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Titles and names that people mispronounce
- Thread starter DiipuSurotu
- Start date
Even if you say Demon Souls normally it sounds the same as it's spelled.
The Planet Kashyyyk from Star Wars is pronounced differently in a few Star Wars games. In KOTOR 1 it is pronounced Ka-shik, whereas in games like say Fallen Order they say Kasheik. I can't even remember what is thr correct way to pronounce it, I assume the new games do it right.
I have to say, how some of the native-english speakers try to approximate how to pronounce vowels is confusing.
With that in mind, I don't know what's so difficult about Wolfenstein.
In most languages that uses the latin alphabet, the letter "i" is pronounced like the letter "e" in English. Native speakers of Frensh, Spanish, Polish, etc can correct me if I'm wrong.
Now, I have no idea where this is coming from: Wolf is one syllable, not "Vuh - elf". It's volf with IPA script [vɔlf], with ɔ as open o. In American English, the vowel in thought, ough, is pronounced the same way. The difference is, in Wolf it's a short, in thought a long vowel.
With that in mind, I don't know what's so difficult about Wolfenstein.
It just shows that an S sound followed by another separate S sound isn't preferable.
In Final Fantasy IX, many people think there is a location called Lifa Tree, but it's actually Iifa tree. Capital "i" and lowercase "L" look too damn similar, plus Lifa just works better than Iifa in English, so I got this one wrong for a while too. Doesn't help that some of the guides I'd use also got it wrong.
Mega Drive. Apparently, Yanks seem to think it's pronounced "Genesis", but that's total nonsense.
It's because of the vowel shift that happened in the English language a couple of hundred years ago.
Great Vowel Shift - Wikipedia
Though sometimes you can still hear the original sound of the vowels, e.g. when British people say "butcher" the "u" has the original u sound, or the a in "family".
When I is the first letter of the word? I'm struggling to find examples.
It's ENN-EEE-ESS!! Not "ness!" (I mean, it is, right?)
Also, I'm annoyed every time I see "Gameboy" rather than the correct name "Game Boy," and that happens a lot, even here. And every time I see "Mac"--short for Apple Macintosh--spelled in all caps like "MAC," I hear a guy shouting "MAC!!!" in my head. Argh.
There is no definitive way, according to this video released by the company itself:
The CEO actually says Ooo-bee-soft in French, but then says "In English, you can say you-bee-soft, or, you can pronounce it the way you want." I personally have always pronounced it ooo-bee-soft and that sounds right to me.
Also, I'm annoyed every time I see "Gameboy" rather than the correct name "Game Boy," and that happens a lot, even here. And every time I see "Mac"--short for Apple Macintosh--spelled in all caps like "MAC," I hear a guy shouting "MAC!!!" in my head. Argh.
There is no definitive way, according to this video released by the company itself:
The CEO actually says Ooo-bee-soft in French, but then says "In English, you can say you-bee-soft, or, you can pronounce it the way you want." I personally have always pronounced it ooo-bee-soft and that sounds right to me.
I really hate this one, considering water is the game's main motif.
for "i" pronounced like "e" in English as the initial (<---!! :P)?
Yes, and the spelling has not been reformed since then. It's redundant to call it a mess.It's because of the vowel shift that happened in the English language a couple of hundred years ago.
Great Vowel Shift - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Though sometimes you can still hear the original sound of the vowels, e.g. when British people say "butcher" the "u" has the original u sound, or the a in "family".
In English, "in", "is", "interesting", but not many. And I was talking about how most other languages pronounces the "i".
italian? igloo? interesting? incremental? anything with the prefix in~ or il~ (illogical, illuminate) basically :D
Speaking of which, isn't Sheik from Zelda supposed to be pronounced "shake," like the official pronunciation of the Arabic word ("Shaykh")? I know BOTW and the Smash games pronounce it as "sheek", but it still kinda bugs me.
Here's a video with the correct german pronunciation:
Video starts at 46s with the correct pronunciation:
In my head that's how I had to break it down when Alex (Dictator) was pronouncing it (compared to how John and Richard pronounce it now). "Vuh" is an Open "o" in my head. The lack of accents for a given letter in English alphabet, makes it difficult at times to convey how exactly vowels sound within a word. Furthermore, as was recently brought to my attention that much like English, German pronunciation varies within Germany itself. So regional variation notwithstanding, trying to mimic how Alex says the word was comparatively harder for me than how Richard and John now try to pronounce it.
As someone who got started learning German last year (w/o much external aid) intermittently, I have found certain words quite difficult to pronounce (granted they were not "Wolfenstein") to perfection esp. in quick succession as a native/veteran German speaker would while forming typical sentences.
He says it MAH-rio here, which is more in line with how I pronounce it (I'm British). Was always surprised when I was younger and I first heard that most Americans pronounce it MAR-rio.
Not saying either pronunciation is wrong. But MAR-rio still sounds weird to me to say out loud.
That was my complaint.
I don't really have an issue of mispronunciations of words in another language, Tsushima in particular isn't exactly intuitive to those who don't already know how to pronounce that particular sound in Japanese.
Yeah, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Greek
Well, the standard german pronunciation is straightforward. Regarding the dialects, the Bavarian dialect comes to my mind. For example, Wolf becomes Woif.
I really would suggest a teacher or a native speaker when the occasion allows for it.
German is a language full of consonant clusters, which can be really tricky. Yet, I don't think English is the easiest language to pronounce. Most foreign students start to learn it at a young age, so are used to it. I remember struggling with the word refrigerator in English class. Also, words with the ending -tibility, where I oftentimes pronounced too many i or would forget some lol. Sixth, squirrel, words with wr- or whole sentences where too many words begin with th-sounds knot my knot.
Du schaffst das schon, toi toi toi.
OP
OP
I assume it's emphasis on the initial vowel, à-kuma. not akooma.
that's just a whole bunch of Westerners not knowing how to pronounce or emphasize Japanese names or words.
Like every American I hear saying "HiDAYo KoJEEma" and "ShiGAYru MiyaMOto" ever
French and japanese share many sounds - and just by reading phonetically a japanese name or word, you can get it right most of the time.
Americans are usually trying to read things in an english way and from what I gathered with multiple threads on this forum, are usually very far from the original foreign pronunciation.
Hence the infamous ubisoft, mario or Tidus threads.