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{{trope}}
{{quote|''And how the hell do you pronounce swee-cune/soo-i-sign/swee-sine/soo-i-soon? I don't know.''
|'''Alex "Nerimon" Day''', regarding [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Suicune]], "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}It6xj40UVRM Pokemon, What Happened to You?]" (it's Swee-coon)}}
In written works, sometimes it's not obvious how to pronounce names that are given. Sure, it's easy enough to figure out how to pronounce John Smith [[It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"|(usually)]], but seeing the name Gauthenia Vrellneick is going to confuse the heck out of anyone.
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The opposite of [[Spell My Name with an "S"]], where fans know how it's supposed to sound (since it's on video or named in a syllabary) but can't seem to agree on how it's supposed to be written down alphabetically. Related to [[The Unpronounceable]], where the names are intentionally difficult to pronounce, and often outright impossible for the merely human.
It is more common in works in English and French languages. In numerous foreign languages, it's much less common where a word is typically pronounced exactly as it is written. This also happens a lot with English-language versions of [[Anime]] despite Japanese being entirely phonetic.
{{examples}}
* This is extremely common in English dubs of [[Anime]] in general, although the severity of it depends on the dub studio or even the specific voice director. This causes a certain (very loud) segment of the fandom to [[Berserk Button|completely lose their shit when it happens]]. The reasons for mispronunciations or mis-stressings (no, they are ''not'' the same thing) of Japanese words are myriad, ranging from the translator not giving any hints on how names are pronounced, directors [[They Just Didn't Care|not being terribly concerned about it]], edicts from the Japanese themselves (this one happened with ''[[Eureka 7]]''), to the simple fact that there are major differences between Japanese and English vowels and stress patterns such that stressing a Japanese word ''correctly'' can sometimes throw off the rhythm of a sentence or make it sound stilted to Western ears.▼
▲== Anime & Manga ==
** For a quick reference before going into detail below, some studios are worse about this than others. [[
▲* This is extremely common in English dubs of [[Anime]] in general, although the severity of it depends on the dub studio or even the specific voice director. This causes a certain (very loud) segment of the fandom to [[Berserk Button|completely lose their shit when it happens]]. The reasons for mispronunciations or mis-stressings (no, they are ''not'' the same thing) of Japanese words are myriad, ranging from the translator not giving any hints on how names are pronounced, directors [[They Just Didn't Care|not being terribly concerned about it]], edicts from the Japanese themselves (this one happened with [[Eureka 7]]), to the simple fact that there are major differences between Japanese and English vowels and stress patterns such that stressing a Japanese word ''correctly'' can sometimes throw off the rhythm of a sentence or make it sound stilted to Western ears.
* ''[[Bakugan]]''. Is it Back-ooh-gan, or Bah-koo-gahn?<ref>
▲** For a quick reference before going into detail below, some studios are worse about this than others. [[FUNimation]]'s pre-2005 work stands out in this regard, as do a number of dubs from the studio formerly known as [[ADV Films]] (especially ones directed by Stephen Foster, who has said many times he cares more about an actor's performance than their pronunciation). Outside of Texas, this phenomenon is far less common, though every studio will do it to some degree.
* The dub for ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'' has this to the point of it being a chronic disorder, as it seems that nobody can pronounce each others' names correctly.▼
▲* ''[[Bakugan]]''. Is it Back-ooh-gan, or Bah-koo-gahn?<ref> Going by standard Japanese pronunciation rules, it's the latter, since there is no "a" as in "back" sound.</ref>
▲* The dub for ''[[Clannad]]'' has this to the point of it being a chronic disorder, as it seems that nobody can pronounce each others' names correctly.
** The actors do pronounce names wrong, but at least it's ''consistently'' wrong. One can argue it's far worse when some actors get it right but others don't. Also, many of the pronunciation problems were fixed in the After Story dub.
* The actors dubbing ''[[GetBackers]]'' had this problem, as half of them called the [[Teen Genius]] Makubex "mah-cue-bex," and the other half called him "mah-koo-bex." Usually while speaking to each other. This was incredibly annoying during the conversation between Shido and Ban that establishes Makubex's back story, but Ban has an unflattering nickname for just about everyone, so it might be in character for him to butcher it on purpose...
