Posted by iTZKooPA on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 - 43 Comments
Tags: blue posts, caydiem, fond memories, google search, hard to say words, how to pronounce, old forum posts, Pronunciation, Ulduar
What does pronunciation have to do with a fond memory, let alone World of Warcraft? Allow me to paint you a (paint by numbers) picture. I was cleaning out my bookmarks a few weeks ago and I came across a thread I saved from 2005 entitled “How do you pronounce Scholomance?“ Filled with glee and excitement, I clicked on the link to relive the joy that 2005 had brought me, but it was all for naught thanks to Blizzard and the forum pruning. Dejected but not broken, I tried a quick Google search and came across an archived version of the thread. It is difficult to read and it repeats itself for some reason, but now-retired CM Caydiem, and the other forum goers, deliver a bunch of win in the thread.
I must hand it to the original poster though, that was a brave question to ask more than six months after the title was released. It was also a good one. Seeing as the game and its locations are largely made up via the MMORPG’s various racial dialects, it can be quite difficult to discern the correct pronunciation. As the thread points out, sometimes Blizzard doesn’t even know the “correct” phonetics to the words. There are a ton of phrases from World of Warcraft that I have heard mispronounced in various way. I’ll admit that I just recently learned the correct pronunciation of Ulduar (Ull-doo-ar). Reaching further back there are common mistakes with the Draenei (DRAN-eye), their buddies the Naaru (na-ru), TBC’s main city Shattrath, C’Thun (Kah-Thoon) and everyone’s favorite goblin town of Gadgetzan (Gadget-zan). I was off on only two of those, drain-y and ul-der.
I honestly don’t know the official pronunciation of Shattrath City. Personally, I have always said Shatt-wrath, but find a silent th, Shatt-ra, to be acceptable as well due to the draenei roots. You’d think that I would have learned from my guild’s ventrilo, but how often do people say the whole location, rather than Shat? Perhaps my guildmates don’t know the intended sound of the city either…
What commonly used locations and words do you hear murdered during your travels? At the same time, please state the perceived correct way to say the words in question. The thing that makes me chuckle the most is that English words like melee and buffet are botched to this day!
As for spelling misteakes, that is an entirely different discussion. All this talk of steaks and smorgasbords is making me hungry.
Related Posts: Gone Lichin’, Knowing Your Place, The Next Expansion: Making A Case For Guild/Server History, Fond Memories: Tyr’s Hand, Fond Memories: My First Guild Drama,
By Hatredy on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Fjord Fyord
By Rikaku on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I remember how my friend made fun of me on how I pronounced “Un’goro”. UHN-gor-o
We had a full on discussion about
By Rikaku on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Scholomance as well. XD
(cut me off /sad)
By Crys on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
shattrath… shat… wrath
By Fuegogrande on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I often hear “rejant” for reagent (correct pronunciation is ree-ey-juhnt)
By Fuegogrande on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
To add to my prior post some people also say “re-gent”
By Raknor on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
My GFs toon is named Neryss (Ner-ees) and alot of people in vent call her (Neriss).
Also another friend has the name Scipio (Seepeeoh) but I end up hearing most people say (Skippy-o)
By ragaxen on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
One of my friends was terrible with his pronunciation.
Shat-er-ah(Shat-trath, or Or-ee-gam-ah(Org-rim-mar) were two common ones which he still uses today. I have also heard Dal-air-ee-en(Dal-uh-ran).
By andronis on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
sholazar basin i have no idea how to say it
By Sathas on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 2:24 pm
My guild had a whole day on vent devoted to the correct pronunciation of Howling Fjord.
fuh-jord or fee-yord?
Even though the answer is obvious, it was still pretty hilarious.
By Tom on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Yay the perfect followup to the spelling nazi blog from yesterday!
By Izuna on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
To find the proper pronunciation of fjord find a Norwegian dictionary and look up the word. The word it self dates back to the Norse word fjǫrdr.. try to pronounce that!
The most terrible pronunciation I have ever heard must have been when my friend somehow imagined an extra “e” in Searing Gorge, so he pronounced it as Searing George.
By Hudsie008 on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I have Always said “Resto” like Restore, instead of how most people say it RESTo
By churchill on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I firstly enjoy how iTZKoopa did not say “if you do not say shattrath correctly i will hate you and not come to your tea party” and instead just said that he enjoys how there is confusion and ends with asking the comments to answer questions. And now for my own, “Gnomeregan: nome-re-gan or gome-re-gan” I believe it was Hobbs who first said gomeregan and it stuck with me whenever i say nomeregan (I literally say, i type Gnomeregan -withought the capital g sometimes)
By churchill on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
to fix my ending there (I litterally say that, but i type Gnomeregan) and in case Heartbourne is here, hye duddee, howz u bean? Im goud, thx 4 asking : P
By Jesus on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
The words my guild pronounce wrong atm are melee(and they always have) they say meleé, and now when we are doing Ulduar ther is a bunch of words…like “sentinel”.
