Pronunciation Q&A

[§ Gideon §]

Hey, guys. We're at a point in gaming history where voice acting is becoming the norm. Maybe someday, threads like this will be obsolete LOL.

Anyway, the topic is "Pronunciation Q&A," and we're going to put our heads together and settle some things. If there's a video game term--no matter how obscure--and you want to know how to say it, just ask. We'll all do our best to answer.

I'd like to start out with one that should be easy: Zebes. I've always said this as "ZEB-ehs" without thinking twice about it. Then, I read somewhere that the PAL version of Metroid Prime 2 has voice-overs. And "Zebes" is in there. Could it be "Zeebs"? That sounds so much more... geeky LOL.

[Cryomancer]

I said Zebes as Zeebs, I'd assume there is a "proper" greek maybe way of pronouncing this?

Ys is a good one, it's like "ease", I think?

For some reason I used to say Arkanoid as Arakanoid and it rubbed off on my girlfriend. oops.

There are a ton more I can't think of offhand too...

[The-Bavis]

I always said "Zee-bees" in my head, but never had a reason to say that word out loud.

[davidbrit2]

It's pronounced Throatwobbler-Mangrove.

(Yes, I'm going to keep using that tired old joke.)

Anyway, if anybody needs help pronouncing a Japanese word or title or whatever, read here: http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/~furue/jp-pron.html

[Wavelflack]

I can't say that I've ever heard of someone pronouncing Zebes with two syllables.

I DID have a friend who had numerous problems pronouncing SF2 character names. Dhalsim came out as "doll-hossum", Guile was "Gweel", and Zangief was "Zangrief". This drove me nuts.

I also routinely encounter "ro-maine noodles" (ramen noodles), "Tai-ken" (Tekken), and of course "Nucular". I really hate "nucular".

I think I went off topic for a minute...

[Promophile]

I also routinely encounter "ro-maine noodles" (ramen noodles), "Tai-ken" (Tekken), and of course "Nucular". I really hate "nucular".

I think I went off topic for a minute...

Nucluar doesn't bug me too badly, but Ro-maine noodles does. Thats how my dad pronounces it :roll: . also there is no L sound in Japaneese so often the L sounds like "Erya".

[GarrettCRW]

also there is no R in Japaneese so they are pronounced Lamen.

You have it reversed-there's no L in Japanese.

[Wavelflack]

As far as linguistics go, they seem to reverse the sounds. "I rove you velly much" (etc.)

[Promophile]

also there is no R in Japaneese so they are pronounced Lamen.

You have it reversed-there's no L in Japanese.

Doh yeah. Sorry hectic day and I'm out of it.

[§ Gideon §]

Zebes is actually a sort of goof in translation; it was supposed to be Zebeth. So, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the way I've been doing it (2 syllables). Someone'll show up who's played the PAL version...


I DID have a friend who had numerous problems pronouncing SF2 character names. Dhalsim came out as "doll-hossum", Guile was "Gweel", and Zangief was "Zangrief". This drove me nuts.
How did he proncounce "Ryu"?

[Wavelflack]

He pronounced it "Rye-oo", just like I do. "Roo!" sounds completely fucking homoerotic. I refuse to acknowledge the announcer's chosen pronunciation. He's wrong.

[davidbrit2]

also there is no R in Japaneese so they are pronounced Lamen.

You have it reversed-there's no L in Japanese.

There's no ANY Roman letters in Japanese - we just approximate their phonemes with the letters we have. ;-) Most of the consonants are nearly identical, but some cause a few hangups. The closest things to our 'R' and 'L' in Japanese almost sound like a peculiar mix of 'L' and 'D'. And there's nothing in Japanese that's exactly like an 'F' sound. The closest you get is the FU/HU syllable, where the first consonant is produced kind of like whistling without an actual whistle. But the lips don't touch the upper teeth like an English speaker would expect.

The "correct" pronunciation of "Ryu" is best approximated in English as "DYOO", all as one quick syllable, believe it or not. It's kind of a softened 'D' sound, though.

[Wavelflack]

I guess the japanese are just fucked in the head. They should get a real language.

At any rate, once japanese names and/ or text are "translated" into roman characters, I claim no further responsibility for straightening out their phonetic shortcomings. Ergo, "Ryu" will be pronounced as "Ry-u", and not "Roo." It most definitely will not be pronounced with a "D", nor an "L", nor percussive expression, nor blink code. If they haven't figured out how to approximate a "D" phoneme in the English language, then I'm not going to waste my time correcting for such a shortsighted culture.

