I always thought of Solgaleo as Sole-guh-lay-oe.
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The Official Name-Pronunciation Guide
- Thread starter Seth Vilo
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I think they're going to focus on the lion theme rather then the reference to Galileo. Though honestly we won't know until probably an advertisement or the anime says its name. Hey GF, maybe on the Pokemon's bio you should include both a written way to pronounce the Pokemon's name and have a small voice clip saying it.
though either way, no matter how you say it, I think we'll know what Pokemon we're talking about.
Though I do have to ask, where did you get the "guh" part from?
Rowlet: R-owl-et
Dartrix: Dart-triks
Decidueye: Des-sid-doo-eye
Litten: Lit-tehn
Torracat: Tor-rah-kaht
Incineroar: In-sin-ner-roar
Popplio: Pop-plee-oh
Brionne: Bree-ohn-nay
Primarina: Prim-ma-ree-nuh
Pikipek: Pik-kee-pek
Trumbeak: Trum-beek
Toucannon: Too-kan-nun
Yungoos: Yun-gooz
Gumshoos: Gum-shoo-ss
Grubbin: Grub-bin
Charjabug: Charge-ja-bug
Vikavolt: Vik-ka-volt
Crabrawler: Crab-brawl-lur
Crabominable: Crab-bom-in-uh-bul
Oricorio: Ore-ee-core-ee-oh
Cutiefly: Cute-tee-fly
Ribombee: Rib-bomb-bee
Rockruff: Rok-ruf
Lycanroc: Lie-kan-rok
Wishiwashi: Wish-shee-wash-shee
Mareanie: Mar-ee-nee
Toxapex: Toks-ae-peks
Mudbray: Mud-bray
Mudsdale: Muds-dale
Dewpider: Doo-pie-dur
Araquanid: Aar-ah-kwa-nid
Fomantis: Foh-man-tiss
Lurantis: Lure-an-tiss
Morelull: More-ell-lul
Shiinotic: Shi-not-tik
Salandit: Sal-an-dit
Salazzle: Saal-laz-zul
Stufful: Stuf-ful
Bewear: Bee-ware
Bounsweet: Bounce-sweet
Steenee: Stee-nee
Tsareena: Zaar-ree-nuh
Comfey: Come-fee
Oranguru: Ore-ran-gur-roo
Passimian: Pass-sim-mee-an
Wimpod: Wimp-pod
Golisopod: Gol-lis-soh-pod
Sandygast: Sand-dee-ghast
Palossand: Pahl-lahs-sand
Pyukumuku: Puke-kue-muke-kue
Type: Null: Type-nul
Silvally: Silv-aal-lie
Minior: Min-ee-ore
Komala: Coh-mah-luh
Turtonator: Turt-ton-ae-tor
Togedemaru: Tog-geh-dem-mar-roo
Mimikyu: Mim-mick-you
Bruxish: Brux-ish
Drampa: Dramp-puh
Dhelmise: Delm-myze
Jangmo-o: Jang-moh-oh
Hakamo-o: Hahk-kah-moh-oh
Kommo-o: Kom-moh-oh
Tapu Koko: Tah-poo-koh-koh
Tapu Lele: Tah-poo-lay-lay
Tapu Bulu: Tah-poo-bool-loo
Tapu Fini: Tah-poo-fin-nee
Cosmog: Cahs-mog
Cosmoem: Cahs-moh-ehm
Solgaleo: Sohl-gahl-lee-oh
Lunala: Loon-ah-lah
Nihilego: Ni-hil-ee-go
Buzzwole: Buz-swuhl
Pheromosa: Feh-roh-moh-suh
Xurkitree: Zur-kit-tree
Celesteela: Sehl-lehs-steel-lah
Kartana: Kahrt-tah-nuh
Guzzlord: Guz-lord
Necrozma: Nek-krohz-muh
Magearna: Maah-geer-nuh
Marshadow: Marsh-shahd-doh
Dartrix: Dart-triks
Decidueye: Des-sid-doo-eye
Litten: Lit-tehn
Torracat: Tor-rah-kaht
Incineroar: In-sin-ner-roar