** They had the same problem with Ban's surname, Midou (which they pronounced "mee-dow" for most of the first half of the show).
*** In a strange bit of irony, during the "13th Sunflower" episodes, the ADR director went out of his way to make sure that all the actors pronounced [[Vincent van Gogh]]'s name correctly (hint: it's not "Van-GO").
* The [[
** The Funimation
** The English dub also has "Saiyan" being pronounced as "SAY-en", while the original Japanese pronunciation is more like "SYE-ahn". The dub's influence was so pervasive that when the guy's on [[X-Play]] used the Japanese pronunciation they got letters telling them how dumb they are for not saying it the "right" way.
*** Except that Saiyan isn't Japanese. It's based on Saiya-jin (sigh[the word]-ya-jeen is probably as close as you can get with the English alphabet), but Saiyan is a [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|perfectly cromulent]] English word, and is pronounced "say-en".
**** Except that -jin is a suffix that means "person from [wherever]" in Japanese. Examples: Nihon-jin = Japanese, Amerika-jin = American, Doitsu-jin = German, etc.
* ''[[
** The same goes for [[Hunter X Hunter|''Hunter-Hunter'']].
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' occasionally has problems pronouncing Pokémon names. When reached for comment, [[Pokémon USA]] actually confirmed that 4Kids were pronouncing Bonsly wrong (It's Bon-sly, not Bon-slee) in the eighth movie.
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** Arceus is pronounced "Ar-say-oos" in Japanese versions and "Ark-ee-us" in English versions.
* This applies in a strange way to ''Beyblade: Metal Fusion'', the dub of [[Metal Fight Beyblade]]. The main character, Ginga(Geen-Gah) Hagane, both got his name respelled to "Gingka" and the pronunciation changed to "Jin-guh"
* Averted by ''[[Turn A
* The English dub of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' (both series) mis-stresses character names pretty much all the time, Makie being rendered as "Ma-KI-eh" and Ayaka as "Ai-YA-ka" for example. This gets [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] towards the end of ''[[Gag Series|Negima!?]]''.
{{quote|'''Satomi''': Actually, I'm pretty sure the correct pronunciation is "Aiya-ka".
'''Chisame''': And don't they say "MA-key-eh"? }}
* One of the worst examples may be Idaten ("EE-da-ten") Jump, an anime series about mountain bike racing in another world. The dub had a very brief run on [[Cartoon Network]] in the USA in the so-called 6:00 AM "deathslot". In this series, the title is regularly and constantly pronounced "eye-DAHT-en" Jump. Either the dubbers really didn't know how to pronounce it, or felt that it wouldn't appeal as much to Americans if they used the original pronounciation. It also doesn't help that [[Macekre|most episodes were actually two Japanese episodes combined to make one American episode]].
* The otherwise good dub of ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' TV had this with a few names (most notably, the heavenly computer Yggdrasil; only the movie got the pronunciation anywhere close to right). Unlike most examples, AMG mispronounced ''more'' names as the show went on.
** Yggdrasil is hard to pronounce anyway (the correct pronunciation is something like "Y'g-dra-sill", as if you were saying "yug" but without stressing the vowel sound).
* The dub of the ''[[Genshiken]]'' OVA episodes has this. In the first episode, everyone mispronouces Ogiue's name (as "Oh-jee-way"); in the second episode, it's half-right, half-wrong; and by the final episode, her name is pronounced consistently correctly. It's pretty obvious that the director realized his mistake halfway through recording and couldn't go back and fix the earlier screw-ups.
* Even ''[[Hellsing]]'', largely considered one of the best dubs of all time, has this. Unlike English, Japanese has no distinction between L and R, so "Alucard" ("Dracula" backwards, natch) is pronounced "Aru-kah-do" and rendered "Arucard" in the subtitles. They tried to get the dubbing team to use this (wrong) pronunciation too but the dub studio, having common sense, refused. There are a few fans who will mispronounce the name to this day, even after ''being corrected by [[Crispin Freeman|the actor who played the character]]''.
