• Snag some vintage SPL team logo merch over at our Teespring store before January 12th!

The Official Name-Pronunciation Guide

Great thread, but nowadays I guess there only a few people disagree on. Milotic, Gyarados, Arceus and Giratina have already been mentioned. I generally go by how the anime pronounces names (unless it sounds super stupid).

Generally when I'm talking to my friends about it, we all know each others pronunciations. I think we've got some "Sewy-coon-ee" and some "Sue-coon" going on. Giratina tends to be changed between hard and soft G's at the start which is kinda strange. I've also heard it pronounced with the start as all hard letters -"Ji-Rah-tinah".
 
I remember seeing Marriland talking about Pokedex 3D Pro a week or so ago, and in that video, he showed off the pages for Zweilous and Hydreigon. And to my eternal horror, they pronounced the "ei" part like "eye":
Zweilous: "ZVI-lus"
Hydreigon: "hi-DRI-gun"
All I can say to this is "I'm pronouncing Pokemon names in ways that make sense, so screw you."

To me, pronouncing the "ei" part as "ay" (like in the word "neighbor") makes more sense. Partly, it's because of that grade-school phonics trick: "I before E except after C or when sounded like 'AY' as in 'neighbor' or 'weigh'". Partly, I prefer "ay" because when I see the "ei" in Deino, the name Damien (often associated with a demon child) comes to mind. It sounds like it fits for what is essentially a demon dragon. Besides, just calling a Pokemon "dino" sounds a little bland somehow.

Maybe this is just a personal issue, but I can't say I'm willing to trust what Pokedex 3D Pro says.
 
i'm pretty sure Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon have german origins for the syllables you highlighted, so English styles of speaking don't necessary apply.

i'm no speaker of german myself, but it's like how favor in 'por favor' is pronounced as 'fah-vour' and not 'fay-vour'
 
Yeah, it's because ein, zwei and drei are one, two and three in German. It definitely makes more sense in this context to use the German pronunciation. Having some basic German, I've always said 'Zv-iy-less' and 'Hi-dry-gun'.

The ei is more like the i in wine than in 'eye' though really. It sounds slightly different and is really hard to convey through text format from one non-native speaker to another. Deino, phonetically, is Deino rather than Dino. There's a difference that this post can't really make distinct enough. In my Zweilous example above I used 'iy' rather than 'eye' which kinda forces me to make a slightly different shape with my mouth and thus a different noise.
 
Anyone who pronounces Ferrothorn like "fer-ROTH-orn" is dead to me.

"FER-ro-thorn." It's Ferro + thorn. Say it like that.
 
Ashenlock said:
Wasn't Arceus pronounced as "Arseus" in PBR? If it's based off of 'Archeus,' though, the former would make sense.
Click to expand...

Confirmed that "Arseus" is how Arceus is pronounced in Battle Revolution. I don't think this pokedex is canon, or else Gamefreak decided to revamp its pronunciations.
 
Wild Eep said:
Anyone who pronounces Ferrothorn like "fer-ROTH-orn" is dead to me.

"FER-ro-thorn." It's Ferro + thorn. Say it like that.
Click to expand...

Uh... is fe-ro-thorn ok?

And arceus is indeed "arseus" going by japanese names (I realize this isn't foolproof, but it works here).

Man, I can accept Deino = "dino" and Zweilous = "Zwilous", but Hydreigon just doesn't read well as "Hidrygun".
 
For a French like me, it's even harder to pronunce it well :D

Deino = DEY-no
Zweilous = ZEY-lous
Hydreigon = I don't pronunce it :D
 
Arceus has had three different pronunciations in official media. Along with the official (according to Pokemon.com) "Ark-ee-us" and the PBR/commonly used "Ar-see-us," a trailer for Arceus and the Jewel of Life used "Ar-say-us" which is what ended up sticking with me.
 
Update time!

Generation 5, ONE of Generation 2 thanks to the Smogcast, and all we know of Generation 6 are UP!!! Three gens to go, and they should be on soon.
 
And Generation 4 is now up as well. I'm on a roll.

And yes we do, Sera___eon, but here they're all in one place to refer back to instead of having to find them either in a show or something.
 
The guide is now complete with everything we have so far, save Meloetta cause I can't get her on my Dex app. Once I do I'll update that. I'll also keep it up to date with the new Gen 6 Pokemon as they're coming out!

Enjoy everybody!

whoop double post
 
Siz-or? You kidding me?

Also, SAY-bel-eye? I don't see the extra E. Always called it SAB-lay.

LARE-on?!? Now well... time to unlearn LAI-ron. EDIT: Ahh.... I see. LARE as in one syllable, not two.

MANE-EK-trick? Four syllables? Huh?!? EDIT: Wait, I see. Mayn-EK-trick?

Spoink; SPOINK - I chuckled. Same goes for KLINK and KLANG. The way I read it, you're meant to shout. Right?

AR-kee-is? I have no qualms about AR-kee-us, but -is?!?

Cobalion; co-BAY-lee-in? Same goes here. co-BAY-lee-on, thank you.

Other than that, fantastic job. Well done and thank you!

P.S.: You may also want to have a second look at Magmortar's sprite.
 
Quite comical how many 1st Gen Pokemon I've been mispronouncing for ~15 years. Although my Glaswegian accent probably accounts for most of them. Some are just plain stupid though (WEEN-gull, really!?)
 
Can I just say that I love this thread, simply because all of the ones that people think should be wrong are the way I've been saying all this time! Like Lairon, forever I've been saying LARE-on, whereas everyone else has said LIE-ron! :D
Same goes for Houn-dower! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top