Pronunciation guide

[Pixel]

EDIT

 

[Starling]

I think the focus should be on the ones with the most confusion. To make the video more interesting, it'd probably be a good idea to talk about why some names get pronounced one way rather than the other, like if you were explaining to someone how to pronounce Sean. If you want, you could even do a bit of etymology. Another thing is that rather than say certain pronunciations are wrong, maybe just point out which ones are official, other ways people pronounce them and if it has anything to do with accent or regional stuff. With the abundance of accents and dialects, I think it's perfectly reasonable to consider multiple pronunciations acceptable. Are you planning on only going over the english names or bring up the original japanese as well?

 

[Pixel]

I dunno, I was thinking of just very simple. Otherwise it just complicates the video. We could do a companion article going into thing like that. The idea is just to have the words vocalised.

I could go into explanations, but it will take a lot longer.

 

[Starling]

A companion article sounds good. That way, the video stays short and simple while the article can go into detail. They can even link to each-other and help people find more content.

 

[Flintlock]

That sounds like a good idea. How about including the Japanese versions of the names as well? You could have two people reading the names: one native English speaker and one native Japanese speaker. And if you do that, I'm sure people would be interested in hearing all the names, not just the ones that are usually mispronounced in English.

 

[Pixel]

That would be awesome actually. Do we have a native japanese speaker here? I could see if mecorx could do it

 

[Channy]

I second that, t'would be awesome.

Side note: Not sure if Reno, Rude and Elena are worth mentioning... Reno, maybe, but Elena is a common enough name and Rude is just.. rude. Just my thoughts..

Also possible suggestions: Gaia vs Gaea's Cliff - always interpreted the latter differently given the pronunciation of Gaia.

(Cave of the) Gi?

Costa del Sol?

Mt Nibel vs Nibelheim (are they both knee-bel-HIghm)?

 

[Pixel]

Well, I used to pronounce it like Ellen-a until I heard Elayna.

 

[Channy]

Fair point. I never woulda thought to say it like that. Damn Irish

 

[RedFFWolf]

Fair point. I never woulda thought to say it like that. Damn Irish

Don't mind Pixel, he's from

Spoiler: Belfast

says the guy from Dublin, whose 'ay' sound in Elena extends the word by another two seconds

 

[Pixel]

I just got a Japanese voice actress to do the Japanese pronunciations, so I'll produce this up in the next couple of days, after I finish some work for a client.

 

[Lex]

E-lay-na is a fairly 'murcan thing I'm sure, I know a shitload of people called Elena and they all pronounce it the way Pixel said (for the record I pronounced it that way too).

They should have just called her Irina, that's a name I really like due to the awesomeness of Lena Olin in Alias.

 

[Lex]

I just got a Japanese voice actress to do the Japanese pronunciations, so I'll produce this up in the next couple of days, after I finish some work for a client.

I am so fucking excited to see this.

 

[Mage]

I'm curious to watch it but I'll probably carry on pronouncing it all wrong. It'd be interesting to note the differences between Japanese and Engrish pronounciations.

 

[Pixel]

I think the voice actress pronounces it Ereena. Can't remember. And Reh-no, rather than Ree-no. I'm going with official localised versions, because there are reasons for pronunciation changes.

I'm still not convinced about Cait Sith tbh. It is pronounced in Japanese Caito See/(Soft)SHee. But I'd like to see the etymology of that name in celtic myth and pronunciation there. Most things aren't pronounced the same between japanese and english

 

[Mage]

This has the links to the phonetics in Gaelic and Celtic if that's any help (though I'm sure you'll have looked at it already):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_sìth

I've always pronounced it as Cait Sith, rather than Cat Shee (like I said, I'll carry on pronouncing them wrongly).

 

[Strangelove]

when i first played it i pronounced everything wrong and called him 'cat smith'

 

[Cthulhu]

Let's just go with Kate Sith, as in Sith Lord, because why not.

 

[Channy]

^ That's how I always said it

 

[Lex]

OK so regardless of it being spelled Cait Sith, the pronounciation in gaidhlig/gaelic is like "cat shee" - this is quite literally the actual name because it's an actual representation of the mythological creature.

BUT, I think it's silly to be vigilant about that because I always called it "Kate Sith" and so does absolutely everything/everyone else. It doesn't hurt to have the way it's supposed to be pronounced in the video though, either way is fine.

 

[Jason Tandro]

I too was in the Kate Winslett Sith club.

 

[Channy]

^ There's something odd to be said that that Kate is the first one you went to.

 

[Pixel]

I just put this up. I'm not sure if anyone wants to do an indepth article about pronunciations, but it's there anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq11D_Gcbg4

 

[Flintlock]

Very nice vid, something I'm glad to have on our channel, but:

It started off as a kind of internal thing for staff who are making video and audio content to get pronunciations right, or at least uniform across our content.

You should change the "7" in the title to a "VII" to be uniform across our content, since Square Enix never use "7".

 

[Mage]

I watched it and I'm delighted to say I only pronounce a couple of them wrongly. Did anybody else pronounce it 'Loo-cree-shee-ah' until DoC?

I wasn't keen on the male VA though, mostly because he had a definite twang to his accent and IMO it should be fairly neutral. Other than that I liked it and little things like that are nice niche bits that'll keep folk interested - one of my friends follows TLS from Facebook but has never joined the forum.