[Veepa]

I've always pronounced Zebes as "zee-bus"... Sounds kind of like Jesus... And I've always wondered, is Blanka pronounced "blank-uh" or "blonk-uh".. I've always said "blonk-uh"...

[Milk]

On another note, I hate the handful of fanboys I've seen who insisted on calling that creepy Castlevania chap "Arucard".

[Cthulhu]

If you think you guys are annoyed with the Japanese R/L sound, you should see how the Japanese themselves struggle with it. Most of my kids who have studied English for three years (I'm a middle school English teacher) still can't say (or even hear the difference between) "right" and "light." It's really discouraging. For them and for me. LOL

[Promophile]

Hehe I love hearing Japaneese people say English words. My fav is in Evangelion episode 4 I believe, when they talk about the USS OVER THE RAINBOW.

[Veepa]

Heh... when a Japanese person trys to say "election" he says "erection"..heheh... That's hilarious.

[InsaneDavid]

Since Zebes is going nowhere now, I'll toss in a new word - Gradius.

GRAD-I-us - I've been told this is the correct way to say it.

Grey-dee-us - This seems to be the way most of the people I've known pronounce it.

Graw-dee-us - This is what I've always used although I know it's incorrect.

Also I've Ys as "ease" or "eeece" - doesn't matter, if you care enough to actually sit down and play that wonderfully underrated series then either is fine. :D

[Aussie2B]

Since Zebes is going nowhere now, I'll toss in a new word - Gradius.

GRAD-I-us - I've been told this is the correct way to say it.

Grey-dee-us - This seems to be the way most of the people I've known pronounce it.

Graw-dee-us - This is what I've always used although I know it's incorrect.

Also I've Ys as "ease" or "eeece" - doesn't matter, if you care enough to actually sit down and play that wonderfully underrated series then either is fine. :D

I recall reading that according to one of the games (Gradius Gaiden, I believe?), the pronunciation is "Grud-ee-us". But because that's totally and utterly lame, I say "Grad-ee-us"/"Grey-dee-us" interchangeably.

As for Zebes, if you want to go by katakana, it's: "ze-be-su", or "zeh-behs" for us English folk ("zeh-beth" could be correct as well). I'm accustomed to saying it like "Zeh-bees", though.

[Mayhem]

Zee-bez here myself LOL

And Grey-dee-us also...

[Veepa]

I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..
I'm going to injure someone...

[Flack]

I remember one time my friend telling me about this new fighting game, "Tee-kin".

[NeoZeedeater]

Hearing "Doos Ex" for Deus Ex is a little annoying. It's "Day Us Ex".

[MegaDrive20XX]

I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..
I'm going to injure someone...

Same here dude, that drives me nuts or the one that sounds like "May-Re-O" WTF did you get MAY from?? I'll smack them back to MARCH!

Tidus Vs. Teedus from FF10...that got on my nerves

Mana Vs. Mayna <--- which is it?

Ninja Gaiden Vs. Ninja "GUYDEN"...Man I don't know how many times this one has been mispronounced and I still don't know which is right!

[Promophile]

Ninja Gaiden Vs. Ninja "GUYDEN"...Man I don't know how many times this one has been mispronounced and I still don't know which is right![/quote]

Pretty sure its guyden.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Same here, I heard "GaiDen once said on G4 and I was like "That's not right....I'm gonna burn down G4...they took my stapler...."

[Mayhem]

Japanese pronounciation (as it's a Japanese word) would be "guy-dehn".

("e" is pronounced "eh" and "i" is pronounced "ee". Together it sounds very similar to "eye".)

[The_EniGma]

I still wanna know how to pronounce suikoden

"sue weak o den?"

:embarrassed:

[robotriot]

What really annoyed me was back in school, people used to pronounce "Tomb Raider" in German (similar to bomb, but with a p at the end), that sounds really dumb. Eventually, they learned it though ^^

[davidbrit2]

I still wanna know how to pronounce suikoden

"sue weak o den?"

:embarrassed:

Check that Japanese pronunciation guide link I posted a ways back. The syllables end up being divided something like this:

SU-I-KO-DE-N

[Mayhem]

Pretty much sooee-koh-dehn

[Cryomancer]

I've always said swee-ko-den but who knows. On that note, how about the classic:

Suicune. I say swee-cune, I've heard it su-wee-cune, and about 50 other ways.