Popplio: Pop-plee-oh
Brionne: Bree-ohn-nay
Primarina: Prim-ma-ree-nuh
Pikipek: Pik-kee-pek
Trumbeak: Trum-beek
Toucannon: Too-kan-nun
Yungoos: Yun-gooz
Gumshoos: Gum-shoo-ss
Grubbin: Grub-bin
Charjabug: Charge-ja-bug
Vikavolt: Vik-ka-volt
Crabrawler: Crab-brawl-lur
Crabominable: Crab-bom-in-uh-bul
Oricorio: Ore-ee-core-ee-oh
Cutiefly: Cute-tee-fly
Ribombee: Rib-bomb-bee
Rockruff: Rok-ruf
Lycanroc: Lie-kan-rok
Wishiwashi: Wish-shee-wash-shee
Mareanie: Mar-ee-nee
Toxapex: Toks-ae-peks
Mudbray: Mud-bray
Mudsdale: Muds-dale
Dewpider: Doo-pie-dur
Araquanid: Aar-ah-kwa-nid
Fomantis: Foh-man-tiss
Lurantis: Lure-an-tiss
Morelull: More-ell-lul
Shiinotic: Shi-not-tik
Salandit: Sal-an-dit
Salazzle: Saal-laz-zul
Stufful: Stuf-ful
Bewear: Bee-ware
Bounsweet: Bounce-sweet
Steenee: Stee-nee
Tsareena: Zaar-ree-nuh
Comfey: Come-fee
Oranguru: Ore-ran-gur-roo
Passimian: Pass-sim-mee-an
Wimpod: Wimp-pod
Golisopod: Gol-lis-soh-pod
Sandygast: Sand-dee-ghast
Palossand: Pahl-lahs-sand
Pyukumuku: Puke-kue-muke-kue
Type: Null: Type-nul
Silvally: Silv-aal-lie
Minior: Min-ee-ore
Komala: Coh-mah-luh
Turtonator: Turt-ton-ae-tor
Togedemaru: Tog-geh-dem-mar-roo
Mimikyu: Mim-mick-you
Bruxish: Brux-ish
Drampa: Dramp-puh
Dhelmise: Delm-myze
Jangmo-o: Jang-moh-oh
Hakamo-o: Hahk-kah-moh-oh
Kommo-o: Kom-moh-oh
Tapu Koko: Tah-poo-koh-koh
Tapu Lele: Tah-poo-lay-lay
Tapu Bulu: Tah-poo-bool-loo
Tapu Fini: Tah-poo-fin-nee
Cosmog: Cahs-mog
Cosmoem: Cahs-moh-ehm
Solgaleo: Sohl-gahl-lee-oh
Lunala: Loon-ah-lah
Nihilego: Ni-hil-ee-go
Buzzwole: Buz-swuhl
Pheromosa: Feh-roh-moh-suh
Xurkitree: Zur-kit-tree
Celesteela: Sehl-lehs-steel-lah
Kartana: Kahrt-tah-nuh
Guzzlord: Guz-lord
Necrozma: Nek-krohz-muh
Magearna: Maah-geer-nuh
Marshadow: Marsh-shahd-doh
Should we also do this for human characters and confusing name locations?
Cosmog is Cosmo + Smog. Whatever the way you say those words is how you pronounce its name.
I think we're trying to pronounce it the same way but showing it differently. I separated the "r" and "owl" so you'd know to pronounce the r sound before saying owl. "Row" makes me think of the word "row", like "row the boat gently down the stream".
Mareanie is Marine + Meanie.
I think Gokuzbu's point was that some people (presumably them and definitely myself) pronounce the "o" in Cosm identically to the "o" in mog, making the "ah" distinction strange and unusual. But I've already reasoned from the r-ahl-et thing from the last page that we pronounce "ah" differently, so that's probably where the confusion is :V
I was working with the Meanie assumption for Mareanie too, especially since the stuff we know about it basically boils down to "is mean to corsola".
