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[Ysarus]

Junon for example. Was it Jun-on, Ju-non or Yu-non

Looks like that may come from the name of the goddess Juno. I'd go with Ju-non.

4 pages and I haven't seen any Fire Emblem characters yet, so maybe it's just me.

FE7: mostly good. Bartre and Geitz I'm not 100% sure about, but most names in Elibe are obvious.

FE8: Oh boy. Eirika (I just ignore the first "i" most of the time), Innes (I usually say like "eins" like the German but with a softer ending), Ewan (ee-one, though I've heard you-en), Gerik (I use a soft G, though I've heard hard Gs used), L'arachel (I usually ignore the apostrophe and say "lara-kell", but the Japanese kana points to something like "larchel" or even Rachel). Among prominent enemies, Caellach comes to mind (I usually go with "kallack")

FE9: A few that have gotten me weird looks at times. Titania I've pronounced like tie-tay-ni-ah but have heard ti-tan-ya. Gatrie I use gah-tree though I've heard "gay-tree". Rhys I pronounce the same as Wrys, a healer from the Archanea games (FE1,11,12) which can get confusing since Rhys is also a healer. I pronounce them both like "wrist" without the terminal t (his Japanese version doesn't help because his name in Japanese is "Kilroy"). There's also Zihark which get crazy at times and I pronounce as is (zee-hark) and usually requires clarification. Muarim is also sometimes confusing (Mu-are-im vs mar-im). Then there's more innocuous ones like Lucia and Marcia (lu-cia or lusha, same with mar-cia or marsha).

FE10: Has voiced narration but still I've heard conflicting pronunciations. Micaiah, even with voice acting and narration, I've heard conflicting stuff (mike-ay-ah, mee-ka-ya). Skrimir (skry-mer, skrim-eer), Vika (veeka, vye-ka) (not narrated).

True, many Fire Emblem names are pretty impenetrable. Like Dheginsea or Panne. Or Lethe, since I didn't know about the mythical character/river when I played FE9. Bartre could sound like barter, maybe? And Geitz is probably "guy-ts", if it's supposed to look German.

 

[Aeana]

Playing World of Warcraft for almost 8 years before finding out I had been mispronouncing Gnomeregan the wrong way. No Voice Acting at all really in the game(minus some very very minor bits), then they added new voiced intros for every race in the game. Blew my mind.

For the record, the narrator in the intro movie for when you create a gnome said that word from day 1.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Thank God for the Pokemon anime. I thought Suicune was pronounced "Soo-ih-soon" instead of "Swee-koon".

 

[Nostremitus]

VA doesn't always even help. My friend keeps saying calling Yuria (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 3) Yoo-ry-ah, even though the game's VA refers to her as Yoor-eeah. Annoys the shit out of me.

Yoor-eeah?

Like urea?

 

[Bakkus]

After the Alolan Exeggutor form has become popular it's been pretty shocking hearing people pronounce it as 'eks-e-cue-tor' as in under the french revolution people were executed with the guillotine. This isn't just randoms either. Popular youtubers who has been big Pokemon fans since the start pronounces it that way. How? The anime and the first movie have always pronounced it 'Eks-egg-u-tohr'- On top of that, there is no 'c' or 'k' in the name. How can you pronounce 'g' with a 'k' sound?

 

[javadoze]

I had this moment with the Final Fantasy 4 DS remake.

Most of the time I think I had the pronunciations right in my head, but the game pronounces Cecil as "Sess-sul" and Yang as "Young".

 

[crimilde]

I never had issues because Romanian, like Japanese, is a phonetic language so we pronounce'em as we write'em. (Only thing is in Romanian 'chi' is pronounced 'ki', and 'ghi' is like the Japanese 'gi', but once you know the Japanese way of saying these it's fine).

 

[Benzychenz]

So many Pokemon, Suicune is the one in particular that comes to mind.

I'm also amazed at all the people I've met that pronounce Ho-oh as Ho-ho.

I'm curious about how many newer ones I mispronounce though, the anime was a good way to learn pronunciations but I haven't watched it since early gen 3.

 

[Desmond]

In Dark Age of Camelot, one of the realms is Hibernia which has tons and tons of Irish mythology and names. Nobody could pronounce anything. Donnchadh. Treibh Caillte. Ceannai. Aoife. Coimirceoir. Gan ceanach. So many places and enemies and NPCs, always wrong.

Mabinogi (MMO) is centered around Celtic/Irish mythology and the names are so weird to pronounce. The game never got voice acting I think, (haven't played it in years) but sometimes the names come up in other games that do have voice acting.

