypt due to their darker skin. Pullman is clearly referencing this etymological heritage. There are also references to the Dutch watergeuzen, (in the books, not as much in the movie) a kind of north-sea pirates. One hint to the Dutchness of the Gyptians is their preference for drinking "ginniver" (or Dutch) genever. Also, many Gyptians carry Dutch names like "Dirk Vries", "Raymond van Gerrit" and "Ruud and Nellie Koopman" and use Dutch terms such as "landloper" (a Dutch word literally meaning "land-walker").
• Lake Enara: Lake Inari
  Lake Inari
  Lake Inari is the third largest lake in Finland and the largest lake in Sápmi. It is located in the northern part of Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle. The lake is 117–119 meters above sea level and it is regulated at the Kaitakoski power plant in Russia...
  
  , a lake in Northern Finland
  Finland
  Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
  
  . From Enare, the Swedish-language name for the lake.
• Lascar: An East Indian
  Indies
  The Indies is a term that has been used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia, occupying all of the present India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and...
  
  . This is a real, though archaic, English word.
• Mejico: Mexico, from the Mexican pronunciation.
• Muscovite: A Russia
  Russia
  Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
  
  n; a reference to the Grand Duchy of Moscow
  Grand Duchy of Moscow
  The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
  
  .
• New Denmark: Most likely the region occupied by the United States of America, east of New France. Lee Scoresby is described as a 'New Dane', although he is from the country of Texas
  Republic of Texas
  The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
  
  .
• New France
  New France
  New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
  
  : Includes Quebec, much of Eastern Canada, and the region bought (in our world) by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase
  Louisiana Purchase
  The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
  
  . A reference to the 17th and 18th century, during which the area around the St-Lawrence River and much of the North American Interior was called New France
  New France
  New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
  
  . (At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France
  New France
  New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
  
   extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains and from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.) Lee Scoresby recalls the Battle of the Alamo
  Battle of the Alamo
  The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...
  
   as not being between the Mexican Army and Texians and Tejanos, but between French and Danish settlers.
• (Great) North Ocean: The North Atlantic Ocean combined with the European region of the Arctic Ocean
  Arctic Ocean
  The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...
  
  .
• Nipponese: The Japanese language
  Japanese language
  is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
  
   and/or people. From Nippon
  Nippon
  Nippon is a native name for Japan, more formal than Nihon.Nippon can also refer to:-Company names:All of the following companies are based in Japan.*Nikon *Nippon Telegraph and Telephone...
  
   ("land of the rising sun"), a Japanese-language name for Japan
  Japan
  Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
  
  .
• Norroway: Norway
  Norway
  Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
  
  .
• Nova Zembla: Novaya Zemlya
  Novaya Zemlya
  Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...
  
  , a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean
• Panserbjørne (generally italicized): Armoured bears (as a whole race); a warrior race of sapient
  Sapient
  Sapient may refer to:* Sapience, the ability of an organism or entity to act with judgment* Sapient Corporation, a NASDAQ-traded company...
  
  , talking polar bears, known for crafting powerful armour from meteoric iron. The word "panserbjørne" literally means "armour-bears" in Danish.
• Peaceable Ocean: The Pacific Ocean, calque
  Calque
  In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
  
  d from the Latin.
• Roman: Specifically, the Latin
  Latin
  Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
  
   language.
• Skraeling: A Native American
  Indigenous peoples of the Americas
  The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
  
   (specifically Inuit) person, particularly one from Greenland
  Greenland
  Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
  
  . Natives of Greenland were once named similarly by the Viking
  Viking
  The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
  
   settlers of our world.
• Samoyed: The Sami hunters of Northern Scandinavia.
• Tartar: A Tatar
  Tatars
  Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
  
  ; Nomadic Turkic, warrior people of the North, known for the practice of unusual spiritual rituals, including trepanning.
• Texas
  Republic of Texas
  The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
  
  : The homeland of Lee Scoresby and a separate nation from New Denmark which shares its southern border with Texas' northern one. The Republic of Texas
  Republic of Texas
  The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
  
  was briefly an independent nation in our world.

Pronunciation

The pronunciations given here are those used in the radio plays and the audio book readings of the trilogy (by Pullman himself).

• Alethiometer: ˌæliːθɪˈɒmɪtə
• Æsahættr: AS-hattər /ˈæshætə/ ("God-destroyer")
• Chthonic (see above): kə-THON-ick /k(ə)ˈθɒnɪk/
• Cittàgazze: tʃittaˈɡattse (in Italian)
• Dæmon: DEE-mən /ˈdiːmən/
• Iorek: YOR-ick /ˈjɔrɪk/
• Iofur: YO-fur /ˈjoʊfʊə/
• Kirjava: KEER-yah-və [ˈkiːrjɑːvə/
• Lyra: LYE-rə /ˈlaɪrə/
• Mulefa: moo-LAY-fə /muːˈleɪfə/
• Panserbjørne: PAN-sə-byəə-nə /ˈpænsəbjɜːnə/ (written "Panserbørne" in early UK editions: "Armoured Bears")
• Pantalaimon: pan-tə-LYE-mon /ˌpæntəˈlaɪmən/
• Salmakia: sal-MACK-i-ə /sælˈmækɪə/
• Serafina Pekkala: SEH-rə-fee-nə PEK-kə-lə [ˈsɛrəfiːnə ˈpɛkələ/
• Tialys: ti-AH-lis /tɪˈɑːlɪs/
• Torre degli Angeli: [ˈtɔrre deʎi anˈdʒeli] (in Italian; "Tower of the Angels")
• Xaphania: zə-FAY-ni-ə /zəˈfeɪnɪə/