Area pronunciation guide

[Feba]

Since I wish someone had made one of these long ago to quell some VOIP fights. Taken from Vana'diel WORLD REPORT .050224. Will only cover up through COP, unless I get a more recent one for whatever reason. Katakana listed because if you're a geek you really ought to at least be able to squeek by in reading them, and they'll give a better pronunciation clue to people who know it. And yes, many of these are more annoying than pronouncing Bahamut as Bah-hah-moot instead of Bah-hah-mit.

**Dem (デム): Dem
**Holla (ホラ): ¡Hola! With a hard H though.
**Mea (メア): May-a. Think Thomas Menino.
**Vahzl (ヴァズ): Vah-zoo(l)
Altepa (アルテパ): Ahl-tep-ah
Attohwa (アットワ): Ottawa. Technically it's a little different, but fuck trying to explain it, it's Ottawa now.
Balga (バルガ): Bahl-gah. Alternatively, Baluga as in whale.
Batallia (バタリア): Ba tal li a.
Beadeaux (ベドー): Bay doh
Beaucedine (ボスディン): Boss-deen.
Bibiki　(ビビã‚): Bih bih key
Bostaunieux (ボストーニュ): Bos toh nyu. Alternatively, we all call it Boston U from now on.
Boyahda (ボヤーダ):　Bo yah duh
Buburimu (ブブリム): Bu bu ri mu
Dangruf (ダングルフ): Dan groo+(f)
Davoi (ダボイ): Dah voy
Delkfutts (デルクフ): Delk-foo(ts?)
Eldieme (エルディーム): El deem
Fei'Yin (フェ・イン): Fay Een
Garlaige (ガルレージュ): Garl age
Ghelsba (ゲルスバ): ...Ghelsba. Hard G. Other than that it's basically what you'd expect reading it.
Giddeus (ギデアス): Gidday-us
Gusgen (グスゲン): Goose-gen.
Gustaberg (グスタベルグ): Goose ta behrg
Gustav (グスタフ): Goose taf
Horlais (ホルレー): Whore lay. Jesus Christ, the orcs are perverts.
Horutoto (ホルトト): Ho ru to to
Jugner (ジャグナー): Jug ner.
Konschtat (コンシュタット): Cone-shoe-tat
Korroloka (コãƒãƒã‚«): Kor roh loh kah
Kuftal (クフタル): Koof tahl
La'Loff (ラ・ãƒãƒ•): La Loh+(f)
La Theine (ラテーヌ): Lah Thay+(n)
Lufaise (ルフェーゼ): Loo phase-A
Meriphataud (メリファト): Mary fat oh.
Misareaux (ミザレオ): Mizarayoh
Movalpolos (ムバルポãƒã‚¹): Moovahl poh-lohs
Onzozo (オンゾゾ): Own zo zo. Guys I am not even kidding about this, seriously. This is just romanized Japanese up ins.
Ordelle (オルデール): Ordell. Just think "Orwell" with a D.
Oztroja (オズトãƒãƒ¤): Oz troy ah. THIS JUST IN, YAGUDO ARE OFFICIALLY MEXICANS
Palborough (パルブãƒ): Pal boo row
Passhow (パシュハウ): Pah shauw (rhymes with "cow")
Phanaut (ファノエ): Fa no eh
Phomiuna (フォミュナ): Foe Mewna
Promyvion (プãƒãƒŸãƒ´ã‚£ã‚ªãƒ³): Promih vian
Pso'Xja (ソ・ジヤ): So Ji-ah
Qu'Bia (ク・ビア): Koo Bea
Qufim (クフィム): Koo-fim
Qulun (クゥルン): Koo loon
Ranguemont (ラングモント): Wrong moont
Ranperre (ランペール): Rahn pair
Rolanberry (ãƒãƒ©ãƒ³ãƒ™ãƒªãƒ¼): Row lan berry
Ronfaure (ãƒãƒ³ãƒ•ã‚©ãƒ¼ãƒ«): Rohn fohr.
Ro'Maeve (ãƒãƒ»ãƒ¡ãƒ¼ãƒ´): Row May+(v)
Ru'Aun (ル・オン): Rue Own
Ru'Avitau (ル・アビタウ): Roo Ah vee tau
Sarutabaruta (サルタバルタ): Sa ru ta ba ru ta. Because Windurst is actually how SE sees Japan.
Sauromugue (ソãƒãƒ ã‚°): Sorrow-moog
Shakrami (シャクラミ): Shock rah me
Tahrongi (ã‚¿ãƒãƒ³ã‚®): Ta ron gi
Teriggan (テリガン): Te ri gan
Toraimorai (トライモライ): To rai mo rai
Uggalepih (ウガレピ): Oo-gally-pee.
Uleguerand (ウルガラン): Ull Gran(d)
Valkurm (バルクルム): Vahl-koorm. Alternatively, Val Kilmer.
Ve'Lugannon (ヴェ・ルガノン): Vay Loo ga non
Waughroon (ワールン): Wah rune. The "gh" is just for shits and giggles.
Xarcabard (ザルカバード): Zar kah bard
Yhoator (ヨアトル): Yoah-tore. Not sure if the yo ah is supposed to be two separate syllables or not.
Yuguhott (ユゴホト): You goo hoe+(t). The first one I honestly did not see coming.
Yuhtunga (ユタンガ): You-tongue-ah
Zheruhn (ツェールン): Zay rune
Zi'Tah (ジ・タ): Zee Tah
Zvahl (ズバァール): Zvahl