Emphasis on syllables can change a word. Where does everyone emphasise Solgaleo? I can see any variation work except stressing the last "o".
I see. Well when it comes to that I follow the "as long as it sounds like it could be derived from the Pokemon's name, thus I know what Pokemon you're talking about, than it's fine with me". As the saying goes, you say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to, but in the end we're both talking about a tomato.
For me its sol-gAl-leo, though sOL-gal-leo also sound fine.
Aha. What confused me was that this is the only instance of you using the hyphen for something else than syllables. Hence why I thought you were splitting the word into three rather than two.
As for Solgaleo, I'm saying sOL-GA-leo, stress on the first two syllables. No idea if it's correct, though, it's just the natural way to pronounce it in Norwegian.
Dammit. I've been pronouncing it all 3 ways with an even distribution, and can't commit to any. I miss Battle Revolution, the announcer was such a nice resource to have for pronounciation :( although iirc he got Arceus wrong.
Oh yeah, did that come up in this thread already? That Arceus is almost certainly Ar-key/kay-us instead of *shudder* Arse-ee-us, given Silvally's ability name in English being an obvious reference?
Oh yeah, did that come up in this thread already? That Arceus is almost certainly Ar-key/kay-us instead of *shudder* Arse-ee-us, given Silvally's ability name in English being an obvious reference?
Honestly the main website should have it on their site Pokedex.
Japan pronounces Arceus as "Ar-see-us" while internationally, due to the unintended British slang, it was made "Ar-key-us/Ar-kay-us". This is still seen with Silvally's Ability which in Japan is "AR System" and in the US as "RKS System" (though other places side-stepped the issue by naming it Alpha System).
AR System > Ar Sys > Ar seus > Arceus (Ar-see-us)
RKS System > R K S > Ar kay es > Arceus (Ar-kay-us)
I do remember this topic from the early days of XY, and it was great fun. I am curious, though, but why are all attempts at phonetic spellings done in a haphazard way? There are inconsistencies and almost all attempts can be misinterpreted (as is the case further up) by others.
If there are any better linguists out there, specifically those who actually have an ear for this stuff (music backgrounds can help), they can try to present these names in a unified system, such as IPA. Of course, all attempts will still be biased based on individual interpretations of these pronunciations. I realize that most people are not even aware of IPA, but all this representation of pronunciation via structures such as 'r-owl-et' or 'row-let' seem childish, or silly, rather. To me, the first is completely nonsensical and doesn't conform to expected methods of sound representation and the second one looks like an attempt at using other, 'simpler' English words to represent sound (so, 'row' as in 'row a boat' and 'let'). Of course some of these examples work for most people, but even the two 'most well-known' variants of English have noticeable differences (BE & AE).
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was set up to eliminate these issues. The goal is to present a system that can represent the pronunciation of any sound currently in use in any human language.
As an example, even though my ear is terrible and I make several mistakes when transcribing, I will attempt to present 'Rowlet' in IPA. Afterwards, I'll give it in a way much like those presented above to give people an idea of how I feel it is said. Keep in mind that this is in large part a biased and crude transcription.
Rowlet
/raʊlǝt/
(rau-let)
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was set up to eliminate these issues. The goal is to present a system that can represent the pronunciation of any sound currently in use in any human language.
As an example, even though my ear is terrible and I make several mistakes when transcribing, I will attempt to present 'Rowlet' in IPA. Afterwards, I'll give it in a way much like those presented above to give people an idea of how I feel it is said. Keep in mind that this is in large part a biased and crude transcription.
Rowlet
/raʊlǝt/
(rau-let)
I'm a bit of an IPA-nerd and would love to put up something like that. That said, not a lot of people know IPA and the more uh. . . plain English? Way? (Is there a word for it?), well that has its place too.
It can also lead to dialect bias, however, like the Cosmog issue discussed above. But I'd have a lot of fun typing that up in IPA for funsies. I can pretend it's practice for my career. . . win-win.
