Head canon: Inej’s has complicated feelings about how people pronounce her name.
At the end of Inej’s name is a phoneme that only exists in Suli and she hates the way it sounds when non-speakers try to pronounce it and get it wrong.
Long before she was kidnapped and brought to Ketterdam, she decided to tell non-Suli speakers that her name was pronounced the way it was spelled in Ravkan. While the ending j in Ravkan isn’t the same sound as in Suli, she thinks it’s pretty. It’s like a chosen nickname as opposed to the nails-on-chalkboard sound of mistake.
The Ravkan pronunciation of ‘Inej’ is work for Kerch speakers, but they can get there with a little practice. Kaz gets it quite quickly and corrects anyone who says it wrong within his earshot. She particularly loves the spin Jesper’s accent puts on her name.
Nina is consistently confused and asks one day how Inej really wants her name pronounced. The way Nina says her name is so close, but off just enough that it’s heartbreaking – like getting to look at her parents' caravan and not being allowed to go inside – Inej tells her just to say it the Ravkan way.