Town pronunciation starts 164, ends 234 if I ever decide to get around to it.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

[Elwynn]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Where's Bastok... I mean Bastoook? And the list might have been a bit better sorted.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

I once knew a guy who pronounced Shakrami as Sha-zak-ru. Nobody could figure out where he got it from, but it was funny hearing him say it.

[DakAttack]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Could have used this YEARS AGO.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

I just assumed anything San'doria related was comparable to french pronunciation
Anything Bastok was comparable to Germanic and Celtic cultures, hence "Bast- ook"
Anything Windust comparable to Japanese, plus it fits the Tarutaru's rhyming and all that.

But then there's just the straight-up D'n'D bullshit like Pso'Xja. Fei'yin and Al'Tiaeu where apostrophes just exist for no good reason.

Japanifying San'dorian and Bastok-related zones - stuff derived from western culture - for "proper" pronunciation is just stretching it too far for my tastes. Japanese players are free to make it comfortable to their culture and chances are if they say the zone's name, I'll know what they're talking about since I've heard enough Japanifying of English to play along.

But so long as that D'n'D stuff keeps getting in there, mispronunciation is bound to occur.

I mean, Pso'xja?

So-zee-ya. Best I can come up with.

Fei'yin? Fayyin.

Going the FFXII route with more pretentious names like "The Stillshrine of Miriam" and "Dalmasca Westersands/Estersands" actually is easier on the brain and the tounge, though it just invites all kinds of abbreviation.

[Feba]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Where's Bastok... I mean Bastoook? And the list might have been a bit better sorted.

Bastook would be under countries; I just typed that part in in a hurry, but I actually meant all 'town' zones up to COP. And the list is sorted, in the order that the book lists them, with a couple exceptions made to group things together. I may go back and alphabetize it later, but eh.

BBQ, perhaps you misunderstood. I'm using the Japanese naming as a guide, not the canonical pronunciation. As in, Goose-ta-berhg can be derived from a logical interpretation of the katakana combined with the roman script; the actual katakana is GUSUTABERUGU. Of course I can't interpret perfectly with two imperfect writing systems, and I can't quite express things properly as I have zero ability to write in IPA, but this will at least help to narrow down from pronunciations which are way off; and also is interesting in some cases. There's no in game hint that Oztroja's "J" is actually more of a Spanish "Yeh" sound, and without the katakana guide we probably never would've known. But Japanese is perfectly capable of representing the "J" sound, so we know that it's deliberate, and not an "oh, we lack this sound" situation.

So-zee-ya. Best I can come up with.

...which if you'd read the original post, you'd realize is almost correct. It probably a "J" sound; Japanese does leave a little bit of room for that to be intended as a "Z" sound, but then you have to assume that the J is supposed to be a vowel.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

BBQ, perhaps you misunderstood. I'm using the Japanese naming as a guide, not the canonical pronunciation

Not what the title says, though, the title makes it sound official.

which if you'd read the original post, you'd realize is almost correct. It probably a "J" sound; Japanese does leave a little bit of room for that to be intended as a "Z" sound, but then you have to assume that the J is supposed to be a vowel.