[§ Gideon §]

Well, this isn't going as planned. It looks like we've all got questions but no answers! LOL

C'mon, nobody has played the PAL version of Metroid Prime 2 at least?

This sort of thing has (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54810&highlight=pronunciation) happened (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25610&highlight=pronunciation) before (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47661&highlight=pronunciation). Maybe it's best if we all come up with our own interpretations. LOL

[pragmatic insanester]

i am so horrible. i'm always saying "ninja gay den", and for a laugh, there's a SFC game called "death brade". every time i see it on ebay i use the kim jong il voice from team america.

[rbudrick]

ARGGHHH. We have entire threads dedicated to some of these words...it is painful in the fullest to see some of these beaten to death again.


Ys is a good one, it's like "ease", I think?

Pretty much, but make sure you pronounce the s like an s, not a z.

-ROb

[vintagegamecrazy]

how about Atelier Iris?

[FantasiaWHT]

My boss... who is a moron... keeps saying "Alter Iris"

uh-TE-lee-ur ?

at-lee-ur ?

ate-leer ?

I'll ad my own...

Growlanser.

Is it Grow-lancer?

Or Growl-answer?

[robotriot]

I know how to pronounce it, but no idea how to express that in English ;) Probably something like "uh-tell-yeh"

Atelier = French for "studio"

[digitalpress]

Probably something like "uh-tell-yeh"

That's the way I'd pronounce it, or more like "ahh-tell-yay".

[MarHel78]

I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..
I'm going to injure someone...

Well, that's the perfect Italian/German pronounciation. And after all, he's an Italian plumber. What would you expect?! @_@

[robotriot]

I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..
I'm going to injure someone...

Well, that's the perfect Italian/German pronounciation. And after all, he's an Italian plumber. What would you expect?! @_@

mar-ee-o would be perfect, not marE ;)

[MarHel78]

Hi Robotriot, didn't know, you're here, too... 8-)

If you look closely, there's the "o" at the end:


I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..

[robotriot]

Hi Robotriot, didn't know, you're here, too... 8-)

If you look closely, there's the "o" at the end:


I've heard Mario pronounced mare-ee-o.. That annoys me..

Hehe, invasion of the MK-community ;)

Yea, I didn't talk about the "o" either. Look closely:

mar-ee-o
mare-ee-o [German pronounciation: märio]

[SamuraiSmurfette]

One that's always got me, and I'm sure there's an easy answer.

ICO.

I've always said eye-ko, but now, I'm pretty sure eee-ko is correct.

Also, anyone who caught the EP interview with Konami about Wanda and the Colossus: They pronounce it both ways :\

After hearing 'Wanda's codename being Nico (ni being Japanese for 2) It makes sense in a roll-your-eyes kinda pun way.

also...which is the proper way to spell:
Collosseum? Coloseum? Colosseum? Each game uses it differently.

[Spycee]

That's the way I'd pronounce it, or more like "ahh-tell-yay".
You are close to the right pronunciation. Here is how I pronounce this (in french) : http://www.geocities.com/spyceeap/Atelier.wav

[Ed Oscuro]

Ninja Gaiden Vs. Ninja "GUYDEN"...Man I don't know how many times this one has been mispronounced and I still don't know which is right!

Pretty sure its guyden.[/quote]
Yeah.

There's a shit CD-i shooter out there named "Tetsuo Gaiden," only problem is they pronounce it "gay den." Of course, that feels about right when you PLAY the damn thing.

Other pronounciations I hang onto:

Gray-de-us (UGH at other pronounciations, even if Needle does it grah-di-us I'll never accept that)

ICO - Eye-co, even if it should eeko. :(

Growl-anser, but it runs together...

Zebes - Zeebs (Zebeth?)

Ryu - Rye-oo; I never used to do it this way, but it's correct.

Have a TANK LORRY! *MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA*

[§ Gideon §]

I've always said eye-ko, but now, I'm pretty sure eee-ko is correct.
For what it's worth*, I've heard it pronounced "ee-koh" on G4.

* not much.

[Avenger]

theres a guy i know who pronounces Lumines as "Loo Moons"....where the hell did he get Loo Moons from? @_@

and a girl who says P2 instead of PS2....its not really pronounciation but PUT THE S IN THERE!

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh, here's another one I really hate:

SNEZ. Not Super N-E-S, or "sness," but SNEZ. FUCK THAT ARRGH

I have a coworker who pronounces it that way. It's just a bit irritating to me.

