Improper citation or pronunciation of names that drive you insane
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
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Optimus Prime
Member
I don't think it's been brought up in this thread yet, but this makes me wince when I hear it:
Mario "bros" instead of "brothers"
My kids say that and I correct them each time. There's a reason it has a period after the word in the title: "Mario Bros." It's an abbreviation. They're brothers, not bros.
I even told them they can watch the commercials for both Mario and Smash. From the original Mario games to the current Mario and Smash games, they say brothers, not bros. I blame YouTubers.
Note: I actually don't care if people say Smash bros instead of brothers. I'm not really invested in that series, but I do note that Nintendo in the commercials pronounces it as brothers. However, Mario is different. They are brothers, not brosephs. Bruh...
Mario "bros" instead of "brothers"
My kids say that and I correct them each time. There's a reason it has a period after the word in the title: "Mario Bros." It's an abbreviation. They're brothers, not bros.
I even told them they can watch the commercials for both Mario and Smash. From the original Mario games to the current Mario and Smash games, they say brothers, not bros. I blame YouTubers.
Note: I actually don't care if people say Smash bros instead of brothers. I'm not really invested in that series, but I do note that Nintendo in the commercials pronounces it as brothers. However, Mario is different. They are brothers, not brosephs. Bruh...
Hmm. Ok.
So, is Mario's "a" vowel a back or front one, in Italian? (I never claimed I had the absolute right answer, thus the "I believe"; of course if I got the Italian wrong from the start, my "analysis" is wrong)
EDIT: Yeah so I listened to "padre"'s pronunciation, and I had the right vowel in mind the whole time. Maybe you didn't understand me, maybe I didn't understand you, maybe we both misunderstood each other. I may not have been clear, but I knew this was the right /a/: it's the same in my language (French).
Growing in Latin America, you hear a lot of:
Mario Bros. (with 'Bros' pronounced like that, bros, even mispelled as 'Bross' sometimes)
Counter-Strike becomes 'cohn-tur es-trike'
Tomb Raider was basically Tom Rider. It took me years to get used to pronounce "Tomb Raider" the right way, and I'm the only person I know who does it.
Mario Bros. (with 'Bros' pronounced like that, bros, even mispelled as 'Bross' sometimes)
Counter-Strike becomes 'cohn-tur es-trike'
Tomb Raider was basically Tom Rider. It took me years to get used to pronounce "Tomb Raider" the right way, and I'm the only person I know who does it.
Starwolf_UK
Member
To be lazy Xenoblade and Shin Megami Tensei:
In the case Xenoblade people were surprised Xeno said said like Xenophobe rather than like Xena...
In the case Xenoblade people were surprised Xeno said said like Xenophobe rather than like Xena...
It's a Russian name, so Capcom is closer to how it's actually pronounced. The ие in Зангиев is basically the ee and eh sounds, which can more or less run together depending on your accent, so гие can be anywhere from gee-eh to gyeh. The в sound also gets softened at the end, which is why it's transliterated as Zangief instead of Zangiev. Зан also has a hard A sound, so altogether the name's Zahn-gee-eff, more or less.
If you want to argue that the name should be anglicized more, that's another matter.
Knew an entire family that kept pronouncing Laguna as "L'Iguana" when FFVIII came out.
Knew a guy who kept insisting Red XIII was "Red Seven."
Know a guy who continues to insist that console is pronounced "counsole."
Barret is "Barrette" to a lot of people.
Several million people continue to say Tidus' name wrong, but I'll let you gauge which side of the fence I'm on for this one. Both parties are numerous, after all.
"Octagon" is Hal Emmerich's code name according to an "MGS SUPERFAN" at my college.
Don't get me started on Pokemon.
Knew a guy who kept insisting Red XIII was "Red Seven."
Know a guy who continues to insist that console is pronounced "counsole."
Barret is "Barrette" to a lot of people.
Several million people continue to say Tidus' name wrong, but I'll let you gauge which side of the fence I'm on for this one. Both parties are numerous, after all.
"Octagon" is Hal Emmerich's code name according to an "MGS SUPERFAN" at my college.
Don't get me started on Pokemon.
Aerith is just Aeris with a lisp.
I'd be curious to know what language they speak.
hydrophilic attack
Member
Bloodbourne
Danganronpa is just 弾丸論破 written in katakana. It doesn't have spaces in Japanese because the language itself generally doesn't outside of spacing the beginning and ending of sentences. NISA seems to have settled on the "Danganronpa" brand name, but there's no hard rule for transliterating it. Otherwise 真・女神転生 would be Shin-Megamitensei.
I doubt they're that bothered by it being broken up, either, though; otherwise, they would've revised the logo with condensed letterforms to squeeze everything on one line.
RevolverRoden
Member
Raiden from Metal Gear as RAY den instead of RYE den.
Funyarinpa
Member
It's not that I have factual evidence against it, it just annoys me lol
kingkaiser
Member
Some people from my office pronounce PayPal as PayPaul and insist vehemently that's the correct pronunciation. Ignorant Ossis.
Berserker976
Member
In defense of the Lara/Laura American mix up, the average American knows roughly 17 people named Laura, and 0 named Lara.
Silent Hill
Banned
Laura Croft instead of Lara Croft.
And OObisoft.
Oh and Infantry Ward.
And OObisoft.
Oh and Infantry Ward.
It mostly bothers me because its written everywhere in official box arts and even game titles and yet people miss this and still type Laura. If you only had what you heard to go on I'd understand more.
In the US, you will likely never meet anyone named Lara, but will know half a dozen Lauras. Even with the name being explicitly shown on the box, and being pronounced in the game, most people don't even register the fact. Unless you scrutinize the cover, the mind just inserts a U, and Lara becomes Laura.