By Ada on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Personally, I say Sk-all-o-mance for Scholomance. Also, in respone to one of Caydiem’s pronunciations…I say Arathi as Air-a-thigh.
By Christian Vignoli - Forum Name: (Diabolika) on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
It repeats itself because it shows the posts he edited.
in the subject space it was *edited post*
where as the ones before it repeats itself doesnt
[=
did that help you figure out why it repeats itself?
alright have a good one projectlore crew!
By Thelmaris on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
The draenei have been the biggest point of pronunciation contention amongst my friends and I over the years. Drain-eye, Drain - ee, Drain - ay, etc. Other than that only minor things, the occasional screwing up of Zangar Marsh, that kinda thing.
By Nomzz on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
This is the blog post Ive been waiting for.
I pronounce everything different.
Hearthstone
Draenei
Naxxrammas
Ulduar
Howling Fjord
Melee
Nomzz (which is kinda weird since its MY name)
By Alayea on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
The only thing I’ve heard messed up over the years is my name (can’t say I blame them, though). I’ve heard some say it as “All-lee-uh”, others “Uh-lay-yay”, or even more who just give up and say “that shaman”.
Correct pronunciation is “Uh-lay-uh”, btw.
By Vayder on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
here is my list of my top 5 words i pronounce…”Oddley”
5-Stratholme= Strat-home
4-Scholomance=Sh-colo-mins
3-Draenei-Dray-ah-nie
2-Shattrath=Shat-er-raith
1-Orgrimmar- Oh-grim-mor
yeah i know…i have a speach empediment.lol
By cocopuff on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
first of all heartbourne if your reading this you could learn a thing or 2 pronounciation is just as important as spelling but he didnt make such a big deal of it and see not one hate post
now back to the subject their were a few words i prounced incorrectly one of the first were hearthstone i prounced it like heartstone but i soon learned after i asked a guy whear is your heart i prounced gam with a soft g i prounced tier like tire i a mstill not sure which is correct i here people call it both i just prounce it tier for about first 2 years that i been playing i prounced stealth like st-e-lth untill i saw the movie i still prounce it like that but now i usualy correct my self some times another word i pronounced wrong for very long is kalimdor i pronounced it like kalimindor which i allso still prounce because i am use to it i allso prounced scholo and and strat wrong but it been to long since i used the full word cant even renember how i prounced it naja was allso a confussing word i prounced naja like ninja
By Madeinisrael on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
After checking the Merriam-Webster dictionary website, I found out that melee can be pronounced in 2 ways.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee
I tend to pronounce it as it’s prounounced in Super Smash Bros. Melee (may-lay)
By kstroud89 on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
My mage (before I changed his name to Leopluradon) had the name Elyon. Most people said El-yawn, but it is pronounced El-ee-on. It’s Hebrew for All-Sufficient One, talking about God. But then I decided I had no right whatsoever to name my character after God so I changed it and gave God his due respect.
By Unknown on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 am
I have a gift of being able to pronounce all the weird names in wow correctly, Ive even had a few tickets opened in arguments only to find out I was saying it the right way and making the people who opened the ticket look like an idiot.
But the one word I hear mispronounced is my main char.’s name Felith is almost always said “Feel-ith” when I ment it to be said “Fell-ith” after a while it starts to bother me.
I also hear the following pronounced incorrectly:
Dreanei (drain-y)
Scholomance (show-low-mane)
Stratholme (strat-holme)
Shattrath (shat-a-wrath) and (sath-a-ruh)
Kel’thuzad (kel-thoo-zad)
Dalaran (dalar-an)
By Sean on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 3:20 am
Mike Shramm and his Howling Fah-jord. >_>
It’s Fyord >_< gah, bugs me everytime, even though he jokes about it.
Blizzard to like playing with their pronounciations, Kel’Thuzad and Quel’Thelas used to get me. (Kel tuh zad and Qwell Fell Ass, I used to say =-p)
By Bass on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 3:49 am
As for me, this is one I’ve had so much, after hearing it used in Wow…
Should it be (Naxxramas) Nacks-ra-mahs, or Nacks-ram-is? And when we come to the floating necropoli in Wow… would it be Ar-ker-us, or Ack-er-us (Acherus).