It can also lead to dialect bias, however, like the Cosmog issue discussed above. But I'd have a lot of fun typing that up in IPA for funsies. I can pretend it's practice for my career. . . win-win.
Here's the thing: Attempts at IPA transcribing are wonderful for those who can read it (and I can mostly read it). But to others? It's another language. Who does it benefit, then? The masses (i.e. those this thread/community is trying to help in gathering a better understanding of pronunciation standards in the Pokemon world)? Or the few that can read it and are linguistically adept (i.e. those that probably already have a great understanding of the Pokemon name pronunciations as it already stands)?
That's the problem. By going to simpler transcribing attempts that most can take a stab at, confusion abounds because the many readers of many backgrounds and many dialects and many L1s (first languages) can take the text on the screen before them, mold it to their own accustomed pronunciation of those very simplified words, and then go to either pronounce it correctly or incorrectly. Yet by referring to the International Phonetic Alphabet, confusion continues to abound in that, you know, most people cannot read it and don't have the time to learn to read it.
So where exactly are we headed with this "right versus wrong" stuff? Dialects and accents dictate that we already say words in everyday speech differently. Why are Pokemon names any different? It simply doesn't matter. Arceus pronounced as "Ar-see-uhs" to an American's ears isn't weird because, you know, we don't even comprehend the alternate meaning of the sound "arse." At. All.
So what are we getting at with the "correct" and "incorrect" stuff? It's just giving privilege to those speakers that understand all languages and sounds better than others, and we get nowhere. No language, dialect, accent, or whatever is better than another. All the same, no Pokemon name pronunciation is better than another (though some can be quite out there!).
I'll cap it off with this: I love my linguistics; I love my phonetics; I love my language and grammars and philology and etymology; I love my portmanteaus and word amalgams. And here I stand openly admitting that my mind got the best of me and went to pronounce Magearna as "Muh-jar-nuh" for the past two months until a friend stopped me and said, "Dude, it's 'Muh-gear-nuh.' Like, come on . . . it has gears." And I stood bewildered and laughing at myself. Why did I pronounce it as such? I guess my speech slipped into thinking it had something to do with "magic," thus pronouncing the second syllable like I would in the word "magic."
People have reasons for their idiosyncrasies in speech just as I slipped up in my own example. We can ultimately come to a better understanding of what specific names exactly mean and what words they're derived from, but to pin down perfect pronunciations is simply an impossible task. Otherwise, we'd all speak the same language in the exact same way. And that would be boring as hell.
That's the problem. By going to simpler transcribing attempts that most can take a stab at, confusion abounds because the many readers of many backgrounds and many dialects and many L1s (first languages) can take the text on the screen before them, mold it to their own accustomed pronunciation of those very simplified words, and then go to either pronounce it correctly or incorrectly. Yet by referring to the International Phonetic Alphabet, confusion continues to abound in that, you know, most people cannot read it and don't have the time to learn to read it.
So where exactly are we headed with this "right versus wrong" stuff? Dialects and accents dictate that we already say words in everyday speech differently. Why are Pokemon names any different? It simply doesn't matter. Arceus pronounced as "Ar-see-uhs" to an American's ears isn't weird because, you know, we don't even comprehend the alternate meaning of the sound "arse." At. All.
So what are we getting at with the "correct" and "incorrect" stuff? It's just giving privilege to those speakers that understand all languages and sounds better than others, and we get nowhere. No language, dialect, accent, or whatever is better than another. All the same, no Pokemon name pronunciation is better than another (though some can be quite out there!).
I'll cap it off with this: I love my linguistics; I love my phonetics; I love my language and grammars and philology and etymology; I love my portmanteaus and word amalgams. And here I stand openly admitting that my mind got the best of me and went to pronounce Magearna as "Muh-jar-nuh" for the past two months until a friend stopped me and said, "Dude, it's 'Muh-gear-nuh.' Like, come on . . . it has gears." And I stood bewildered and laughing at myself. Why did I pronounce it as such? I guess my speech slipped into thinking it had something to do with "magic," thus pronouncing the second syllable like I would in the word "magic."