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
I made a post about this the other day asking for clarification on how it should be pronounced, and that given the nature of the game and how you can practically do anything for no fucking good reason, the name of "Just [be]Cause" is more apt than it being a just cause for whatever the fuck he's doing. So now I say the former, regardless of what it should be.
No, it's not:
ヨッシー
the awesome thing about japanese is that pronunciation is unambigous. Yo (geminated consonant) Shii.
The ッ indicates a slight pause between characters. It's literally Yo-Shii.
I think I posted too close to going to bed and should have phrased it a bit better.
By, "When people say Yo-shi", I meant "Yo" as in how it sounds in "Yo-Yo", rhyming with "bow". Basically how this guy says it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLn2FqOhvFQ
TheOfficeMut
Unconfirmed Member
Pancakes R Us
Member
My wife does this just to piss me off, lol.
giant_frying_pan
Member
Laura Croft and 4za Motorsport.
R
Rösti
Unconfirmed Member
I pronounce bros. as /brʌːz/. Not /bɹoʊːz/. This has caused some confusion in certain conversations.
English. American, born and raised. They were simply mistaken.
Sort of a reverse example: Not a game specifically, but when people, in text, use "an" or "a" before an acronyn based upon the pronunciation of the acronym rather than the first word of the acronym.
"An SRPG" vs "A SRPG."
"An MMO," etc.
I mean, I get it because that's how one would say it aloud in conversation, but for some reason in text it always irks me even though I know it's probably the more proper usage given how often people familiar with acronyms actually pronounce them.
"An SRPG" vs "A SRPG."
"An MMO," etc.
I mean, I get it because that's how one would say it aloud in conversation, but for some reason in text it always irks me even though I know it's probably the more proper usage given how often people familiar with acronyms actually pronounce them.
What are you the language police?
Sorry, but if anyone is flaunting their ignorance, it's you.
It's only logical that imported words are adapted to English phonology. Even a basic Japanese such as 'Tokyo' is impossible to pronounce "properly" using standard English, the vowel required just doesn't exist in English and I imagine it would be hard for most people not to aspirate the t.
Loan words are usually derived from languages that have vowels or consonants that don't exist in the English langauge. Unless you have an superhuman command of your mouth and an extremely minute knowledge about the phonology of other languages, chances are you "mispronounce" several of the thousands of loan words in English every day.
Transferring pronounciation 1:1 is impossible to begin with so why be mad about it? That's the beauty of language. Most Japanese people can't pronounce 'coffee' and 'elevator', just like most English speakers (you included, most likely) can't pronounce 'sushi' and 'tsunami'. It's not due to ignorance, but muscle memory.
bizzarewars
Banned
Pokemon mispronunciation drives me nuts more than anything else. I have a buddy who pronounces Gyarados Jai-Ruh-Dose.
chromatic9
Member
Yeah, Lara is quite a rare name but nobody seems to have a problem saying Lara here. Maybe an accent flow thing.
With regards to Zangief, are we saying it's actually like Zan-jeef. I always said it as Zan-Geef, a strong G sound as in Gate, Grass. Zanjeef doesn't flow to well.
Have to admit that Ryu for me since the 80s as a child has been Ry-u or Ry-ooh but I've heard it said all kinds and in Japan it's said like Row is it not? Also the Ry-ooh is not a long ooh sound, Ry-u doesn't convey the sound.to well.
Airola
Member
Xenobalde sounds like a hair product and Xenbolade is clearly a shaving product.
chromatic9
Member
Or Snow Brothers said as Snow Bros.
Street Fighter has a few odd ones for me. Guile, for some reason the split second I saw the name I read it as something like Gully or Gullie. My mind was probably trying force into being a normal name rather than simply guile.
Makes sense but it kind of destroy the intended spelling.
I, for one, stay true to how, in advent of a Japanese game, Japanese pronounce their shit. They spelled XBX "ゼノブレイドクロス" on the artwork (romanized: zenobureido kurosu - Xenoblade Cross). I don't say to strictly follow how Japanese say things for localization, that would be insane. My concerns is strictly for the pronounciation of X/× for Japanese games.
AlphaDragoon
Member
Except it's not. But keep making excuses to say it wrong if that works for you.
I'm particular about learning correct pronunciation of names as my twin brother had to go through dumbasses not being able to say his name (Ian) correctly all his life. So even when it's uncomfortable for me because I learned it one way, once I learn the right one I switch.
And Aerith's name is Aerith. Not Aeris. It's not a lisp, it's not an error. It's her actual name. They messed up the translation in original FFVII. Some people go, "yeah but I grew up with Aeris so it's that, I don't go by Japanese versions". Fine. Except they fixed it in every other FFVII game (and Kingdom Hearts) featuring her. In English. That means that logically, her name is Aerith. Sorry.
Wow...
balladofwindfishes
Member
To this day, the Pokemon Stadium announce mispronouncing Ekans bothers me
Oh, it's EE-Kans
Literally in the game, the Pokemon itself says its own name, properly, as eh-kans.
Mario Party annoyed me with this. It pronounces Yoshi as "Yosh-ee" which sounds so off and wrong and was fixed in later games.
Yoshi says its own name. So there's no way it can misinterpreted. He says it, clearly, as "Yo-Shi"
Oh, it's EE-Kans
Literally in the game, the Pokemon itself says its own name, properly, as eh-kans.
Mario Party annoyed me with this. It pronounces Yoshi as "Yosh-ee" which sounds so off and wrong and was fixed in later games.
Yoshi says its own name. So there's no way it can misinterpreted. He says it, clearly, as "Yo-Shi"
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