Stuff like

Tir na nog
Tuatha de Danann
Claíomh Solais (I actually just finally heard this one in Trails of Cold Steel II)

Still not sure how to pronounce most of the stuff from that game.

Queen of Gaelic names is Eilidh and pronounced A-Lee.

Jaysus, being Irish pays off here.

I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly sure these "odd" spelling stem from the fact that Irish was primarily passed than orally and wasn't really written down until English was brought to the Ireland. I have no idea about Scottish Gaelic though.

 

[redcrayon]

When I was younger I used to pronounce "Navi" in Ocarina of Time as "Navy".

Even with voice acting, it hasn't gone away entirely. It's crazy how often I hear "Geralt" pronounced as "jerALT".

I think that one is understandable as the closest English name is 'Gerald' (pronounced jerald).

The thing about fantasy names and objects in games is that people often only have their own language to go on when making a guess, and fantasy universes are often inconsistent in the pronunciation of new combinations and use existing modern language for the rest of the game, which encourages players to reach for a modern construct/example.

I find English speakers guessing at 'Tie-dus' rather than 'Tee-dus' perfectly understandable to, mainly because of the water theme of his outfit and weapon and 'tide'. Particularly for NA gamers with their box cover with him standing in coastal waters.

When I meet someone at work with a name I'm unfamiliar with, I always ask them how to pronounce it (or look it up beforehand if there's time) as any guess I make has a large chance of being wrong or sounding stupid to them!

 

[DarkCronos]

Not everyone watches football, bruh. I've only seen that Zidane's name in print, and he's literally the only other Zidane most people would have heard of.

Where are you from? I Don't watch football either, but I perfectly knew Zidane's name. The guy was so popular/unpopular (you know, for the headbutt at the world's cup) that here in italy they had to rename the FF character to avoid confusion. Our name was "Gidan"

 

[Masterspeed]

Tidus always got me.

Ty-dus? Tee-dus?

 

[Benzychenz]

Where are you from? I Don't watch football either, but I perfectly knew Zidane's name. The guy was so popular/unpopular (you know, for the headbutt at the world's cup) that here in italy they had to rename the FF character to avoid confusion. Our name was "Gidan"

That's Italy though, that's like peak popularity for soccer.

I don't even know what you're referring to with the headbutt at the world cup. I'm Australian.

 

[Jezan]

Some people complaining about the names, when trying to (force) pronounce them with English rules make them sound like shit.

Glad most spanish speakers (Latin America, cause Spain is a whole can of worms in this regard) have it closer to the intended pronunciation.

The Ryu debate makes my blood boil, lol

 

[NawtKool]

I have a habit of mispronouncing Arcanine.

Instead of saying
Ar-kuh-nine
I say
Ar-kay-nine.
I do this basically because the name Arcanine is a portmanteau of "arcane" and "canine". So, this lead me to pretty much always mispronounce it like that.

Spoiler

And by "mispronounce", I mean I'm the only one who ever says it correctly and the rest of the world is clearly wrong.

 

[Tyaren]

This seems to be mostly a problem for native English speakers. German (my native tongue) like Japanese, Italian, Spanish and other languages are very phonetic. If you know the actually rather simple pronounciation rules you can pronounce every word or name right the first time you read it.
Problematic names for native English speakers that I mostly come across:
- calling Ryu "Ruh-yoo" instead of "Ree-you"
- calling Geralt "Jeralt" instead of "Geralt" with a "g" like in gold
- calling Tidus "Tie-dus" instead of "Tee-dus"
- calling daemon (Final Fantasy) "demon" instead of "dämon" with an umlaut

English speakers also butcher Latin used in games all the time. Latin is a very phonectic language too.

 

[SMK]

I definitely mispronounced renzokuken, zantetsuken, masamune, and etc when I was a kid.

 

[Benzychenz]

I have a habit of mispronouncing Arcanine.

Instead of saying
Ar-kuh-nine
I say
Ar-kay-nine.
I do this basically because the name Arcanine is a portmanteau of "arcane" and "canine". So, this lead me to pretty much always mispronounce it like that.

Spoiler

And by "mispronounce", I mean I'm the only one who ever says it correctly and the rest of the world is clearly wrong.

Do you also pronounce Charizard and Blastoise like lizard and tortoise?

 

[NawtKool]

Do you also pronounce Charizard and Blastoise like lizard and tortoise?

