Pronunciation

M

ManDudeChild

Member
So I'm at the EB the other day looking for a copy of Burnout 3 with ZERO luck, when this guy walks up to the counter and asks if they have a copy of "Doo Sex: Invisible War" (Deus Ex) in. Then guy then replies that they don't have a copy of "Doo Sex: Invisible War" in. It got me thinking of all the other stupid pronunciation problems relating to gaming. Some of the ones I can think of are.

Eidos
Common Error (for some reason): Idios

Deus Ex
WTF: Doo Sex

Ninja Gaiden
Error: Ninja Gay-Den

I'm sure there are more. Anyone else run into these screwed up errors?
 
I thought that was the way to pronounce deus ex....and ninja gaiden (and id).
Teach me the ways of proper grammar!
 
robot said:
I thought that was the way to pronounce deus ex....and ninja gaiden (and id).
Teach me the ways of proper grammar!
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Maken X on dreamcast taught me that it's "day-us ecks". I know shit about latin, though.

Edit: Yeah, that gaiden explanation is a lot better.
 
EY-gee AH-o-noo-muh

One thing that I heard most customers never get right is Suikoden.
I can't imagine anyone most people getting Katamari Damacy right on the first try, either.
Most people say Enix as ee-nicks, but that's pretty understandable.
 
And it is "Tie-ko" Drum Master, not "Tay-ko" Drum Master right?
For the longest time when I was really young I called Ryu - "Rye-yoo".

I'll think of some more. I hate not knowing the right way to pronounce things.
 
It's very technical/petty: the initial E is soft.
eh-nicks.

And that Namco drum game is Tie-ko no TA-tsoo-jin.
 
JasoNsider said:
And it is "Tie-ko" Drum Master, not "Tay-ko" Drum Master right?
For the longest time when I was really young I called Ryu - "Rye-yoo".

I'll think of some more. I hate not knowing the right way to pronounce things.
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Yeah, Taiko = "Tie ko".

Just to clarify dog$ phonetic a bit, "eh jee ah oh new mah" The "e" in "Eiji" is pronounced with a flat "e" as in "egg", not with an "ay" sound as in "cafe"

i'm sure there's a basic Japanese pronunciation page somewhere that outlines this stuff. Once you get it down, it's easy to break words into syllables and correctly pronounce most things.

And yeah, i still call Ryu "rye yoo". It's nostalgic and besides, no one will play with my when i pronounce the characters' names properly. ^_^
 
Back in the early SFII days a ton of people used to mispronounce Ryu, Guile & Bison's names.

Guile (correct pronunciation: gile - ie rhymes with mile)
I heard "gill-ee" ALOT.

Bison (correct pronunciation: bye-son)
You'd be surprised how many people called him Bee-son.

Ryu (correct pronunciation: ree-yu)
The classic Rye-you. People still do this >_<
 
Wow, this is a very informative topic. Thanks guys. Someone start a FAQ here. So far we have:

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-karuga" with a shortened "eek".

How about Hyrule and Ocarina? I pronounce them "High rule" and "Oh carina" (instead of "awe carina".)
 
XS+ said:
I remember pronouncing Ys as 'Whys' back in the day.
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That's how I pronounce it :(. What is the real way?

Seriously, we need to get all this stuff straightened out here and now. Leave your pride at the door and admit if you don't know how to pronounce something.
 
aoi tsuki said:
Just to clarify dog$ phonetic a bit, "eh jee ah oh new mah" The "e" in "Eiji" is pronounced with a flat "e" as in "egg", not with an "ay" sound as in "cafe"
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Sounds to me like you're forgetting the I in Eiji, though? Like... he's not Eji.

I think dog$ was closer, I have to say.
 
The Japanese titles (titles consisting of Japanese syllables) are easier if you just get to understand Japanese phonetics. Which bring us to Nightshade...
 
Okay, I've been compiling a bit of a list up top there.