[Red Hedgehog]

Oh, here's another one I really hate:

SNEZ. Not Super N-E-S, or "sness," but SNEZ. FUCK THAT ARRGH

I have a coworker who pronounces it that way. It's just a bit irritating to me.

I had a friend who pronounced NES and SNES as the English words "knees" and "sneeze". To be fair, he did do it a bit tongue-in-cheek.

[dbiersdorf]

How do you pronounce Klonoa?

[dreams]

For what its worth, this is how I pronounce things that were mentioned:

Zebes: zeebs
Dhalsim: DOLL-seam
Guile: GUY-ll
Zangief: zan-GEEF
Ryu: REE-oo
Blanka: BLAHNK-uh
Gradius: GREY-dee-us
Ys: ease (although I used to call it "wise" before I was taught differently)
Suikoden: SWEE-ko-den
Suicune: SWEE-cyuun
Atelier Iris: uh-TELL-ee-a EYE-ris
Growlanser: GROW-lancer
Ico: EYE-ko

Yes, some are the right way, some the wrong. :)

As someone mentioned earlier - Lumines.

Is it LOO-mines or LOO-min-ess. I pronounce it the second way (probably wrongly). :P

[Ed Oscuro]

Ys: ease (although I used to call it "wise" before I was taught differently)
How so? I know how it's pronounced in Spanish, but then you wouldn't have the s.

[studvicious]

This one has always stumped me, and no I will not say how I pronounce it LOL "Ocarina"

I guess I could check Webster..


*Edit*

I was WWAAAAAAAAAYY off LOL
http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ocarin01.wav=ocarina

[Ed Oscuro]

Oka-Reena (Yay Rina)!

[§ Gideon §]

I was WWAAAAAAAAAYY off LOL
http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ocarin01.wav=ocarina
Is that... Peter Parker?

[studvicious]

O_O .. I don't understand.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Heres one:
Is Super Mario Bros (as in "Not a Bra, but A Bro) or Super Mario Brothers.

And while were on that, is it Mario or Mawrio?

Or Ocarina or Awcarina?

I say Brothers, Mario and Ocarina... a friend of mine says them all the other way around.

[phreak97]

whoever related zebes to the katakana spelling, alot of words use half syllables and things.. so both zeebs and zeeb-ehs are spelled ZuIIBeSu.
although, looking at it.. zeeb-ehs would probably be spelled ZuIIBEESu
(forget english pronounciation for katakana.. I = EE sound, E = e sound.. like the e in bed. to make things easier, the sounds i believe are silent are in lower case.

so, while trying to say it's too hard to tell the difference via japanese, i kinda proved it was zeebs.. lol.


most names from japanese games, like mario etc, can be split up into parts to get the pronounciation.. ma ri o.. or FREAKING YO-SHI as in the YO from YON (also japanese) you cant even freaking say yo as in yo-yo in japanese..

alot of pronounciation is altered by the accent of the person.. an american is hardly going to pronounce things the same as me, an australian.

if i was saying deus ex, i'd say dyoos ex, which with an australian accent, is almost the same as saying juice ex. i doubt it's the same with all accents though.

i say grad-ee-us

L/R = in romaji, it is written RA RI RU RE RO there is no L

ocarina = oc a ree na

with the reversal of sounds mentioned, i think that may be more other asian backgrounds than japanese.. japanese people tend to use the same sound for r and l..

[davidbrit2]

or FREAKING YO-SHI as in the YO from YON (also japanese) you cant even freaking say yo as in yo-yo in japanese..

Hmm, you lost me on that one. Unless the Australian pronunciation of "yo-yo" is radically different from the US pronunciation, that's precisely how the YO syllable in Japanese sounds. The O syllables sound like the 'o' in 'open', and the A syllables sound like the 'o' in 'baton'.

[§ Gideon §]

Here are some e-mails I got recently that made me think of this discussion:

Zebes

Hello and thank you for contacting Nintendo,

You have an interesting question! While we don't have an official pronunciation available, most people around our Consumer Service Department pronounce Zebes as [choice] "C" (ZEEbz).

Gradius

There is not an official way to say the title. It can be pronounced whichever way you desire.

Therefore, I will pronounce "Gradius" as "Super Mario 7" and none of you can stop me. Also, it seems I lose the battle over "Zebes"... for now.

[snes_collector]

Ok, the correct way of saying Ys was put in Nintendo Power a couple years back. I seem to remember them putting it as "Yeez" but I could be totally wrong. I say it "Yeas" but whatever. If anyone wants to check it's in the RPG section, what the was talking about a Ys game being ported to GBA(did it ever come out in the US?)