I read it, I can't see katakana on this PC, though, and have only mild knowledge. I actually did my pronunciation wrong, too, as I think the name only has two-syllables.

If I'm to go by Vana'diel then Pso'xja and the Horutoto ruins have much in common. The Kuluu created these and once resided on the region that would be come Windurst. It wasn't until the Tarutaru settled in what would become Sarutabaruta and Windurst and explored these that they discovered magic. Contemporary Tarutaru language probably evolved from many of these discoveries as magic became more central to their culture.

"Pso'xja", though, is a high western fantasy kind of naming. I'm sure if some novelist had his way, there'd be a second apostrophe in there somewhere just to make it harder.

If I'm a Tarutaru, though, I see two syllables here and two silent letters "so-ja"
But if Kuluu - subscribing to complete western archtypes, its probably "So-zia"

Katakana, by nature, just loves to put syllables where we'd never put any.

Example: Metroid

Its a made-up word, made up in Japan and even after making it up, katakana goes and adds more syllables.

Met-a-roi-do.

Anyway, its not something anyone should be taking too seriously. Regardless of pronunciation, what Pso'xja really means is:

"That disjointed clusterfuck of a dungeon beneath Beaucedine Glacier."

[Mhurron]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

"Pso'xja", though, is a high western fantasy kind of naming.

I had no Idea Gygax named Hawaiʻi, or that Tolken was Italian - L'Aquila - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The apostrophe is often used as a pronunciation guide, usually to indicate where stress should be added.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

I had no Idea Gygax named Hawaiʻi, or that Tolken was Italian - L'Aquila - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The apostrophe is often used as a pronunciation guide, usually to indicate where stress should be added.

Yeah, I'm aware. Its just that western high fantasy uses it far too liberally in contrast to what SE went with. You're lucky if one character or place gets by with less than three apostrophes in their name.

Don't get me started on Everquest. Some of the names i've seen there and in fantasy novels just seem intended to make the reader give up on pronunciation.

[Raydeus]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Oztroja (オズトãƒãƒ¤): Oz troy ah. THIS JUST IN, YAGUDO ARE OFFICIALLY MEXICANS

PS > I'm so glad Japanese and Spanish are so similar.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

I'll try to keep the list alphabetized. If Feba wants it organized in some other fashion, he'll do it himself.

As for Japanese and Spanish, we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant for my daughters birthday. Our chef was definately Japanese and had a very thick accent, at times it was difficult to understand him. As the chef was preparing our food, a lady at the habachi started talking in Spanish and the JP chef started talking in Spanish too. Wow...talk about blowing your mind...Spanish with a heavy JP accent will do it!

[Raydeus]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Where's Bastok... I mean Bastoook?

Bastok (バストゥ－ク): Bah s tow ck, or something like that I guess. Shorten the o sound a bit.

[Feba]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

Not what the title says, though, the title makes it sound official.

...because these are. Ok, let me make this clearer since you're still not getting it:

* The Japanese pronunciation is an approximation
* However, the Japanese pronunciation is a very good guide for how the areas are supposed to be pronounced.

Also, your comments on katakana make my brain hurt. Please do some actual research before you start explaining how they work to someone who's been reading them for over half a decade.

[Elwynn]

Re: Area pronunciation guide

As for Japanese and Spanish, we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant for my daughters birthday. Our chef was definately Japanese and had a very thick accent, at times it was difficult to understand him. As the chef was preparing our food, a lady at the habachi started talking in Spanish and the JP chef started talking in Spanish too. Wow...talk about blowing your mind...Spanish with a heavy JP accent will do it!

Japanese is why my college Spanish got mostly evicted from my brain. If I try to think in Spanish, I keep wanting to use Japanese grammar. But I'll be happy never to have to conjugate that verb with "fue" as one of its forms ever again. Japanese has like 2 1/2 irregular verbs, plus 10 or so honorific verbs that are consistently irregular, and that's awesome.

It's the concept of Japanese with a Mexican accent that I find funny. Think of Speedy Gonzalez's buddies saying "Shou ga nai yo" in that slow drawl and extraploate from there. (Then there's the story of the Spanish speaking women who took Japanese classes when they were Japan from their husbands working there, and sounding like street punks from trilling their Rs so hard.)