Let’s face it, I doubt even Blizz can pronounce half of the names they’ve made in the game. Just makes it more fun, with humourous, meaningless discussions about the names (Not this thread. This thread raises good questions, and you get to see different pronunciations of words you knew).
By Krawk on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 5:38 am
Wut about the dreaded Ankh …..? and if its plural?…
i need Ankhs? pretty rough. i never feel ive said it right
By Tinkee on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 7:05 am
Dalaran:
Dal AH ran
Dal A Ran
Dol aran
?????? HELP!!!!!!
By illigetimi on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Being a lore nut, names have always been of great importance to me. I know with certainty that I pronounce almost all of them properly. That is, except for some with vowels that i make more poignant (None come to mind right now, but I tend to make vowels in exotic names pointed).
On the subject of Stratholme- I always pronounce it “Strath-holme” with the seccond h kind of melded with the first one. This is how I remember the name said in the Warcraft III human capaign, but I always know it my heart it should be strat-holme, because holme is a standalone word that’s used as part of the name.
@kstroud:
Are you sure elyon is pronounced like that? I always say it with a shva beneath the L, but you’ve got me questioning that.
By Ommadon on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
My friends pronounce Orgrimmar as Oh-grim-meer and it always bothers me.
By cocopuff on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 pm
i used rpounce prounce stratholme stratholome now i prounce it stra-tholme
By elion on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
here is tongue twister kil’jaeden kil’jodon kil’jayden kil’jaden corrently i prounce it kil’jayden i dont know it its right
By Shnoo on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
My orc warrior was named Ugluck after Ugluk (yes i know i forgot the accent) and people to this day pronounce it Oo-Glak and my Rogue Blaggut (From the Redwall series
) people called me Bluh get. it should be Blah gut .
btw i used to say scholomance skool oh mance
(i was only like 9 then)
Orgrimmar is easy just think Orgrim (the Orc chieftan it was named after)
By nethya on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
ive never had problems pronouncing any of those… but there are so many people that do have problems pronouncing even english words.
if you actually read ulduar it sounds just how its spelt.
By Cuppincakes on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I don’t have too many problems when I actually bother to read the letters in the word or name. Messing up made up names in no way shape or form bothers me, much. I usually go by whatever language the fictional one is based off and approximate that pronunciation. But it is amusing when people mess up English words or even common foreign language loan words. Ulduar was easy enough for me. The rest of the Norse stuff? Not so much. I mean, I can know how to say, but that doesn’t mean I can.
By Cuppincakes on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Alex! Alex says Oh-grih-mar alot. Or Ogre-mar. It’s named after Orgrim Doomhammer. Orgrim-mar. Kind of like how Danville is named after some guy named Dan.
By Nebyula on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Dalaran is funny to hear on vent, usually goes like this:
hey, meet me in dahl-uh-ran? err, dal-awr-en. um, dal? uh just meet me there.
Or in raids when the raid leader is explaining the fight, and is trying to say the bosses name correctly, that amuses me too.
I say scholomance as “skohl-oh-manse”, I say dalaran as “dal-awr-un” even though I’m 90% sure that’s incorrect.
I say draenei as “drah-neye”, and shattrath as “shat-rath”. Finally, stratholme as “strath-olm”. =)
By Nebyula on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 4:16 am
oh! and:
I’ve also heard reagent as “rejent” and it makes me giggle.
By Kimeghale on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
My characters name people say kim-a-gal or kim-a-gall
It say it (yes being the inventor of it (only kimeghale in game last i looked in armory)) i want it said Kime-gale
By Amynna on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 10:24 am
My name gets it a lot.
Amynna
Ah-mi-na
It gets shortened to “Amy” a lot, when a phonetic shortening would be “Mina”
I’ve gotten in debates over the pronunciation of “herb” and “herbalism” before. I say it without the H, some say it with. Even in trade chat, it’s obvious how someone pronounces it - a herb vs an herb.
Oddly, my biggest issue with the Scholomance is the definite article. It’s unnecessary, I know, but to me, it looks wrong as just “Scholomance”. The “Scholo” abbreviation is fine, but spell it out and I will tack “the” on there.
By Hamyros on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
The one that irks me the most is Naxxramas. A lot of people I know pronounce it as Nacks(rhymes with snacks)-ram-is. Coming from an English major and being one who excels in public speaking and pronunciation, I feel that the correct pronunciation should be Knocks-rom(rhymes with mom)-us. It just sounds wierd being Nacks, and it also just sounds obnoxious instead of dreadful, which is how the name should sound considering what it represents: a floating fortress of agony under the rule of one of the first and most loyal subjects of the Lich King.