** Also, is it Pip "Bernadotte" or "Vernedead"? Is Walter's last name "Dornez", "Dollneaz", or something else entirely?
* One scanslation group for ''[[Parasyte]]'' consistently called the main character Shinji. Another called him Shinichi. Shinichi appears to be the correct one, but for fans who started out reading the scans chronicling the adventures of Shinji, it's just a bit strange to adjust to. (The same has happened with other characters as well, whose names changed even more drastically between scanlation groups.)
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* Erza Scarlet from ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' appears to be subject to this. Based on the Japanese pronunciation of her name, "EH-roo-zuh", its English equivalent would be "AIR-za". The English dubs, however, refer to her as "UHR-zah". While it may aggravate certain fans, there do exist several words beginning with "er" that are phonetically pronounced "uhr" in English and "EH-roo" in Japanese, so which version is "right" really can't be anywhere other than in the ears of the beholder.
* The English dub for the ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' anime uses several Japanese names for characters and fighting techniques. These are often pronounced inconsistently by the voice actors.
* Ironically, Beelzemon from ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' actually follows the syllable stress for Beelzebub noted further down the page...except most of the characters turn it into bee-AL-ze-mon instead of bee-EL-ze-mon, usually when shouting. It was confirmed not to have an A in it with the episode title ''Beelzemon's Big Day'', but both pronunciations were still used, depending on the speaker.
* Invoked [[In-Universe]] in the ''[[K-On!]]'' sequel manga ''K-On! High School'': New Light Music Club member Sumire turns out to be, despite her Japanese name, Anglo-Australian in origin. Because of this her friends in the club nickname her by deliberately mispronouncing her name the way an ignorant English speaker would: "soo-MEE-ray", instead of "SOO-m'ray".
== Comic Books ==
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** He was a frequent villain on ''The [[Superfriends]]'' (which is only natural for an animated version; Mxy is basically a toon, after all). There his name was pronounced "MIX-zel-PLICK."
* One running gag in the ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' story "Start the Violence" is an on-going argument between the girls about the proper pronunciation of "junta". Tomboy [[Book Dumb]] Kei comments "Even I know it's pronounced "hoon-ta"". While Yuri insists on using a hard "j" (according to her, an acceptable British pronunciation, but she's no Brit) for her own reasons...
* Before the ''[[Watchmen (film)|Watchmen]]'' movie, which used "Roar-shack", there was a great deal of confusion about how you were supposed to pronounce Rorschach, although the most common
** "Roar-shock" is also closer to his German namesake. And "Raw shark", intentionally or not, works as well in a heavy Noo Yawk accent as a generic English one.
*** The movie also identifies retired villain Moloch as "Mol-luck" as opposed to what pretty much everyone thought it was before hand, "Mow-lock".
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* [[Marvel Comics]]'s ''Crystar Crystal Warrior'' once published a pronunciation guide for all its weird names.
* In ''[[Final Crisis]]: Legion of 3 Worlds'', it is revealed that each version of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' has a distinct pronunciation of the planet Winath. For the Reboot version it's "Win-Athe", for the Threeboot version it's "Win-Ath", and for the post-Infinite Crisis version it's "Wine-Ath." It has been noted that this was a joke made on the debate among fans on how the name is pronounced.
== Film ==
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* The correct pronunciation of [[The Little Mermaid|Ariel]] is "AH-ree-ell", but almost everyone in the movie (and subsequently, almost everyone else) calls her "AIR-ree-ell".
* In the film of [[Agatha Christie|Agatha Christie's]] ''Evil Under The Sun'', a rather boorish Brit pronounces Poirot (pwah-ROW) as POY-row. It's easy to imagine this as a jab at people with this issue in real life.
* The pronunciation of [[Synecdoche New York]], despite being a witty pun, isn't exactly the best title for a movie.
== Literature ==
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** Lampshaded in the [[Thor (film)|Thor]] film, where Darcy, the [[Audience Surrogate]], calls it mir-mir (pronounced meer-meer) since she can't quite say it.
* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] averts this. All the works that feature his [[Con Lang|constructed languages]] have extensive guides to the pronunciation and derivation of the words used. Which is exactly what you would expect from a professor of ancient languages.
** Not that this has stopped casual readers from mispronouncing things left and
* Jacqueline Carey has staunchly refused to publish an official pronunciation guide for the ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' books, saying she prefers to let people make up their own minds (ie, Phèdre can be pronounced feh-drreuh or fay-dra or anything in between). This enormously frustrates some people, since Terre d'Ange is clearly meant to be a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of France and anglicised pronunciation just seems hugely out of place.
* ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' - While the good doctor's name is supposed to rhyme with "treacle," it's often pronounced to rhyme with "heckle."
** Corrected in the recent BBC series - Hyde was confused to hear this pronuncation at first.
* Despite [[H.P. Lovecraft]] giving an official pronunciation, there's still raging debate over how to pronounce several of the [[Cosmic Horror
** The most famous example is Cthulhu, officially pronounced KHH-loo-HH-loo, but often pronounced all sorts of ways.
** There's even a lot of discrepancy on how the word is even ''spelled''. Cthulhu is the most common, but Tulu, Clulu, Clooloo, Cthulu, C'thulhu, Cighulu, Cathulu, Kathulu, Kutulu, Kthulhu, Q?thulu, Ktulu, Kthulhut, Kulhu, Kutunluu, Cuitiliú, and Thu Thu have all been used at one point or another. Just lends more credence to the idea that humans really ''can't'' say it right...
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** And then there was the Angua fiasco. Word Of God has it that Angua is pronounced "'Ang' as in Anger, 'u' as in you, 'a' as in a thing."
** The seraph of Al-Ybi, who's mentioned in passing in a couple of books, is presumably covered by the footnote in one or other of the books which mentions that Al-Ybi is famous as [[Stealth Pun|the place criminal suspects always claim to have been on the night in question]].
*** "'And I am Lio!rt Dragonlord,' said the hanging man, pronouncing the word with a harsh click in the back of the throat that Rincewind could only think of as a kind of integral punctuation." (''[[
* Clive Barker's ''[[Imajica]]'' has some extremely bizarre names for places and people, such as "Hapexamendios", "Yzordderrex", and "Pie 'oh' Pah". [[Word of God]] is that the correct pronunciation is whatever the reader wants it to be.
** Same for ''[[Abarat]]'', though not so extreme.
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"How do you pronounce your name?" }}
* Dismayed by how badly readers mispronounced his Fenarian (read: Hungarian) and Dragaeran names, Steven Brust added a pronunciation guide to the compilation editions of his [[Dragaera|Vlad Taltos]] novels.
* [[Glen Cook]], in an interview concerning his series ''The Instrumentalities of the Night'', was asked how certain character and place names should be pronounced. For example, the main character is named Else Tage. Is the final "e" in either or both names silent? His response was essentially that the reader had his blessing to pronounce all names any way that seemed to the reader to make sense.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' had a skit in 1992 starring Nicholas Cage, where he and his pregnant wife Julia Sweeney were discussing baby names. He would shut down every suggestion she had by claiming kids would make fun of their son's name: Joseph would become Joe Blow, William would be Willie Wonka, and "no Peter, no Dick, no Rod!" Finally, they receive a telegram, and the deliverer (played by Rob Schneider) reads it out to them: "Congratulations to Asswipe and Emily on your new bundle of joy! Love, Bob and Jennifer." Nicholas leans in and says, "It's pronounced Oz-wee-pay."
* ''[[The Goodies]]'' episode "Bunfight at the OK Tea Room" has an [[Overly Long Gag]] about the pronunciation of the word "scone". The joke is that both the long-O and short-O pronunciations are correct, and which one is favoured depends on the region.
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'''Deliveryman:''' Oh, I beg your pardon, guvnor. I've got a pwah-row for Mr. Poyrot. ''(hands Poirot the cage)'' }}
** [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|Yeah, well, you're full of skit.]]
== Music ==
* The ''[[Beatmania]] IIDX'' song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3-OmH__1rU "AA"] has no official pronunciation. It's been pronounnced as "A-A," "double A," "double A's," among other things.
