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

[Machine God]

44 minutes ago, Sword Brother Adelard said:

But it's not like that in BL books. That would make some semblance of sense. It's that in one book, EVERYTHING is metric, and in the next everything is Imperial. That's why it was so jarring in TBA, one book the space battles are all in KM, in the next book, the very same ships are fighting in miles.

 

GW is a British Company. In 1973 we joined the Common Market and dallied with Metric. But we have never fully gone over, buy a Litre of Milk and a Pint of Beer, measure height in Feet and Inches and burn off fat as Calories instead of Joules. Ordnance Survey Maps in Kilometre squares but measure speed in Miles Per Hour.

[TheMawr]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:18 PM, Halandaar said:

I always just presumed the G was silent (probably for convenience) and pronounced it like the start of Luftwaffe.

 

Lugft is not hard to pronounce exactly as written. But then we are raised with a very special relationship to the G sound XD

 

 

[Machine God]

Waagh!

 

As the Orks say?

 

But as said in the UK its pronounced or Shouted as "Warg!!!!

 

 

But in The Netherlands I've heard it said as "Waa-Hah?"

[Urauloth]

I always assumed it was just the Ork word for war (and hence, also, celebration) and was pronounced much the same way.

 

My guess would be that "Lugft" has a soft G, so "Luyft". Trying to pronounce it with a hard G makes my head hurt. It could also be silent, as other people have suggested, making it exactly like the German word for air.

 

I notice they haven't addressed the pronunciation of "Eversor". This is one that bugs me because I'm sure it should be e-VERS-or (the root is "evert," to overturn, overthrow, or turn inside-out) but it's consistently pronounced like it's a species of dinosaur and that doesn't sound right to me.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

13 hours ago, Machine God said:

 

GW is a British Company. In 1973 we joined the Common Market and dallied with Metric. But we have never fully gone over, buy a Litre of Milk and a Pint of Beer, measure height in Feet and Inches and burn off fat as Calories instead of Joules. Ordnance Survey Maps in Kilometre squares but measure speed in Miles Per Hour.

I'm aware, I live in the UK.

 

I still feel like you completely missed the point of what I wrote.

In one BL book, in a consecutive series of books, every single measurement is in one system, in the next, the same characters, doing the same things, are using Imperial. 

It's jarring, and immersion breaking. Just pick one. It could change from one series to another, but lacking that consistency in a series is poor.

[LameBeard]

Honestly this wouldn’t even make my list of top 10 immersion-breaking things Black Library authors have done. The problem tends to be, I suggest, that the Editors (bless them) are focussing on in-universe consistency (getting chapter colours right etc) and are not really focused on some of the literary elements. If they managed a whole book sticking to miles they are not gonna go after the next author (who is different!) who stuck to km. They are frying other fish.

 

back on topic: I’m sure I’ve been mispronouncing Sanguinius for 30 years or more. The way I say it, it only has 3 syllables, but it must be 4 really. Or even 5? 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

4. San, gwin, ee, us

[LameBeard]

Yeah I’m sure that’s right. Old habits die hard though …

[Sword Brother Adelard]

How have you been pronouncing it?

[Urauloth]

I'm also pretty sure the "t" in "Epistolary" should be silent, in line with epistle, epistolean, epistolarian, epistolist, etc. (It's archaic, but "epistle" as a verb means to write, and an epistolary is therefore a scribe or a correspondent)

[Brother Tyler]

38 minutes ago, Urauloth said:

I'm also pretty sure the "t" in "Epistolary" should be silent, in line with epistle, epistolean, epistolarian, epistolist, etc. (It's archaic, but "epistle" as a verb means to write, and an epistolary is therefore a scribe or a correspondent)

 

Only one of the online dictionaries that I checked pronounced the word with a silent "t" in "epistolary." All of the others, including Merriam-Webster and Cambridge, pronounced the "t" in both the British and American English versions.

[Reskin]

2 hours ago, Urauloth said:

I'm also pretty sure the "t" in "Epistolary" should be silent, in line with epistle, epistolean, epistolarian, epistolist, etc. (It's archaic, but "epistle" as a verb means to write, and an epistolary is therefore a scribe or a correspondent)

where did you get that idea from?

