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

[Mazer Rackham]

1 minute ago, Valkyrion said:

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

 

Threw me as well.

 

I just call him 'Ol' No Arms', and save myself the embarrassment.

[Halandaar]

41 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

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.

 

And to think they are still using the same ruleset after nearly 250 years despite all the new wargear, factions, stratagems and traits added over that time. Now that's uncontrolled rules bloat.

[Mazer Rackham]

6 minutes ago, Halandaar said:

 

And to think they are still using the same ruleset after nearly 250 years despite all the new wargear, factions, stratagems and traits added over that time. Now that's uncontrolled rules bloat.

 

Well, to be fair, they wisely released dataslates for it to amend some things, after listening to the players - and I do think the core of the ruleset is quite solid and should be incorporated into the next edition. I kept being tempted to go back, because I'd got so much invested, you know? It's just that after 1812, I lost interest in playing the game entirely when power creep made things untenable.

[Halandaar]

1 minute ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Well, to be fair, they wisely released dataslates for it to amend some things, after listening to the players - and I do think the core of the ruleset is quite solid and should be incorporated into the next edition. I kept being tempted to go back, because I'd got so much invested, you know? It's just that after 1812, I lost interest in playing the game entirely when power creep made things untenable.

 

Probably for the best considering how many of the FAQ and Errata releases are extremely contentious among the remaining playerbase.

[Brother Casman]

11 hours ago, Brother Tyler said:

[snip]

 

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. 

 

I'm tempted to steal from Tolkien (like everyone else) - Roboutë

[Special Officer Doofy]

2 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

 

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.

 

The imperium is very much British, I get that. They took over every planet whether they wanted to be part of the imperium or not. Might be why on average once a week a country celebrates their independence from the imperium's modern day counterpart 

[Arkangilos]

5 hours ago, Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla said:

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

Because the theme is it is medieval Europe gothic style, with a imperial church that mirrors the European church in aesthetics, and a Latin based language, so it stands to reason the Latin would match Ecclesiastical Latin.

 

Maybe GC would be “classical”.

[sitnam]

I'll accept official pronunciation for any of the made up names on 40k. I will never fathom how the British pronounce lieutenant with an F however

 

Speaking of the British, how does a country significantly smaller then America seem to have far more regional dialects. I've been watching the Painting Phase podcast and it's like the three hosts are almost from different countries. I traveled from Texas to Florida and the only notable  difference I heard was smattering of Cajuns in Louisiana 

Edited February 8, 2023 by sitnam

[Orange Knight]

4 minutes ago, sitnam said:

I'll accept official pronunciation for any of the made up names on 40k. I will never fathom how the British pronounce lieutenant with an F however

 

Speaking of the British, how does a country significantly smaller then America seem to have far more regional dialects. I've been watching the Painting Phase podcast and it's like the three hosts are almost from different countries. I traveled from Texas to Florida and the only notable  difference I heard was smattering of Cajuns in Louisiana 

 

Because it has been around a lot longer, and existed for long periods before transportation and travel were easy. Small communities existed and spoke with their own dialects. 

[Mazer Rackham]

18 minutes ago, sitnam said:

I'll accept official pronunciation for any of the made up names on 40k. I will never fathom how the British pronounce lieutenant with an F however

 

To paraphrase Red Dwarf, it's down to all the nadger-splicing trousers and false teeth. Probably.

 

21 minutes ago, sitnam said:

Speaking of the British, how does a country significantly smaller then America seem to have far more regional dialects. I've been watching the Painting Phase podcast and it's like the three hosts are almost from different countries. I traveled from Texas to Florida and the only notable  difference I heard was smattering of Cajuns in Louisiana 

 

13 minutes ago, Orange Knight said:

Because it has been around a lot longer, and existed for long periods before transportation and travel were easy. Small communities existed and spoke with their own dialects. 

 

Yeah, absolutely this. To build on it a bit, depending on area population, literacy and wealth of the region, and what language was 'de rigueur', plus resistances to those languages, you get a massive melting pot.

 

That's as simple an answer as my brain can formulate.

 

@Brother Tyler That's Ro-big-bootÉ Guilliman, then?

[Halandaar]

 

33 minutes ago, sitnam said:

Speaking of the British, how does a country significantly smaller then America seem to have far more regional dialects. I've been watching the Painting Phase podcast and it's like the three hosts are almost from different countries. I traveled from Texas to Florida and the only notable  difference I heard was smattering of Cajuns in Louisiana 

 

What Orange Knight said; also history of conquest from different cultures with different languages who controlled different parts of the country. Some areas have a lot more usage of Norse-derived words and names than others by virtue of being controlled by the Danes in the 9th Century, vs areas under Saxon control etc. Then you have regional variations on Celtic languages which, while not in common use any more (Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Manx etc), probably influenced the way English was spoken in those areas in the same way being a French speaker influences the way you speak English.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

1 hour ago, Arkangilos said:

Because the theme is it is medieval Europe gothic style, with a imperial church that mirrors the European church in aesthetics, and a Latin based language, so it stands to reason the Latin would match Ecclesiastical Latin.

 

Maybe GC would be “classical”.