** The ''[[Pop'n
* [[Aphex Twin]]'s ''Drukqs''. "Drucks"? "Druck-yoos"? And that's not even getting into the track titles.
* Averted in Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album, ''(pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd)''. That's the name of the album.
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* Heavy Metal Umlauts are almost always wrong, but that doesn't stop people trying to pronounce them anyway, especially if they speak a language that actually uses umlauts. Motley Crue concerts in Germany often have fans chanting "Moo-ert-lee Croo-eh"
* How the hell are the Can albums Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi pronounced?
* Happens in "I Burn", the pre-Volume 1 [[Image Song]] for Yang Xiao Long of ''[[RWBY]]'' -- a line referencing ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' says "I'm Super-Saiyin now". As many will know, "Saiyin" should be pronounced like "Sighin'". Sadly, vocalist Casey Lee Williams was not one of those many, and Yang became "super-sayin".
== Other ==▼
* Anytime the word "Shaman" appears. Someone is going to argue whether the first syllables has a long or soft "A". The terrible part? Both are technically correct.▼
* Also, the Clay Warrior of legend who has been adapted into both Pokémon and many forms of fantasy (most notably D&D). "Golum" (the typical US pronunciation), or "Go-lem" (the British)?▼
* How do you pronounce the name that translates as the Lord of the Flies? BEEL-zuh-bub, be-EL-zeh-bub, or BELL-zee-bub?▼
** be-EL-zeh-bub is probably the best, as the word derives from the word Ba'al, meaning Lord in several Semitic languages. It's pronounced with two syllables, with a glottal stop in the middle. And it's how Queen pronounced it in "Bohemian Rhapsody," and they are the highest earthly authority.▼
== Toys ==
* This was the case with the names of ''[[Bionicle]]'' characters as well, until [[Word of God|the writer]] started handing out the correct pronunciations to fans. Encyclopedias also had guides on how on pronounce names, but other forms of media (like video games or movies) still had them confused. The most infamous case is that of Lewa: is it "Ley-wuh" or "Leh-wuh", perhaps "Lee-wuh"? Also, do you call Onua "oh-New-uh" or "Oh-ney-wuh"? And what's with Onewa?
== Tabletop Games ==
* Tzeentch from ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and the Tau from ''[[Warhammer
** 'Zeench' is the most common, the 't' being silent. 'Tuh-zeench' and 'zeen-tish' are other possibilities. ''[[Dawn of War]]'' showed the first pronunciation being used. As for 'Tau', the argument is about whether it rhymes with 'cow' or with 'core'. There are other examples of confusion. The C'tan, for instance, are called [[Louis Cypher|'Suh-tan']] half the time and 'Kuh-tan' the other half.
*** Assuming the Tau pronounce it the same way the Greeks did, it's actually "taw".
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*** Actually, MET-isse and MAY-tee are both correct when referring to the mixed races. In French Canada, MAY-tee (Métis) is masculine, and MET-is (Metisse) is feminine.
* [[Exalted]] has everyone's favorite middle-management fate ninjas, the Sidereal Exalts. In the best White Wolf tradition, the preferred fan pronunciation (sid-EHR-ee-al) has largely trumped Webster (sigh-DEER-ee-al), even among those who [[Useful Notes/Astronomy|know]] better.
* ''[[Dungeons
** The Dark Elf race, the Drow, officially can be pronounced one of two ways - rhyming with "cow" and rhyming with "know", and both are considered correct. Doesn't stop people from arguing that only their pronunciation is correct.
*** The Finnish translations of R. A. Salvatore and Elaine Cunningham seem to have decided to use declensions of the word "drow" that imply the end "w" is supposed to be pronounced as a consonant, which they must know would never appear in anything written in English.
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*** And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ0raag8TD8 so did the man himself], although he mentions that in Switzerland they use GHEE-gacks.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has Sekki, Pronunciation's Guide, a defunct feature of the website which corrects mispronunciations of Magic's glut of terms.