Also, I've always wondered how you say Ikargua(is that even spelled right) so I'd like to know it.

[davidbrit2]

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-80-1-70-1292.html

The Katakana (in bold red) indicate the name would be pronounced something like the English spelling "ees" or maybe "eez" depending on whether or not they're implying a plural (I kind of doubt it).

Ikaruga is just standard Japanese pronunciation, so look that up and you'll be all set.

[Vectorman0]

What's the deal with Coleco and/or Colecovision?

Everybody pronounces it co-lee-co and not co-le-co (le as in leg).

It was the Connecticut Leather Company, not Leether company.

Arghhh!!

[Cryomancer]

I always assumed Gradius is pronounced like gladius only with an r.


As for the Coleco.... Service Games doesn't exactly compute into Sega. But that's interesting. I also just checked a couple old ads and they say Co-lee-co as well. That's a good one for debate.

[j_factor]

How about Shenmue. I've always pronounced the latter syllable as mew/mieu, but everyone else says Shenmoo. I've heard shenmooeh, but that's just silly.

[k8track]

What's the deal with Coleco and/or Colecovision?

Everybody pronounces it co-lee-co and not co-le-co (le as in leg).

It was the Connecticut Leather Company, not Leether company.

Arghhh!!

Definitely "co-lee-co". If it were "co-leh-co", I would think it would be spelled colecko to preserve the short "e" sound.

Phonetically, looking at the "ec" part, that's a VC+E pattern (vowel-consonant + basic ending, i.e. in this case "eco") which usually predicts a long sound (in this case, a long "e" sound).

Yet in the "Sega" example, we see that this logic doesn't work--it's definitely "Seh-ga" and not "See-ga". Most likely because it looks very similar to the word (prefix) "mega".

Another argument in favor of the long "e" sound in Coleco, using the "lookalike/soundalike" reasoning, is when you see that combination of "eco" you think of the prefix eco, as in ecosystem.

However, the bottom line is that, with proper names, the usual pronunciation guidelines go out the window and cannot be predicted accurately, hence this lovely debate. (And of course you can't apply English pronunciation guidelines to non-English words.)

[Sparkster]

I pronounce them

Zebes: Zeb-us
Ryu: Rye-oo
Gradius: Gray-dee-us
Mario: Maw-ree-oh
Gaiden: Gay-den

Here's one: Tengen

[Truffle]

Heres one I often here misspoken: Poke'mon!

I hear most people say this word wrong, even with and the cartoons and commercials on TV saying it correctly.
I have heard it pronounced:

1) Poke-ee-mon

2) Poke-uh-mon

2) Poke-ee man


Is everyone in America illiterate any more? Its Poke-ay-mon or Po-kay-mon and is spelled as such.

[Pantechnicon]

From Soul Calibur: I question the proper pronunciation of "Sophitia". Should it be "So-phee-tee-ah" or should it be "So-phee-sha"? I know that the game series uses the former pronunciation, but there's plenty of precedent for the latter:

partially - par-sha-lee
Portia - por-sha
Titian - tee-shan

Seems like more often than not that a "tia" becomes a soft "sha" sound.

[Guy Bramsworth]

Klonoa - Clo-no
Gradius - Grade-ee-us
Zebes - Zeebs
Tengen - ....Ten..gen?(hard G, not like in Genesis) :P

[psychic1]

I've had trouble pronouncing all of the games already mentioned in this topic.

Here are some more that I don't know how to pronounce.

Ehrgeiz
Einhander
Keio
Otogi
Ristar
Scheherazade
Sokyugurentai

[Damaramu]

I've had trouble pronouncing all of the games already mentioned in this topic.

Here are some more that I don't know how to pronounce.

Ehrgeiz
Einhander
Keio
Otogi
Ristar
Scheherazade
Sokyugurentai

Ehrgeiz - I always pronounced it "air-gates", which would be the proper German pronunication of the word, IIRC

Einhander - More German, right? "ein" is German for one, iirc. You know the contraction "I'm"? Like "I'm gonna go." ? Pronounce it like that, but replace the "m" with an "n" sound.

Keio - As far as I know, it's "kay-oh"

Otogi - "oh-toe-gi" <---hard "g" on that one

Ristar - Always heard it referred to as "rye-star"

Sokyugurentai - "soh-kyu-goo-rehn-tye"-----"kyu"= like "cute"

[Sparkster]

Scheherazade: skuh-hair-a-zad