Weird ways you pronunciate Pokemon's names

[Bug Maniac Aydon]

I thought this would be a fun thread to make. Do you intentionally use a pronunciation you know is wrong?

I'll start with saying I say Gyarados as "geerados" and Arbok as "arbik".

 

[QuentinQuonce]

For some reason, despite knowing Escavalier is pronounced "ess-kavva-leer" I've always said "ess-kuh-vah-lee-ay". I'm not really sure why, I know full well it's the former but the latter is how my tongue instinctively approaches the word. It's the French coming out in me...

The same thing goes for Arceus; I dislike how the proper pronunciation ("arr-kay-uss") sounds, and tend to pronounce it "arr-say-uss" in my head at least because to me that sounds more elegant.

Until the release of Serebii's pronunciation guide a few days ago, I legitimately had no idea how Florges was supposed to be pronounced, so alternated between calling it "florrge", "florr-juss", and "florr-jzz".

Not a Pokemon, but I've also always found the proper pronunciation of Unova ("yoo-noh-va") to be awkward, and so tend to pronounce it "ooh-noh-va" instead.

 

[VikavoltIsEpik]

For some reason I pronounce Yveltal as “e-vel-tal”, no clue why

 

[adman2]

I used to think of Chimecho as "Chime-cho" instead of the correct "Chime-echo".

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

I used to think of Chimecho as "Chime-cho" instead of the correct "Chime-echo".

Same here, back when I also said "Groodon".

On a related note, if you were a young kid when GSC came out, you probably remember a couple of different names for the legendary "Sooicine".

I think my pronunciations now are mostly fine, but I'm still stubbornly sticking with "FAIR-o-seed" and "FAIR-o-thorn," instead of the very weird "ferr-AW-seed" and "ferr-AW-thorn".

Final thought for now: At this point, both "Arkeus" and "Arseus" are pretty much canon in my head. Both have plenty of evidence on their side. But I personally go with "Arkeus" because, for whatever reason, the existence of RKS System is what won me over.

 

[adman2]

On a related note, if you were a young kid when GSC came out, you probably remember at a couple of different names for the legendary "Sooicine".

Yes, I'm old enough to have anticipated Gold and Silver! Trying to think of my Suicune pronunciation at the time. . .maybe "Soo-i-soon"? ("i" as in "dig")

 

[Bug Maniac Aydon]

Yes, I'm old enough to have anticipated Gold and Silver! Trying to think of my Suicune pronunciation at the time. . .maybe "Soo-i-soon"? ("i" as in "dig")

My friend claimed the proper way to say it is "swee-soo-nay". There's no way that's correct

 

[Bakugames]

I still don't know why it's Ar-KAY-us when the Japanese name is Aruseus and most likely comes from Deus/Zeus, which would fit with a soft S pronunciation

 

[QuentinQuonce]

On a related note, if you were a young kid when GSC came out, you probably remember a couple of different names for the legendary "Sooicine".

Swee-syne? Soo-ikk-yoon? It's weird because when you look at how the word's spelled, it should be fairly plain that the proper pronunciation is "swee-koon". But I've never known anyone to get it right first time, Crystal was my first game and I went with "soo-iss-ine" for a really long time.

 

[CoolMan6001]

I say "Horsea" without a silent A because it makes more sense in my head considering Seadra and Kingdra do not have a silent A

I still don't know why it's Ar-KAY-us when the Japanese name is Aruseus and most likely comes from Deus/Zeus, which would fit with a soft S pronunciation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/arse

 

[Mango Smoothie]

Most of the mispronunciations I remember come from my brother & I misreading names. We had the Destiny Deoxys VHS tape but somehow still messed up names like
Deoxys -> Dexyos (Dex-ee-os)
Rayquaza -> Razyqua (Ray-zi-kwa)
Poochyena -> Poochyna (Pooch-ee-na)

Also I know we used to mispronounce Quilava but cannot remember how we did (probably "Quivala").

Edit: Just remembered that we also pronounced "Omanyte" as "Omatye" (Oh-ma-tie).