Once again, is Hyrule "high-rule"? I've heard people say "hee-rule" which just baffles me. Also, is it "Oh-carina" or "awe-carina"? Can you think of any more common problems or mistakes?
 
jason - it's more like "awe-carina."

and i have no idea how "gradius" is supposed to be pronounced. obviously the katakana suggest a pronunciation, but that's not much use with what's meant to be a latin-sounding name. the word's been pronounced by narrators in various games, but always differently. in gradius gaiden it's "gruh-DEE-us." as a kid i always called it "GRAY-dee-us." supposedly the title is a play on the word "gladius," which would suggest the pronunciation "GRAD-ee-us." i really have no idea.
 
aku:jiki said:
Sounds to me like you're forgetting the I in Eiji, though? Like... he's not Eji.

I think dog$ was closer, I have to say.
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the I is pronounced as an extension of the E, so he was correct. Japanese vowels are shorter than English and are extended by duplicates, but E is extended by I and O is extended by U.

The vowels should sound similar to Spanish, Italian, and other (non-French) Romance languages.

A= aaah!
I= me
U= soup
E= eight (without I sound)
O= boat
 
Diomedeskun said:
the I is pronounced as an extension of the E, so he was correct. Japanese vowels are shorter and are extended by duplicates, but E is extended by I and O is extended by U.
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Wait, so is it "Eh ee jee" or "Eh jee"?
 
How about that Square fighting game Ehrgeiz? That was one that customers always seemed to have difficulty with when I worked at Software Etc. In fact, I would often have fun with them over the phone by pretending to not know what game they were talking about and make them repeat the name multiple times. I'm such a prick.

Either way, I always assumed it was pronounced "Air-guys" but I could be wrong...
 
drohne said:
jason - it's more like "awe-carina."
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My brain asplode. Are you bloody serious? This is like how I was pronouncing Hermione as it is written when reading Harry Potter then seeing the movie and going "Her my oh knee?"
 
JasoNsider said:
Wait, so is it "Eh ee jee" or "Eh jee"?
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More like Eh jee, but with the eh being longer, and the Jee being shorter.

Seriously guys, google some Japanese pronunciation page with audio clips of all vowels. Japanese vowels always sound the same no matter where in a word they are (except for i and u, which are sometimes almost not pronounced).
 
yeah, i'm perfectly bloody serious. it's a real instrument, you know. and that's how it's pronounced.

speaking of head a-sploding pronunciations, though, it kills me that the announcer in street fighter games calls zangief "ZAHN-gee-eff." NOOOOOO! it's "zan-GEEF!"
 
drohne said:
and i have no idea how "gradius" is supposed to be pronounced. obviously the katakana suggest a pronunciation, but that's not much use with what's meant to be a latin-sounding name.
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Katakana pronounces foreign words almost precisely how a foreign word was intended to be pronouced (within the confines of the limited-at-times Japanese phonetic lingo). I wouldn't say it's not much use; Katakana isn't 100% conclusive to the proper pronounciation of a given word but it points you very closely in the right direction.

Oh and I'm all but certain it's GRAD-ee-us.
 
Back in the day, my friends and I used to pronounce "Gaiares" as "GARE-eez" ("gare" rhymes with "care"). That was until we saw the magazine ad with the correct pronunciation, that being "Guy-Are-Us". Weird. :P
 
I know it's a real instrument. My nephew has one. Even the clerk at the music store called it an "oh-carina" :(. Wow, I'm glad we're doing this.

Also, after watching that BBC thing, I noticed the reporter was calling Yamauchi "Yama-oo-chi", where I normally say "Ya-mo-chi. Which one is right?
 
Oh btw who remembers the old Genesis shooter GUY-REEZ?! (actually it's Guy-Awe-Rez aka Gaiares)

EDIT: Loki stole my thunder!!
 
JasoNsider said:
I know it's a real instrument. My nephew has one. Even the clerk at the music store called it an "oh-carina" :(. Wow, I'm glad we're doing this.

