Pronunciations

[Valkyrion]

A few others I've come across;

 

The Red Tear - tear as in crying, or tear as in rip? This isn't so much pronunciation as two different words, so does anyone know the real word?

 

Argel Tal with a hard G or a soft G?

 

I'm rereading A Thousand Sons and so far it seems phonetic - so, Ohrmuzd is Or-Muzzed, and Pesedjet is Pes-ed-jet? Or is it full of silent letters and it's 'pesay-jay'?

[LameBeard]

I assumed tear as in tear drop, so it would be like a Blood drop, but I think tear to rhyme with where sounds better somehow, maybe it’s the assonance.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

How have we not got onto whether Skitarii is Skitaree or skitaree-eye?

[Valkyrion]

How have we not got onto whether Skitarii is Skitaree or skitaree-eye?

 

 

Well, before you said that, it was Skitaree, to me.  But cataphractii terminators are CataphractEYE, even though they are the same spelling.

 

So, I'm claiming vagaries of the english language, and it's Skitareee and cataphracteye. 

[LameBeard]

It’s CataphractEYE? How do we know this? I treat audio dramas as evidence, but not proof. I don’t think the studio director is always steeped in the lore or had the author or tap. And those guys have a schedule to keep.

 

Oh damn, I said “schedule”. That’s another argument I’ll start.

[Valkyrion]

Skedule.

 

Cataphract-eye. 

 

It's fine if I'm wrong, but those are MY words at the very least. 

[Karhedron]

The one that really bugs me is people pronouncing C'tan with a soft C rather than a hard one (S'Tan or even Satan ).

 

All the Devs have consistently pronounced it Ktan, as do the painting tutorials. I don't know why this one bugs me but it always feels like fingernails down a blackboard to me.

[Brother Casman]

Since apparently the singular is "skitarius", I go with skitaree-eye.

[andes]

The one that really bugs me is people pronouncing C'tan with a soft C rather than a hard one (S'Tan or even Satan ).

 

All the Devs have consistently pronounced it Ktan, as do the painting tutorials. I don't know why this one bugs me but it always feels like fingernails down a blackboard to me.

 

Yes! Was just about to say this. Lovecraftian horrors from beyond time and space? Of course it's a hard 'c'

Edited September 3, 2021 by andes

[Kenzaburo]

The idea of pronouncing it as satan though blew my mind. I‘d never have thought of that. 

[Rogue]

If we're going wide with this, I'm throwing in melee. Because it's meh-lay, not mee-lee (which seems to be getting increasingly popular on YouTube).

[Plasmablasts]

For me: C’tan = K’tan - soft C is hardly ever (never?) pronounced before anything but a front vowel (i, e or y). However, what does the apostrophe signify? That the C is aspirated or ejective? That there is a following glottal stop? That it’s a contraction of a longer form? That it just looks cool?

 

Skitarii = Skit-arry-ee - I’m going with Latin convention and pronouncing double-i as two syllables.

 

Ohthere Wyrdmake = ?? I’ve usually pronounced “wyrd” as “weird”. I gather the Old English “y” was a rounded front vowel, so more “oo” than “ee”. The first “h” might be decorative here, of course, but would have been pronounced more like “ch” in “loch” or “Bach”. That then hints that the word should be segmented as “Oht-here”. “Here” is a fairly common name element meaning army or war-band, but I’m not sure if “Oht” would be a real element.

 

“Tyranid” = “ti-ran-id” (like “tyranny”), but that’s personal. Vowel pronunciation in English is affected by where the stress falls in a word, which is in turn affected by the number of syllables (compare “tyrant”, “tyranny” and “tyrannical”).

[Valkyrion]

From the horses mouth on loremasters this week - Abbadon is Abba-Don, not A-bad-un. 

I don't know if it's an entirely english thing saying A-bad-un or maybe just a northern english thing. Maybe some southern softies fraters could state their Abaddon preference?

 

 

Anathame, from the same episode, is pronounced 'Anna-thame'. I thought it was 'anath-a-may' as in anathema - the weapon is anathema to its target. 

Edited September 10, 2021 by Valkyrion

[andes]

Jes Goodwin, the guy who created the character, calls him a-BAD-un. In one of the GW video interviews, he even joked that the name was drawn from the observation that the individual in the specific piece of artwork was "A bad one".

 

That's not to say that Wade is wrong, just that pronunciation is a hard problem that often has multiple "correct" solutions. Except for C'tan... which should always be pronounced kuh-TAN. That's not open to debate.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Lascannon…

 

LAZE-cannon

 

or

 

?

[Plasmablasts]

Lascannon…

 

LAZE-cannon

 

or

 

?

Lazz-cannon

[Gederas]

Jes Goodwin, the guy who created the character, calls him a-BAD-un. In one of the GW video interviews, he even joked that the name was drawn from the observation that the individual in the specific piece of artwork was "A bad one".

 

That's not to say that Wade is wrong, just that pronunciation is a hard problem that often has multiple "correct" solutions. Except for C'tan... which should always be pronounced kuh-TAN. That's not open to debate.

Well, despite Jes having made the character, he got the name wrong with his pronunciation. Abaddon is an actual word and it's pronounced ABBA-don (as in the band and Vito Corleone).

 

But then again, Jes is English and we shouldn't listen to the English for pronunciations of words that aren't from English :lol: Because apparently according to GW Khan (as in the White Scars Primarch and captains) is pronounced with an R sound....