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Pronunciation

Great. So is it "High-rule" or "hee-rule". I always pronounce it "high-rule" but I actually heard a couple people calling it the latter and it left me questioning.
 

Miburou

Member
This toptic reminds me. I went to some videostore that rents foreign movies, and I asked for "Bounce Koh-gals". The guy then tried to correct me by saying it's pronounced "K-O-gals". I told him he's wrong, it's Koh-gals, ko meaning kid. He got pretty pissed off, since he likes to act like he's the big expert on everything oriental.
 

RevenantKioku

PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Go try to reserve Shin Megami Tensei. Or just ask the clerk about it.

One guy at a store tried to tell me I was pronouncing "chocobo" wrong. He said it was "cha-ko-bo" or some shit.
 

Razoric

Banned
Uh it's not Id (eye-dee) Software? It's just id? wtf? I'll stick with the wrong pronunciation. Id sounds stupid as hell.
 
id n.
In Freudian theory, the division of the psyche that is totally unconscious and serves as the source of instinctual impulses and demands for immediate satisfaction of primitive needs.

This is what I figured the company is named after.

That is hilarious about "cha-ko-bo" :). You won't believe this, but I once knew someone who called Indiana Jones "anadee-ya jones"....I just said "did you even stop and read his name?"
 

dog$

Hates quality gaming
I'll correct myself on the Enix thing by being a bit more clear; the vowels change the inflection on it and just follow normal J pronunciation. I should have spelled it as "eh-neeks".

There's also plenty of other J words which tend to get mussed just because of the vowels.

Naruto - "narto"
Sakura (Sakura Wars, Card Captor Sakura, SF char.) - "Sakra". it sure as hell ain't Sah-koo-ruh.

And here's a real stickler: Billy Kane of KOF - the last name technically is read as "Khan".
 

XS+

Banned
dog$ said:
I'll correct myself on the Enix thing by being a bit more clear; the vowels change the inflection on it and just follow normal J pronunciation. I should have spelled it as "eh-neeks".

There's also plenty of other J words which tend to get mussed just because of the vowels.

Naruto - "narto"
Sakura (Sakura Wars, Card Captor Sakura, SF char.) - "Sakra". it sure as hell ain't Sah-koo-ruh.

And here's a real stickler: Billy Kane of KOF - the last name technically is read as "Khan".
'Narto?' 'Sakra?' I've never heard a Japanese speaker ever pronounce those words that way, dude. (it's properly pronounced Naru-toh and Saku-rah)
 

dog$

Hates quality gaming
Well the point I was making is that the U vowel in those words aren't held out like most people do.

Like I said, it ain't Sakooooooooora and it ain't Naroooooto.
 

XS+

Banned
dog$ said:
Well the point I was making is that the U vowel in those words aren't held out like most people do.

Like I said, it ain't Sakooooooooora and it ain't Naroooooto.
The U vowel in this context isn't silent at all.
 

Brofist

Member
XS+ said:
'Narto?' 'Sakra?' I've never heard a Japanese speaker ever pronounce those words that way, dude. (it's properly pronounced Naru-toh and Saku-rah)

Yeah that's about right.
 
Fos some reason I've always pronouced TENCHU as Ten-Koo instead of the more obvious way.

Also, what's the correct pronunciation of Eidos? I always thought it was I-does...
 

Meier

Member
The Naruto example is a terrible one, but yes Sakura can be pronounced almost like "Sakrah" in that the u is almost unintelligible but it's faintly there making "Sakurah" more correct.

It's nothing like "Sah koor ah" though which is what I thought it was many, many years ago.
 

bjork

Member
I work in an anime store, and people flub Naruto characters all the time...

Noo-rah-toh

Sa-koo-ra

Sa-soo-kee

Kah-kee-shi

Hoh-cridge

They call Iruka "Ikaruga" a lot too, oddly enough.

And everyone butchers Orochimaru...
 

Vlad

Member
What about Samus? I always thought it was "Sam-us", but I've heard it as "Sah-mus" enough times to make me wonder.
 

Acrylamid

Member
Minotauro said:
How about that Square fighting game Ehrgeiz?
Either way, I always assumed it was pronounced "Air-guys" but I could be wrong...
Almost right, but the z in the end is pronounced like in intermezzo:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=intermezzo (first version)
btw, it's the German word for ambition, if anyone cares. :)
PS: This thread rocks, it should be stickied!
PPS: Is there a way to write in phonetic transcription, maybe as a plugin for the forum software? It always confuses me when I try to understand the explanation for the pronounciations, mainly because each vowel has so many different sounds in English. :(
 

SaitoH

Member
Best one I've heard was from a woman wanting to buy "Die. Nasty. Warriors." I actually laughed when I realized what game she wanted.

^w^
 

Miburou

Member
There are laws that tell you when the 'u' and 'i' are almost not pronounced, although even then it depends on the speaker (some girls think it's cute to clearly pronounce the 'u' in "desu", for example).

For a long time I thought Shenmue was pronounced with a 'yu' sound at the end, and not 'oo'.
 

Miburou

Member
The first thing they teach you in Japanese class is that the vowels sound like they do in Spanish (and German, too, I guess).
 