 

I have two objections:

- spread of Italian pronunciation in the Church is extremely recent developement (late 19th/early 20th century)

- currently most people, who learn Latin, learn traditional (for their country) and/or classical pronunciation. 

 

 

[Arkangilos]

1 hour ago, Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla said:

I have two objections:

- spread of Italian pronunciation in the Church is extremely recent developement (late 19th/early 20th century)

- currently most people, who learn Latin, learn traditional (for their country) and/or classical pronunciation. 

I disagree with your take. Ecclesiastical Latin as pronounced today is the same as pronounced in the 300s from across all the Latin West and the Vulgate. The only timeframe I saw recently was at least the 800’s for pronunciation, and listed the Carolingian Renaissance as part of the reasons. The classical Latin is actually newer from what I’ve learned, and mass adoption of it in teaching only came within the last century 1900’s). 
 

Also what most people learn today doesn’t matter, theme does. And the theme is Medeival Europe, which was indisputably Ecclesiastical Latin as the Lingua Franca. It makes more sense than classical considering all the thematic parallels.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Arkangilos

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Even in the early 1800s the Europeans were confused by British Latin pronunciation, it's always been a mess. (Ironically kinda like how the Septics did the same to English)

 

I still can't get my head round the fact that Black Library can't work out if the Imperium uses the Metric or Imperial measurement systems. Every author seems to have a preference, it was particularly jarring in the War of the Beast books when the same characters would skip between the two between books.

[Doghouse]

I knew most of them but still prefer the harder sounding ar-bites and tie-ran-nids even though I am wrong on both counts. 

 

The truth is closer to us all being right, even in the 41st millennium there are going to be regional dialects that pronounce things differently. We see that even today in single nations so you can imagine what it would be like when you are talking entirely different systems light years from Terra.

 

I quite enjoyed the video though.

[Arkangilos]

9 minutes ago, Sword Brother Adelard said:

Even in the early 1800s the Europeans were confused by British Latin pronunciation, it's always been a mess. (Ironically kinda like how the Septics did the same to English)

 

I still can't get my head round the fact that Black Library can't work out if the Imperium uses the Metric or Imperial measurement systems. Every author seems to have a preference, it was particularly jarring in the War of the Beast books when the same characters would skip between the two between books.

Obviously the Imperial system is the Emperor approved system. The ones that use metric are xenos or chaos aligned and need a good visit from the ole inquisitor. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

10 minutes ago, Arkangilos said:

Obviously the Imperial system is the Emperor approved system. The ones that use metric are xenos or chaos aligned and need a good visit from the ole inquisitor. 

 

Colonel Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment would like a word. 

[Arkangilos]

7 minutes ago, Sword Brother Adelard said:

 

Colonel Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment would like a word. 

Inquisitor inbound for that word. 
I mean he’s a prime example with all that time behind chaos lines. The influence and corruption of chaos is often subtle.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

1 minute ago, Arkangilos said:

Inquisitor inbound for that word. 
I mean he’s a prime example with all that time behind chaos lines. The influence and corruption of chaos is often subtle.

 

IBRAM DID NOTHING WRONG!

 

GEREON RESISTS!!

[Brother Tyler]

28 minutes ago, Sword Brother Adelard said:

 

IBRAM DID NOTHING WRONG!

 

GEREON RESISTS!!

 

How are "Ibram" and "Gereon" supposed to be pronounced? (I know how they sound in my head, but as GW demonstrated yesterday, the things in my head aren't always right .)

[Sword Brother Adelard]

According to Toby Longworth, who is THE voice of Gaunt and his ghosts. (I am only listening to them, and he can't record them quickly enough.) The 'Ib' is as in 'in' and 'ram' as in male sheep.

 

Gereon is 'Ge' as in 'Get' then ReeOn.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

My personal issue with a lot of the more recent lore, is that because I only listen to a vast majority of it on Audible, I don't know how a lot of things are spelt, because I've only ever heard them aloud. This makes me look a bit illiterate sometimes.

 

It also reminds me that you shouldn't laugh at people who mispronounce words, because they learnt them from reading, and that should be encouraged.

[Mazer Rackham]

18 minutes ago, Sword Brother Adelard said:

...I only listen to a vast majority of it on Audible...

 

You might be able to help me as well, then. Have you ever heard 'Lugft Huron' pronounced? I would be very interested to get the 'legit' name down.

[Brother Tyler]

9 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

You might be able to help me as well, then. Have you ever heard 'Lugft Huron' pronounced? I would be very interested to get the 'legit' name down.

 

Sure. It's pronounced "HOOR-ɒn BLAK-haart."

 

+EDIT+

 

Oh, there's actually a website that purports to give the correct pronunciation: https://www.howtopronounce.com/lufgt-huron

 

It's on the Internet, so [as long as they don't insist that American pronunciation is the only correct pronunciation] they must be legit.

Edited February 8, 2023 by Brother Tyler

[Sword Brother Adelard]

13 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

You might be able to help me as well, then. Have you ever heard 'Lugft Huron' pronounced? I would be very interested to get the 'legit' name down.

 

I only remember Huron, as he was in the Night Lords Trilogy, but he wasn't named Lufgt in that book, so I have no clue how that's pronounced!