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

Though this doesn't mean anything in particular, I'm a blind person who uses a screen reader to navigate this forum, and of all the example words posted above only 'epistle' itself is read with a silent T. In all other instances it's a hard T. Just thought it was funny so decided to share.

[LameBeard]

16 hours ago, Marshal Valkenhayn said:

Though this doesn't mean anything in particular, I'm a blind person who uses a screen reader to navigate this forum, and of all the example words posted above only 'epistle' itself is read with a silent T. In all other instances it's a hard T. Just thought it was funny so decided to share.

Wow. I had a bit of a problem with my “good” eye last month, and one of my first thoughts was, if I were to lose it, could I still enjoy Warhammer? I guess you are living proof you can. This must be a funny thread to follow, because who knows how the screen reader pronounces some of those proper names!?

[Zebulon]

I have only just seen and heard the video.

 

ar-bee-tees my posterior! It’s very obviously ar-bit-aze / ar-bit-tays 

 

I have an issue with Baal. To me it sounds right as “Barl” but nearly everyone else seems to want it to be “Bayle” 

[Bryan Blaire]

Baal will always be Ba’al (to me).

Edited February 13, 2023 by Bryan Blaire

[Halandaar]

2 hours ago, Zebulon said:

I have an issue with Baal. To me it sounds right as “Barl” but nearly everyone else seems to want it to be “Bayle” 

 

In my youth I used to pronounce it like Barl, but then I played a LOT of Diablo II which had it as "Bail" so I ended up saying it like that too. Blizzard has a lot to answer for.

 

But @Bryan Blaireis right on this one, no? Given the real world usage it doesn't seem like this one is up for debate.

[Arkangilos]

On 2/13/2023 at 12:28 PM, Bryan Blaire said:

Baal will always be Ba’al (to me).

I go between Bail, and Ball depending on context. Not because it's right, but because in one context I may say one, and in another I say another. 

 

Like in SG1 they made a lot of Baal jokes when there were a lot of clones, and they pronounced it Ball. But I remember D2 growing up and they pronounced it Bail. So it is hit and miss.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Arkangilos

[Cleon]

I always went for a pronunciation more like Baahl, like a child would explain a sheep noise then with an L on the end...

[LameBeard]

On 2/10/2023 at 8:47 PM, Sword Brother Adelard said:

How have you been pronouncing it?

Sorry only just seen this. More like

 

San-gween-us

[chapter master 454]

Not going to lie, Epistle and Epistolary for me flow much better without the T but that's me. Once more an inconsistent english quirk...however I may start rebelling with castle...

 

Quick one that may not be too contended: the assassins...Eversor, Callidus, Culexus and Vindicare would surprise me if there wasn't some odd balls out there...especially Culexus...the letter X does tend to mess with people but it does deliver and it does get it to you.

[Cleon]

40 minutes ago, chapter master 454 said:

Not going to lie, Epistle and Epistolary for me flow much better without the T but that's me. Once more an inconsistent english quirk...however I may start rebelling with castle...

 

Quick one that may not be too contended: the assassins...Eversor, Callidus, Culexus and Vindicare would surprise me if there wasn't some odd balls out there...especially Culexus...the letter X does tend to mess with people but it does deliver and it does get it to you.

 

I always included mentally included a soft 'end of ist' t in Epistle and similar, maybe I was always wrong, the need to say them very rarely comes up. Likewise Castle needs a soft t, a hard t or no t at all both sound wrong to me 'Cassle' or Cast'l (as in group of actors) being the best I can describe them.

 

I think I've heard as many different pronunciations of 'Eversor' as I have met players who used one, but the other assassins have all seemed to be more consistent:

Vindicare -windy care (with a v)

Callidus, does vary a little with a short or long L sound 'Cally - dus' as in Kally bus, or 'Calidus' moire like Caliber

 Culexus I've only ever encountered as cull-ex-us like the three words strung together.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I've also heard Vindicare as Vin, Di, car, ray,

[Brother Tyler]

Going by the examples of Arbites and Roboute, it would be veen dee CAW ray.  And that just made me think of Hermione.