M3wThr33

Banned
Aside from id and Deus Ex, most of these are just people not realizing the Japanese pronounciation of I. I took a Japanese college class and got a D. At least I learned some things about the language.
 

Gattsu25

Banned
JasoNsider said:
Eiji Aonuma - "eh jee ah oh new mah" with the first E being flat and slightly longer because of the 'I'.
Id - Read it as you see it. Not "eye-dee".
Deus Ex - "Day-us-ex"
Ninja Gaiden - Ninja "guy-den". Gaiden is used often in other titles. "Zelda Gaiden". Also applies to other words like "Taiko".
Enix - "Eh-nicks" ?
Ryu - "Ree yoo" not "Rye yoo".
Guile - "gile"
Ys - "Ease"
Ocarina- - Close to "awe-carina".
Yamauchi - Sounds like "Yama-oo-chi" with a short "oo".
Ikaruga - "ee-kah-roo-gah" with a shortened "eek".
Aoi - 'owwie, that hurts'
ICO - "ee-ko"

Eiji Aonuma - who? what?
id - cool...pronounced right afterall
Deus Ex - cool...pronounced right afterall
Ninja Gaiden - cool...pronounced right afterall
Enix - damn...assumed the E was hard
Guile - cool...pronounced right afterall
Ys - never needed to pronounce this...would have said it wrong anyway :b
Ocarina - cool...pronounced right afterall
Yamauchi - cool...pronounced right afterall
Ikaruga - cool...pronounced right afterall
Aoi - Never cared, unfortunately
ICO - had some trouble with this...only because all letters where in caps so I initially assumed it was an acronym
 

Kleegamefan

K. LEE GAIDEN
Isn't Kage (From Virtua Fighter) pronounced Ka-gay

And "id Software" is prounced like "did Software" without the first D :D
 

Dyne

Member
Kleegamefan said:
Isn't Kage (From Virtua Fighter) pronounced Ka-gay

And "id Software" is prounced like "did Software" without the first D :D

I swear I punch the next guy I hear say "Cage" at the arcade when I'm playing VF4: Evo.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Some of these wrong pronounciations are pretty funny :p

As for the ever elusive Hyrule, I've always said it as "High-rule". I haven't really heard a Japanese person pronounce it as of yet, maybe they could shed some light.

Even though most of the gaming pronounciations I use are correct, I still say "rye-yoo" simply because it has that certain nostalgic effect. I remember watching the SF anime about a decade or more ago and hearing Ken yell "hey ree-yoo!" I was like WTF.

And like the other guys said, Japanese vowel pronounciation isn't hard when you get the gist of it. Always wise not to drag the words like some English does.
Simple lesson;
ah - a
eh - e
ee - i
oh - o
oo - u
 

MrCheez

President/Creative Director of Grumpyface Studios
Okay so this isn't TOTALLY related as it doesn't necessarily have to do with pronunciation, but this thread reminded me of it...

One of my biggest pet peevs when working at EB (and there were a lot of them) was customers (and even my manager) who called Final Fantasy X or X-2 "Ecks" and "Ecks-Two". THEY ARE ROMAN NUMERALS GOD DAMN YOU ><
 
The biggest problem people seem to have is not just the sound of the vowel or the length, but the location of the accent. For example, many people who mispronounce sakura stress the second syllable: "saKUra", instead of the very light stress that it has on the first: SAkura. Japanese only accents very lightly, unlike most Western languages.

The misplaced accent is one of the most common ways to mess up any language, as I have noticed in native English speakers trying to speak Spanish all my life. Also, anyone who has trouble hearing accents in words should stay well clear of the 4 tones and no tone of Chinese.
 

Speevy

Banned
I saw a video game special in which Nintendo's former president was called "YomOuchi". Someone told him that. No one would have just guessed so incorrectly.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
JC10001 said:
Ryu (correct pronunciation: ree-yu)
The classic Rye-you. People still do this >_<

OH SHIT.

Well now, I've been doing that for lets see, 12-13 years, or whenever the hell SFII came out. As far as I am aware, every single person in NZ does this.
 

Justin Bailey

------ ------
SFII was the worst for me when I was like 11.

Ryu = Rye-yu
Guile = Gwillie
Dhalsim = Dahl-iz-em

Yeah I know i invented letters there, I'm lazy like that. Also I thought Luigi was pronounced Loogie when I first played SMB.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
I think this thread just ruined gaming for me :(

This reminds me of when I went for a holiday to the US, I was trying out some different beers and I said "Hey whats this one? Mish-el-obb"

Bastards laughed at me. how was I supposed to know you pronounce Michelob MICK-A-LOBE.

People in the south made fun of my accent. :(
 

dorikyasu

Member
bjork said:
Ha, I remember seeing "Ryu Hyabusa" in an old Nintendo Power, and I was like "Are you high a bus uh?"
That's hillarious. :lol
Can't have pronounciation thread without mentioning...

Hwoarang & Heihachi, 2 of my favorite Tekken characters that also happen to have some of the hardest names to pronounce correctly.
 

Neo_ZX

Member
What about Strafe or Strafing? Like the side-to-side motion in FPSes

Does it sound like STAFF with an 'r' or does it sound like SAFE with a 'tr'?
 
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