The most important detail of any game: how to pronounce fictional names!

[chapter master 454]

So, get your knuckle dusters out, warm-up your typing fingers and and lets get serious. Spurred by one of the warhammer community articles with a video they put up, this one:

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/02/07/is-it-ar-bites-or-ar-bee-tees-how-to-pronounce-the-trickiest-warhammer-words-according-to-the-experts/

 

Lets actually talk about important things instead of if game health is good, if desolators look derpy. No, this is the REAL stuff right here. And besides, we haven't had something more light hearted running amok in a while so keep it civil!

 

Personally, I enjoy the tongue in cheek at the end in regards to the cicatrix maledictum. However I will point out due to the fact that the words used are actual latin (or mostly so), the correct way would be to pronounce it with a hard C (or kicking K, whichever you want to call it).

 

Lets add to the tally of other things and how to pronounce them.

Such as: "Magnus did nothing Wrong!"

 

And remember, this is a bit of fun. After all...is it Potato or Potato? Tomato or Tomato? Did you read what you read correctly? I don't mean to lead you where I meant to have lead to.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I don’t know why the British can’t speak at all. It’s like they learned English from someone who already spoke it as a second language.

how the hell do they get are-bee-tease out of arbites?

replace S with R and you have arbiter which is pronounced are-bit-er 

it’s clearly are-bites

 

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/arbiter

[Brother Tyler]

I found the article to be a fun little diversion (and it corrected two of my own mispronunciations). Funnily enough, it reminded me of Young Frankenstein and Joe Dirt.

[Emperor Ming]

Tea Governor?

 

apples and pears

 

[Brother Tyler]

11 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I don’t know why the British can’t speak at all. It’s like they learned English from someone who already spoke it as a second language.

how the hell do they get are-bee-tease out of arbites?

replace S with R and you have arbiter which is pronounced are-bit-er 

it’s clearly are-bites

 

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/arbiter

 

It's the correct pseudo-Latin (the letter "i" pronounced as the sound "ee").

[Mazer Rackham]

18 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I don’t know why the British can’t speak at all. It’s like they learned English from someone who already spoke it as a second language.

 

That's because we did.

 

Chin, chin!

[Halandaar]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

I don’t know why the British can’t speak at all. It’s like they learned English from someone who already spoke it as a second language.

 

I won't be taking any lessons from the country of people who pronounce "mirror" like it rhymes with "beer", thank you very much!

 

Besides, the pronunciation of the Latin word arbiter is different from the pronunciation of the English word arbiter, and 40K Gothic is based on the former.

[Bryan Blaire]

37 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

I won't be taking any lessons from the country of people who pronounce "mirror" like it rhymes with "beer", thank you very much!

  Too funny - I just saw that on a British lady pronouncing US English YouTube and have never heard anyone here say it like that!

 

I do want to know where I can buy the 40K companions for the Primaris Lieutenants, the Primaris Rightenants.  I mean they come in pairs, those directions, right?  I’d also like to find Agooddon.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Bryan Blaire

[NovemberIX]

If there's one thing I've learned watching F1 for decades it's that you can't trust the English to pronounce anything correctly :D

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, Brother Tyler said:

 

It's the correct pseudo-Latin (the letter "i" pronounced as the sound "ee").

Good thing they’re not Latin then huh?

[Arkangilos]

13 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Good thing they’re not Latin then huh?

Uh, Gothic is based on Latin, not English.

 

So it should be Ahr-Bee-Taze. Or tehs.

 

However, as I am an American, I pronounce it Are-Bites because Ahr-bee-taze is one too many syllables for a game. I just say Ar-bites is the low gothic way.

 

16 hours ago, chapter master 454 said:

Personally, I enjoy the tongue in cheek at the end in regards to the cicatrix maledictum. However I will point out due to the fact that the words used are actual latin (or mostly so), the correct way would be to pronounce it with a hard C (or kicking K, whichever you want to call it).

Hard C is for “classical” Latin. Gothic is based on Ecclesiastical Latin, and C is usually Ch.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Arkangilos

[Brother Tyler]

1 hour ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Good thing they’re not Latin then huh?

 

They're not American, either. 

[Nephaston]

Royal British English(RBE) isn't even the original English*. RBE is just how they royals, who are partially french, german, and whatever else they could find, talked to separate themselves from the common peasantry. Said peasantry of course adopted it because it's always worth it to emulate nobility.

 

This of course also means that the other former colonies of the commonwealth are in turn closer to what english sounded like a couple centuries ago. Barring any egregious permutations and slang of course.

 

That said I will not be lectured by any Mono-English speaker, regardless of nation, on the pronunciation of French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, etc.

 

Also, Lieutenant could've easily been miswritten as Lievtenant, which would be in line with the English making mistakes and not admit them.

 

*It's a meme at this point to call english three languages in a trench coat, but as a non-native english speaker from an otherwise strictly structured language who had difficulty learning the lawless nature of english I must insist on the memes truthfulness.