Charizard yes. Blastoise no, because I had always mispronounced tortoise as a kid anyways.

Also I jokingly pronounce Gyrados as girradus. Just because it sounds funny that way.

Edit: Actually I should probably clarify I also mispronounce Charizard as a joke. Arcanine is the only pokemon I mispronounce with serious intent. And as an added note, I just found out the word "lithe" is pronounced like "lieth". So now I should joke pronounce Growlithe like that.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Yoor-eeah?

Like urea?

No? I don't think so anyway

 

[NCR Redslayer]

My favorite story of this when David Bowie* was speaking with someone and they said, "Everything is now Caos." And he was like what and asked her to write it down and then he went like "Oh you mean Chaos!" And the only reason he knew that was because he learned it from Sonic Adventure.
*not the David bowie your thinking.

 

[StoneFox]

This thread is making me irrationally mad.

My rule of thumb is "ask the person who named the character" and their pronunciation is always the correct one to me. Thus my friend who pronounces Midgar, Chocobo, Tifa and Yuffie wrong just pisses me off. This is how he pronounces them.

Midgar = Mid-jar
Chocobo = Choco (chocolate) + bo
Tifa = Tiffa
Yuffie = Yuff-y

Like WTF man, they even say the word chocobo in FFX. :| He refuses to change his pronunciations, though he does pronounce Tidus right of all things.

 

[CountAntonius]

 

[Pyrrhus]

Jaquio from Ninja Gaiden. Late at night I look at the ceiling and ponder how to pronounce that name.

It's actually just a really weird romanization of the Japanese Jaki Ou, meaning Devil King. You'd say it Jah-kee Oh.

 

[Link1110]

Yggdrasil in Xenogears, until Tales of Symphonia came along and settled it

Though some like Agahnim probably won't be solved, cause Zelda won't have voice acting and the Japanese (Agnim) is no help

 

[Tyaren]

Though some like Agahnim probably won't be solved, cause Zelda won't have voice acting and the Japanese (Agnim) is no help

Huh? Where's the problem? It's:

"Ah-gah-nim"

Just pronounce it phonetically.

 

[Krejlooc]

I am learning so much.

heh, in the PC Engine version, Ys is literally the first word spoken when you turn on the game. The game begins with a black screen and the logo written in blue while a voice over begins a narration by pronouncing the title.

But prior to that, in the US, it was more largely known as "whys" because it was originally, in the US, only released on the Master system, and the cartridge label had a spelling mistake:

 

[MattKeil]

No surprises in this thread but I will never get tired of Final Fantasy fans trying to default to weird Engrish pronunciations of names that predate the games they're used in by centuries.

- calling daemon (Final Fantasy) "demon" instead of "dämon" with an umlaut

"Daemon" is pronounced just like "demon" in English. It's just an alternate spelling, mainly British.

 

[Krejlooc]

"Daemon" is pronounced just like "demon" in English. It's just an alternate spelling, mainly British.

Either way is an acceptable pronunciation, actually. In computing, I frequently hear it pronounced with the umlaut.

 

[MattKeil]

Either way is an acceptable pronunciation, actually. In computing, I frequently hear it pronounced with the umlaut.

It's a commonly used one, but it's incorrect. I mean I guess it's acceptable because enough people use it to the point that there's no real point in correcting them, like people who use "literally" to mean "figuratively," but it's an error that comes from the unusual spelling.

 

[Krejlooc]

It's a commonly used one, but it's incorrect. I mean I guess it's acceptable because enough people use it to the point that there's no real point in correcting them, like people who use "literally" to mean "figuratively," but it's an error that comes from the unusual spelling.

What is an error? Literally can mean figuratively, that's an accepted definition these days. Languages evolve, there is no such thing as incorrect if the meaning is understood and the use is widely accepted.

 

[CloudWolf]

It's not like voice acting is always correct. "Dijkstra" isn't pronounced like "Deek-stra", you silly Americans, it should be "Dike-stra"

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Zi-dahn? What the fuck? Coming in here was a mistake!

^^^

Apparently it's a real name too, which makes it doubly shocking

 

[Het_Nkik]

After voice acting:

Why does Leon keep calling Luis "Lewis"? Even Ashley gets it right.

 

[DirgeExtinction]

For the longest, I didn't know how to pronounce Tidus from FFX.
"Tie-dus"? "Tee-dus"?

 

[Vital Tundra]

Dragon Slayer Ornstein.
Orn-steen?
Orn-styne?
Orn-steyn??