 

[Ironmage]

I still don't know why it's Ar-KAY-us when the Japanese name is Aruseus and most likely comes from Deus/Zeus, which would fit with a soft S pronunciation

I interpret both the name itself and its pronunciation as coming from Greek, since Arceus is so close to the Greek word for ancient (archaíos when using Latin letters).

 

[saltyseahag69]

I didn't realize I was pronouncing "Ill-ooh-mize" wrong until pretty recently, though I do think that "Ill-oo-me-say" is at least unintuitive. Similarly, I didn't get Delibird's pun name for a really long time because I was saying "deli-bird," like it was going to make me a pastrami, not "delibberd."

I also said "Tyrooj" (I read it as "Tyrouge") and "Gardevwah" to, I guess, add a little Gaulish flair to the game.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Ferroseed and Ferrothorn. I often pronounce them "FAIR-oh-seed/FAIR-oh-thorn", even though their official pronunciations, for whatever reason, are "fur-RAH-seed/fur-RAH-thorn". The latter pronunciations are not exactly intuitive, while the former pronunciations are. It's also strange considering their names are derived from the word ferrum, which is "FAIR-uhm". They have probably the most unintuitive official pronunciations out there, and I'm sure many others pronounce Ferroseed and Ferrothorn in the way I mentioned.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I didn't realize I was pronouncing "Ill-ooh-mize" wrong until pretty recently, though I do think that "Ill-oo-me-say" is at least unintuitive. Similarly, I didn't get Delibird's pun name for a really long time because I was saying "deli-bird," like it was going to make me a pastrami, not "delibberd."

Huh, apparently you're not the only one because Serebii's pronunciation guide has it as "Dell-ee-bird".

Anyone got a clip of it being spoken in the anime or PBR? I'm fairly certain the canon name is "dell-ee-bird", not "delibberd".

EDIT: Okay, I looked and got mixed results. The anime's pronunciation is actually a little hard to make out (to my ear) but to me it sounds like "della-bird" which is a distinct sound from "delibberd" but still close to it, so I guess the anime is going with the pun name.

However in PBR the announcer goes with "dell-ee-bird".

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

I didn't realize I was pronouncing "Ill-ooh-mize" wrong until pretty recently, though I do think that "Ill-oo-me-say" is at least unintuitive.

Oh uh I guess I've had this one wrong forever.

 

[LomionJones]

i like to say 'Blastoise' like it's French, blass-TWAHS

 

[Gokuzbu]

Is it Arse eus or Ark eus?

 

[QuentinQuonce]

Is it Arse eus or Ark eus?

The latter, which is why Silvally's ability is "RKS System".

 

[HydrogenHydreigon]

I've always pronouced Arrokuda as "aw-ro-KU-da" even though it's clear that the name's a combination of arrow and barracuda. "Bergmite" I say as "BER-geh-mite" with an imaginary "e" in the middle.

 

[Bug Maniac Aydon]

I pronounce Nidoran as "nih-door-in". I use the actual names for the later stages.

I used to pronounce Salandit as "sand-uh-lit" because I misread its name. I think I did something similar with Salazzle but I don't remember what.

Also it's apparently spelled "Silvally, not Sivally.

 

[Siggu]

The only one I have the tendency to mispronounce is Silvally, pronouncing it as if it were a Spanish word (Silváli) rather than as Silv-Ally.

 

[adman2]

The only one I have the tendency to mispronounce is Silvally, pronouncing it as if it were a Spanish word (Silváli) rather than as Silv-Ally.

Wait, it's not "Sill-vuh-lee"?

 

[Rain Moon]

So, up until recently I had no idea it was called "el-gee-ehm" and not "ee-lie-gem". I'd just been misreading the name for all these years, LMAO... I thought the name was a portmanteau of Elysium and Gem.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Feel these video is appropriate:

(There's also this Lockstin & Gnoggin video which features BirdKeeperToby but it's more of their personal mispronunciations than a deep look into the subject)