The Republic of Heaven

I'm from the US and when I visited UK a few years ago, one thing stood out especially about language difference. People in UK pronounce words as they are written compared to us. Regardless of regional dialect, we tend to slur the sounds, often pronouncing different letters as though they were the same and skipping over others altogether.

So how is the word "subtle", pronounced in Britain? In the US the b is silent in this word; we say something like "suddle".

To b or not to b?

See the first two entries here.

Looks like the 'b' is a spelling mistake that occurred with such frequency it became standard practice. It is silent.

So how is the word "subtle", pronounced in Britain? In the US the b is silent in this word; we say something like "suddle".

It's not really pronounced "suddle" in the US, at least around here, it's more "sut-ul"

Thanks. Just thought I'd better check.

It's sort of pronounced "suttle" over here in old Blighty.

Is it translated right when it is in Germany something like magical knife?

Is it translated right when it is in Germany something like magical knife?

Not quite. The word 'subtle' (which, incidentally, in Australia is pronounced 'sutt-ul') means all these things.

It seems to me that the Knife is a combination of all the myriad meanings of 'subtle' - from number 1 ('thin, tenuous') to 2 ('fine or delicate in meaning or intent; difficult to perceive or understand') and 6 ('cunning, wily, or crafty'). What do people think?

I think the confusion with the spelling (the 'b') reflects what happened to a lot of English words when the spelling was standardised. Educated people tried to put in silent letters (such as 's' in 'island') to reflect the words' Latin and Greek roots. The dictionary website sums it up here:

subtle
c.1300, sutel, soutil, in ref. to things, "of thin consistency;" in ref. to craftsmen, "skilled, clever," from O.Fr. soutil, from L. subtilis "fine, thin, delicate, finely woven," from sub "under" + -tilis, from tela "web" and texere "to weave" (see texture). The spelling with -b- reflects confusion with subtile. Most non-material senses were present by late 14c.

I always thought of subtle as meaning quiet or hidden. Something not blatantly obvious or loud. To just look at it, the knife just a knife. But if you study it, you see the subtlety of the blades and their hidden attributes and abilities. Maybe just fishing, but that's how I read it.

I thought that too, and also it seems to find the subtle microscopic snags in the fabric of the world, where it can cut through, and it does this so subtly that only the person in control of the knife would be able to feel anything at all. But then again I could just be fishing as well.

I'd go with the 'multi-meaning', and I particularly favour 'cunning'.
I really liked that boy's description of how spectres came about, with someone using a knife to cut a piece of lead until it was so small that at the last cut the spectres came out of a rolled up piece at the end. A perfect description of multiple dimension theory from quantum physics. Also, Iorek's comments when he was repairing the knife about 'how do you know the knife doesn't have intentions of its own?'
I sometimes wonder if Pullman had a quantum physicist at his side when he wrote the book as the book is full of similar examples of inspired writing based on research.

Exactly. Pullman was very careful with his language in HDM. Not a word is out of place. Any 'important' word in the series (and subtle is certainly one of them) was chosen very carefully, with much thought about the many possible meanings of the word and the ways in which these multiple meanings can interact.