People have reasons for their idiosyncrasies in speech just as I slipped up in my own example. We can ultimately come to a better understanding of what specific names exactly mean and what words they're derived from, but to pin down perfect pronunciations is simply an impossible task. Otherwise, we'd all speak the same language in the exact same way. And that would be boring as hell.
IPA exists to be an easy form of transcription to understand. All you have to do is sound it out in your head. Pikachu's name pronunciation guide is influenced so heavily by niche features of a particular dialect which are difficult for others to understand, whereas IPA should avoid this. Most people get confused if they see "co" turn into "cah" for no apparent reason, as the o in question is phonetic in the word cosmos, and therefore having another vowel substituted into that syllable is misleading. Sure it's to do with dialect, but IPA gets rid of it, so that guide would be super useful and interesting to see.
You mispelled "Virizion" on the front page as "Verizion," which made it hard to find using Function3. (Cant use the reply button as I cant use it efficiently on phone)
Looking at the name origins on bulbapedia should solve most debates
Yeah, I'd like to see IPA pronunciations, maybe alongside the ones we have now. It's not hard to learn anyway. Most consonant symbols are the same, and those that aren't are pretty inituitive and easy to remember. Vowels are trickier due to different accents and for second language learners, but certainly much less confusing than the spelling pronunciation we have now.
I said most. Die-all-ga works fine. The Japanese pronounce diamond like that
Either if the bottom two work. If it matters, google translate's pronunciation algorithm chooses the bottom one
Here is how I pronounce certain Pokemon's names:
Aegislash: EE-ji-slash (because I think that the name is based off the word 'Aegis', which is pronounced 'EE-jiss')
Arceus : AR-kee-uss
Dedenne: deh-DENN
Feel free to correct me if I'm mispronouncing them. ;)
Aegislash: EE-ji-slash (because I think that the name is based off the word 'Aegis', which is pronounced 'EE-jiss')
Arceus : AR-kee-uss
Dedenne: deh-DENN
Feel free to correct me if I'm mispronouncing them. ;)
If that's how you pronounce them far be anyone to call you wrong since those aren't out of the box interpretations. I can tell you how the anime says them:
1. They do pronounce Aegislash name as such.
2. Dedenne is "den-den-nay".
3. We already talked about the problems with Arceus name so say it however you like.
Since this thread got necroed, I might as well join in since there are a couple of pokemon names I pronounce differently then the OP. Maybe a moderater can edit the OP since a lot of errors that have been pointed out in the comments haven't been corrected.
I'm pretty sure spearow is pronounced sparrow (as in arrow) rather than spear-oh. In pokepark, the spearow shout there own name and they pronounce it sparrow too.
Fearow is debatable, because the 'fea' part can be based on either fear or feather. Personally I say fear-oh because I think the word fierce might have an influence here as well, but there's definitely a case to be made for farrow.
I have always pronounced the poliwag family like polly-wag, so without the long 'o'. I searched on bulbapedia and it says that poliwag is based on 'polliwog', an outdated term for tadpole. Judging from this, I think the 'poli' part in the entire poliwag family is definitely pronounced polly instead of pol-ee. There's someting similar going on with piloswine, which I have always pronounced pillow-swine. The 'pilo' part comes from pilose, which is pronounced pill-oose according to google (which uses a British accent so I'm not sure if the American pronunciation is different). This nudges towards PILL-oh-swine instead of PIE-low-swine. The only reason I can think of for pronouncing it PIE as in 'pile' is for the phrase 'pile o' swine', referencing piloswine being fat (also thick fat but that only came in gen 5).
I pronounce mantine like MAN-thain, as in Thailand, not tainted. This one is debatable as well, since the 'tine' part can come from either 'marine' or 'brine', the former leaning towards MAN-teen (as in kantine) and the latter leaning towards MAN-thain. Mantyke is pronounced like the latter one, so if that is any indication my original pronunciation was right after all.