[Brother Tyler]

Regardless of what any of us thinks the correct pronunciation of any of the names in this goofball fantastical universe should be, we don't get a vote.  All we have are opinions, and we all know what they say about those. And with the exception of languages that have been invented recently, no language is in its original form. They have all evolved over time (okay, if any highly educated linguist tells me otherwise, I'll defer to them). The pseudo-Latin High Gothic is a modern representation that is accessible to denizens of the 20th/21st century era. Should this terrifying setting ever come to be, it is likely that the words all sound entirely different from what we read, imagine, and hear. Debating correct pronunciations is just a fun and silly thing we do, but nobody should take things seriously.

 

The correct pronunciation that caught me off guard was that of Roboute Guilliman. That one reminded me of Buckaroo Banzai. I'm of half a mind that the "e" needs a diacritical mark to remind me to pronounce it Row boo tay. I'm only of half a mind, mind you, because none of the pronunciations really matter in the grand scheme of things. I was pronouncing a couple of the names incorrectly [according to GW]. Okey dokey. I'm over it. 

[Nephaston]

If it's completely made-up* names and titles like Aeldari or Guilliman I'm fine with it, since in those cases GW is indeed the highest authority. Not when it's existing words taken wholesale from existing languages. I also do not consider the hypothetical language drift of the next 38 thousand years to be a worthwhile consideration as it's a.) beyond reasonable ability for any author to consider b.) for a piece of entertainment that exists in the now so has to be understandable c.) Language drift, at least in the Imperium, slowed down, with it being noted that Guilliman 'merely' had a dialect. Though to be fair the Imperium is of a very static nature.

 

I do want to make clear that most of my gripes are less from a GW side and more me taking offense at the arcane structures of the english language, especially regarding loan words.

 

*Yes, I know all words are made up, but standards must be maintained. And as far as I'm aware there is no institutionalized standard of english.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

6 hours ago, Brother Tyler said:

 

 

The correct pronunciation that caught me off guard was that of Roboute Guilliman. That one reminded me of Buckaroo Banzai. I'm of half a mind that the "e" needs a diacritical mark to remind me to pronounce it Row boo tay. I'm only of half a mind, mind you, because none of the pronunciations really matter in the grand scheme of things. I was pronouncing a couple of the names incorrectly [according to GW]. Okey dokey. I'm over it. 

Oh yes, that one was even weirder than Arbites (no can do with their pronunciation of "-es"). In my head he's now le Robouté.

 

8 hours ago, Arkangilos said:

Hard C is for “classical” Latin. Gothic is based on Ecclesiastical Latin, and C is usually Ch.

Why the Church pronunciation (i.e. traditional Italian) and not the traditional (i.e. varying by country)?

[Orange Knight]

Very happy that the Lieutenant pronunciation been confirmed.

 

Americans, please take note and use the correct saying when referring to the unit in 40k 

[Halandaar]

I think we can all agree that English is a stupid language regardless of where you are in the world and which version of it you speak. I mean look at these words:

 

Rough / Cough / Plough / Through / Though / Hiccough / Thorough

 

Every one of them ends with the same 4-letter sequence and yet every single one of them is pronounced differently, and that applies in both American English and British English.

 

American pronunciations are always the wrongest though.

[Special Officer Doofy]

1 hour ago, Orange Knight said:

Very happy that the Lieutenant pronunciation been confirmed.

 

Americans, please take note and use the correct saying when referring to the unit in 40k 

 

I would, but ya know. July 4th 1776 

[Halandaar]

17 minutes ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

I would, but ya know. July 4th 1776 

 

Freedom points are not a valid currency in the 41st Millennium . In the Darkness of the Far Future, there is only British.

[Slave to Darkness]

40 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

 

 

American pronunciations are always the wrongest though.

Their spelling isnt that great either.

[Orange Knight]

44 minutes ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

 

I would, but ya know. July 4th 1776 

 

Too bad America doesn't exist in 40k. The language spoken is very much "British" English, with a healthy dose of fancy Latin words thrown in.

[Mazer Rackham]

58 minutes ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

I would, but ya know. July 4th 1776 

 

An auspicious day indeed, I can't believe they released Magna Carta 2nd Ed in such an unplayable state - and after ONLY 500 years of playtesting. It completely invalidated the armies I had, and I'd just finished painting all of my units. The points increases were horrendous, and priced me right out of the game.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Mazer Rackham

[Ace Debonair]

39 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

 

Freedom points are not a valid currency in the 41st Millennium . In the Darkness of the Far Future, there is only British.

As a rather bookish Englishman myself I think it makes perfect sense that in 40k, where the Imperium is called out as the "worst regime imaginable", everyone has to suffer the learning and use of British English, no exceptions.  That's the true meaning of grimdark! 

 

On topic, I've also found I've been pronouncing a good few of these wrong for the last fifteen to twenty years, which will do absolutely nothing to prevent me from continuing to do so 

 

[Valkyrion]

English is tough, but you can get through it with good thorough thought though. 

 

 

Regardless of any official pronunciation, Abaddon will always be A-bad-un to me. It's a pet name.