I'm safely assuming Executioner Smough is pronounced like how Hawkeye Gough pronounced his name. Confusing times before the DLC was released.

Same as Albert Einstein

 

[frogger]

I thought Gil in Final Fantasy was pronounced "Jill" for the longest time.

Really, I still think it is "jill", what is the correct pronunciation?

 

[Princess Viola]

Really, I still think it is "jill", what is the correct pronunciation?

Gil with a soft g, like in golf.

 

[King Al B]

Its See-sill, not Sess-ill. The voice actors got it all wrong!

 

[Kamui_Legend]

Yea its funny, the whole time playing chrono trigger
I never really had a problem pronouncing the names or anything,
but for some reason
My friends would call Lucca(ルッ&#12459 Luckka
And I could never get through to them.. just so weird.

 

[hampig]

The Deku shrubs.

I say dee-ku. My wife says dek-u.

 

[Krejlooc]

The Deku shrubs.

I say dee-ku. My wife says dek-u.

It's deh-ku.

 

[-Mutsukki-]

I never had any problem with most of the pronounciations in this thread, seems like Portuguese is easier to relate to japanese spelling too.

The only one I never knew was Tidus. I always thought it was like "tide", you know, the guy has a water sword, plays a water sport... it fits right? But it's Tee-dus. Really weird

 

[Hypron]

I blame this thread on English's nonsensical pronunciation rules. Or rather, its inconsistent and/or nonexistent pronunciation rules.

Although, a lot of those issues could be avoided if people realised that most other languages don't pronounce "a", "i", and "e" the same way as in English. So if you're pronouncing foreign words by pronouncing these three letters with their English pronunciation (i.e. "aye", "eye", and "ee") you're very likely to be wrong.

 

[.JayZii]

People who say "yuh-fee" instead of "yoo-fee" are sick I tell you, sick.

 

[SilverArrow20XX]

It's pronounced Ket Shee. It's from Celtic mythology.

This is an assumption based on the faulty logic. Final Fantasy names based on real mythological names are rarely officially pronounced as they should be.

Bahamut should be "BAHK-moot"
It's always Bah-HAH-mutt or BAH-hah-moot (XII).

Ifrit should be AH-freet, but it's always said as ee-freet or ih-freet.

Cait Sith is pronounced Ket Shee in Japanese according to the kana, so that's clearly the official Japanese pronunciation, but that doesn't always reflect the official English pronunciation. See Krile. Pronounced Kururu in Japanese, but is officially Kryle, like Kyle, in English. There's also, Firion (Frioniel), Bartz (Battsu), Terra (Tina), Tidus (Tida), etc.

Here we have the only occurance in the series where any part of Cait Sith's name is voiced. It's pronounced Kate by Cid in Dirge of Cerberus.
https://youtu.be/SyeAD1NKnVw?t=6345

I'm fully expecting his name to be pronounced Kate Sith in FFVII Remake.

 

[komojo]

No mention of Magus from Chrono Trigger? Maa-gus? Mah-gus? May-gus? Mage-us?

What about Hydrocity Zone? I always thought it rhymed with "velocity" but it occurred to me a few years ago that it could also be "HY-dro CITy"

 

[Kilrogg]

In Dark Age of Camelot, one of the realms is Hibernia which has tons and tons of Irish mythology and names. Nobody could pronounce anything. Donnchadh. Treibh Caillte. Ceannai. Aoife. Coimirceoir. Gan ceanach. So many places and enemies and NPCs, always wrong.

Yes! Though to be fair we didn't even bother over here in France. It's not like we know anything about Gaelic and Irish and whatever. They were just funny names - that I found fascinating and unique. Hibernia FTW tbh.

If you would be so kind, how do you pronounce the following locations in the game?
- Mag Mell
- Connacht
- Howth
- Connla
- Lough Derg
- Cave of Cruachan
- Muire Tomb
- Spraggon Den
- Treibh Caillte
- Emain Macha

Sorry but I gotta know, after all these years.

For my childhood was:

All English words in Every game before voice acting, How can I pronounce this?

Pretty much. Back when I was a kid, I distinctly remember my brother telling me that Fireman, the Mega Man 1 robot master, was pronounced "Fi-er-man", and me responding "but you can also say "Feerman"!" Little shit me was so sure of himself too :lol.

 

[Adam_Roman]

I still know people that call Ratatta 'Ratatat'.

 

[Stallion Dan]

If Ryu is Ree-oo and not Rye-you, then why is it sho-rye-you-ken.