Another wrong pronunciation that I think is actually a typo is bar-BOCH, which is closer to bar-BOACH (from loach, pronounced like coach). Furthermore, I personally put emphasis on the first syllable, BAR-boach, but I'm not sure if that's correct.
This has been said before but Regice should be RE-gi-ice, just like the other two regi's. I'm fairly sure it's pronounced this way in the lucario movie too.
I think vulleby is pronounced VUL-uh-bee, instead of VUL-uh-bye. It comes from baby after all.
There are also some unnecessary attempts to get closer to the actual pronunciation that kinda backfire. For example, SHAN-dih-loor. I think everyone knows how to pronounce lure, so you might as well make the pronunciation SHAN-dih-lure, because that leads to less room for misinterpretation. Loor can actually be pronounced 'lore', which isn't the right pronunciation for 'lure'. Some other examples are spiritomb and kricketune. 'SPEER' isn't the same sound as in spirit, and 'toon' isn't the same sound as 'tune', which is closer to 'tjoon'. Tune and spirit are words that most people probably know how to pronounce, so I think you might as well spell these words out in the pronunciation to avoid confusion. Just my opinion though.
Furthermore, there are quite a lot of emphasis errors, like lie-NOON and zig-zag-OON, which should be LIE-noon and ZIG-zag-oon. some of these have been pointed out before though.
I'm pretty sure spearow is pronounced sparrow (as in arrow) rather than spear-oh. In pokepark, the spearow shout there own name and they pronounce it sparrow too.
Fearow is debatable, because the 'fea' part can be based on either fear or feather. Personally I say fear-oh because I think the word fierce might have an influence here as well, but there's definitely a case to be made for farrow.
I have always pronounced the poliwag family like polly-wag, so without the long 'o'. I searched on bulbapedia and it says that poliwag is based on 'polliwog', an outdated term for tadpole. Judging from this, I think the 'poli' part in the entire poliwag family is definitely pronounced polly instead of pol-ee. There's someting similar going on with piloswine, which I have always pronounced pillow-swine. The 'pilo' part comes from pilose, which is pronounced pill-oose according to google (which uses a British accent so I'm not sure if the American pronunciation is different). This nudges towards PILL-oh-swine instead of PIE-low-swine. The only reason I can think of for pronouncing it PIE as in 'pile' is for the phrase 'pile o' swine', referencing piloswine being fat (also thick fat but that only came in gen 5).
I pronounce mantine like MAN-thain, as in Thailand, not tainted. This one is debatable as well, since the 'tine' part can come from either 'marine' or 'brine', the former leaning towards MAN-teen (as in kantine) and the latter leaning towards MAN-thain. Mantyke is pronounced like the latter one, so if that is any indication my original pronunciation was right after all.
Another wrong pronunciation that I think is actually a typo is bar-BOCH, which is closer to bar-BOACH (from loach, pronounced like coach). Furthermore, I personally put emphasis on the first syllable, BAR-boach, but I'm not sure if that's correct.
This has been said before but Regice should be RE-gi-ice, just like the other two regi's. I'm fairly sure it's pronounced this way in the lucario movie too.
I think vulleby is pronounced VUL-uh-bee, instead of VUL-uh-bye. It comes from baby after all.
There are also some unnecessary attempts to get closer to the actual pronunciation that kinda backfire. For example, SHAN-dih-loor. I think everyone knows how to pronounce lure, so you might as well make the pronunciation SHAN-dih-lure, because that leads to less room for misinterpretation. Loor can actually be pronounced 'lore', which isn't the right pronunciation for 'lure'. Some other examples are spiritomb and kricketune. 'SPEER' isn't the same sound as in spirit, and 'toon' isn't the same sound as 'tune', which is closer to 'tjoon'. Tune and spirit are words that most people probably know how to pronounce, so I think you might as well spell these words out in the pronunciation to avoid confusion. Just my opinion though.
Furthermore, there are quite a lot of emphasis errors, like lie-NOON and zig-zag-OON, which should be LIE-noon and ZIG-zag-oon. some of these have been pointed out before though.