24 replies to this topic

[Crazy Penguin]

I always read Gerudo with a "G" as in "gem", but just watched a Youtube video with somebody saying it with a "G" as in "gold". In fifteen years it's never even crossed my mind that it might be pronounced that way.

Internet! Which one is correct?

[Twinrova]

Idk which one is "correct", but my bf and I have always pronounced it with a hard g like in "gold".

[Snow]

Yeah, I'm fairly certain it's a hard g, at least if you go by the Japanese spelling of the word.

Edited by Snow, 15 June 2011 - 02:12 PM.

[Hana-Nezumi]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a hard G. "Geh-roo-doh" is how I would say it based on the Japanese pronunciation.

[wisp]

Yeah, I always pronounced it like the g in "gold" also... figured that since the word was created by Japanese people, it would be pronounced like a typical Japanese word.

[Veteran]

Yeah, hard g for me as well.

Jerudo sounds like an Italian hairdresser! XD

[SOAP]

Don't worry. I know the feeling. For many years I pronounced Hyrule and Hylia as He-Rule and He-Lia insteda of Hi-Rule and Hi-Lia. It wasn't until the trailer for TWW came out, you know the one taht's shot in live action with a girl in a cloack in some tower that was shown in theaters? Well the first thing she said was "In the Land of Hi-Rule--" and I'm sitting in the audience going "D'oh!"

In my defense my first exposure to Zelda was through my Spanish speaking cousin and taht's how he pronounce it through his accent. Lake Hylia in particular since we spent most of time fishing in Lake "He-lia" in OoT.

[Egann]

I have always been of the persuasion that, in fantasy, if a word's pronunciation is not ALWAYS intuitively obvious, it defeats the purpose to insist there is a right or a wrong way to say the word. Case in point: Robert Jordan's word "Angreal." As per the glossary in the back of the book (yes; he put a fucking glossary in his books) it's pronounced with the emphasis on the final syllable, but whenever I see the word I feel absolutely certain the emphasis ought to go on the first. Now throw in words like "Myrddraal." Is that Mire Drawl? Mirror Drael? WTF!

For the record, I've always pronounced Gerudo with a soft J sound. It just seems to flow off my tongue more easily. Considering the "original Japanese" pronunciation should go something like "Geludo," with emphasis firmly on the final syllable, and that ANYONE of Anglo-Saxon decent will probably instinctively put the emphasis on the U....you know, let's make this simple; until Zelda has voice acting (ha ha ha) I'm not really of a mind to change how I pronounce it in my head to fit in. IT DOESN'T MATTER.

[Hana-Nezumi]

I understand what you're trying to say, but Japanese has different characters for a hard G and a soft G. If it was meant to be pronounced with a soft G, it would have been written that way, but it's not.

[Selena]

Hard G.

[Nevermind]

Heraldo. Gannondorf, King of the Heraldos.

[Dizzy]

Mind = blown.



I always had the tendency to pronounce it like "Jerudo". Right or wrong, it just kinda made sense and stuck.

[Selena]

Jerudos sell jelatos by the jelatoshore.

[Nevermind]

Jerudos sell jelatos by the jelatoshore.

jerseyshore*

[Dizzy]

Jerudos sell jelatos by the jelatoshore.

jerseyshore*

Snoo snoo.

[Selena]

Snoobooru.

[Sir Deimos]

Don't worry. I know the feeling. For many years I pronounced Hyrule and Hylia as He-Rule and He-Lia insteda of Hi-Rule and Hi-Lia. It wasn't until the trailer for TWW came out, you know the one taht's shot in live action with a girl in a cloack in some tower that was shown in theaters? Well the first thing she said was "In the Land of Hi-Rule--" and I'm sitting in the audience going "D'oh!"

I don't get it. If the majority of people pronounced the Y that way for Hyrule, why doesn't anyone pronounce the Y that way for Synile!? XD y sound not e!

[Veteran]

I pronounce Synile as "Linkfournumbers".

[Doopliss]

English spelling is the meanest, nastiest bitch ever to have appeared on the face of earth. Fact. I've been learning this language for 14 years and I still hesitate about the pronunciation of some words when speaking (I must say though that this is largely in part because I learned how to write in English long before I learned how to speak).

In any case, I've always pronounced Gerudo with a voiced velar plosive (hard g), simply because that's the way Spanish speakers pronounce it , and 12 years ago when I first saw the word I wasn't acquainted with English pronunciation. But as for the case of Hyrule, I just had an aunt from New York who was visiting my family when I had just got the game and she told me how to read it.

Edited by Doopliss, 16 June 2011 - 11:21 AM.

[Selena]

I always used the "high-rule" for Hyrule, but I've yet to bring myself to say "high-lia" for Hylia. My mind automatically goes straight to "Hill-lia."

[Hero of Slime]

When I say the word Gerudo it sounds a bit like "Grew-Dew."
Hyrule sounds like "High-rule" but Hylia and Hylian both sound like the word Helium.
My name sounds like the word soul.

[Doopliss]

I always used the "high-rule" for Hyrule, but I've yet to bring myself to say "high-lia" for Hylia. My mind automatically goes straight to "Hill-lia."

Yes, I think it would be correct to pronounce the y in Hylian as a single i sound. Sometimes derived words change the pronunciation of vowels, like advertise and advertisement, so I think that would apply here.

[Fin]

I'm with Egann. I tend to pronounce Gerudo according to Japanese phonetics, but for me that just happened to be the way I always read the word. Sometimes the most intuitive pronunciation for me doesn't conform to Japanese phonetics, and while that may not be 'correct', that's just one of the things that happens when you import something to another culture. People experience a text by bringing their own understandings to it. That's simply how an audience engages with fiction.

EDIT: These days, I tend to read new Zelda terms under Japanese rules, but that's, again, intuitive. I've simply gained more of an interest in Japanese over the last few years. I don't regard those readings as truer, because I don't believe a non-Japanese player necessarily needs to immerse themselves in Japanese culture to get something out of the stories. (Though it is interesting to put them in their original context, of course. )

Edited by Finbarr, 16 June 2011 - 02:59 PM.

[joeymartin64]

For fictional words, I defer to the language they were created in, Japanese in this case. So, hard G in "Gerudo," and all the Hy-words pronounced like "high."

[Crazy Penguin]

The next Gerudo king should be named Gerald.