Also, after watching that BBC thing, I noticed the reporter was calling Yamauchi "Yama-oo-chi", where I normally say "Ya-mo-chi. Which one is right?
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Closer to Yama-oo-chi (again, with a shorter oo sound).
 
EDIT: Ack not again

Alright, who here knows how to pronounce 'Ikaruga' correctly? Winner gets a Twinkie.
 
Diomedeskun said:
the I is pronounced as an extension of the E, so he was correct. Japanese vowels are shorter than English and are extended by duplicates, but E is extended by I and O is extended by U.
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...and A is extended by A, U by U... i'm bad at phonetically spelling foreign words :(

Ocarinas (awk a rina?) are definitely real. i remember a seeing one in museum exhibit several years back, and i later knew a girl who made on in pottery class. Wouldn't have known what it was without Zelda:OOT.

And while on the subject, "mah ree oh" or "may ree oh"?
 
This thread is blowing my mind. I'm very happy to get some of these sorted out.

I pronounce Ikaruga as "eye-karuga" for some weird reason. It should be read as "ick-aruga" if you just read it naturally, but somehow I just started calling it the former.
 
Gradius is almost certainly a mistranslation of the Latin word Gladius as L and R are the same in Japanese. Not that that is necessarily how Gradius is now pronounced.
 
JasoNsider said:
This thread is blowing my mind. I'm very happy to get some of these sorted out.

I pronounce Ikaruga as "eye-karuga" for some weird reason. It should be read as "ick-aruga" if you just read it naturally, but somehow I just started calling it the former.
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not ick, but eek (shortened a little). The English short I sound is derived from German and not a very common sound worldwide.
 
Speaking of Gradius, how come it also says Nemesis on the Japanese MSX cover? I always thought Nemesis was just the name of the series in Europe.
 
I did a pronunciation thread on GAF ages ago. It was to ask what the pronunciation of Aoi was (apparantly like Owwie, like if you banged your knee you go 'owwie, it hurts').

It was there that I also learnt that the -e in Kage is pronounced and not like an english final -e. I probably wouldn't have taken so long over figuring that one out if I hadn't been thrown off by Lion, which I take to be a misreading of Leon and pronounce accordingly. So I took Kage as a take on 'cage', as in bars and stuff, which made sense to me given how closely related cages and martial arts tournaments are, at least according to pop culture.

Also with Akira I used to pronounce it with a longer -i- but I've taken to shortening it, which I'm assuming is the more correct pronunciation.

And I pronounce Ikaruga as 'ayecarumba'. Longer words I tend not to fuss over the pronounciation unless I really have to (and not just japanese words either).
 
How about Ico? I'm almost 100% sure that it's "ee-co" but there's always some dumbfuck saying "eye-co" to me.
 
The list thus far:

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"


I know there are more. Certainly Japanese names of some sort.
 
"ikaruga" is an actual japanese word...i remember a bunch of message board discussions when it was first announced. iirc it's a type of bird, or the name of a small town, or possibly both. so it's pronounced as it's spelled. to american ears it'd be something like "ee-KAH-roo-gah." but all the syllables are really short, and the accent isn't very strong.

and i don't trust the katakana spelling of "gradius" simply because the word contains several phonemes that are unpronounceable in japanese. i'm not calling it goo-rah-jee-oos. but point taken about katakana as a guide.

edit: actually, i think gradius is spelled with the compound "di" kana rather than "ji." still, the katakana doesn't really give us the proper vowel sounds.
 
Minotauro said:
How about Ico? I'm almost 100% sure that it's "ee-co" but there's always some dumbfuck saying "eye-co" to me.
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Good question. From that other thread, I kind of deduced that it was "ee-co" because of the "Ni + Ico" connection.
 
Minotauro said:
How about Ico? I'm almost 100% sure that it's "ee-co" but there's always some dumbfuck saying "eye-co" to me.
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The one in bold is correct

any other pronouciations are lies goddamn LIES
 
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