** The Japanese version averts this by giving all card names (and nowhere else) furigana if they aren't all kana already, presumably to stop play from slowing down over reading confusion. If a card's name is only transliterated it can serve as a guide for the original name as well.
== Video Games ==
* The final boss of the first two ''[[
** The original Japanese pronunciation is "Giigu", and it appears in the opening of '' Mother 2'' as "Gyiyg". This suggests that "Giegue", at the least, is supposed to be pronounced "Gee-goo", though "Gyiyg" should probably be pronounced as either "Geeg" or "Gyeeg" (rhymes with [[Teddy Ruxpin|Tweeg]]). "Giygas" is therefore likely "Gee-gas" or "Gee-gahs".
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWh3BUyHrLU This official ad] pronounces the English version "Guy-gus."
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** Happened to some extent with both Tifa and Yuffie in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', though most fans rationalised that Yuffie's name was an [[Wutai|implictly chinese]] name, Yu Fei.
*** In ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy|Dissidia Duodecim]]'' we get someone saying "''tee''-fa", so evidently that's the official pronounciation. Still can't override fifteen years of people saying "''tiff''-ah" (as in the first two syllables of "Tiffany").
** Tidus' name is never spoken out loud in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' or ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'', and it's even inconsistent in [[Kingdom Hearts]]. Usually fans just apply their language's own rules for vowels in words (Spanish and Japanese would assume a 'e' sound, English would assume a hard vowel) while others say [[Meaningful Name
*** It's pronounced and written as TEE-da in Japanese.
*** Tidus' name is pronounced Tee-dus in the English versions of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] I'' and ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' but Tide-us (similar to Titus) in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]] 2'', as well as some promotional material such as cast interviews. It really depends on whether you are using "tides" (English) or "tida" (varies by source as Okinawan for "sun" or an English->Japanese loanword) as the meaning.
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** It's "Gladys" according to Valve.
* With eighty-plus people to keep track of, the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series probably has some of this.
** This gets especially bad in ''Apollo Justice'', with names like Lamiroir, Klavier Gavin and Machi Tobaye
** The 'T' in Godot's name is silent, but it doesn't tell you that.
*** [[Lampshade Hanging|It actually does]]. At one point, a character accidentally calls Godot "Goddo".
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* The announcer in various ''[[Street Fighter]]'' games. A few examples include "Barlog" (rather than Balrog), Abb-ull (Abel) and Dan (his name is supposed to be pronounced "Dahn"). Even characters in the game seem to disagree with a few of his pronunciations. Among the fans, there's also "Rayu" (which carried into the movie and cartoon), "Zan-geef" (instead of Zan-gyeff) among others.
** '''Zangief:''' [[Street Fighter the Later Years|Rayu? All these years, I've been calling him Ryu]].
* ''[[
** The actual name of the world is "Gielinor" (Gee-lin-or? Gie-lee-nor?), a race of lava people are "Tzhaar" (and anything related to them is equally un-pronounceable, such as one of the strongest monsters: the "Tztok-Jad"), a major city is "Ardougne" (Arr-doong? Arr-doyn?) and one god is named "Armadyl".
** Some people joke about "[[
*** Cannot unseeeeeeeee.
* Marisa Kirisame from ''[[Touhou]]''. Despite being a western name, it is written in kanji as opposed to katakana, resulting in confusion as to whether it's pronounced "Mah-RIH-sah" as per the English pronunciation or "MAH-ree-sah" as per the Japanese.
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** The name of K′ (that's a letter "K" and a prime mark, not an apostrophe) is always pronounced "K Dash" in Japan. In the overseas versions, his name tends to vary between "K Dash" or "[[Dub Name Change|K Prime]]" depending on the game.
* Used instory in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' when Shiki notes that, yea, one way to pronounce SHIKI would be the same as his own name, but it's written differently so it wouldn't be obvious. This doesn't translate well at all, leading to the SHIKI/Shiki thing to actually tell them apart in conversations.
** Not to mention [[The Unpronouncable|Nrvnqsr Chaos]] from the ''[[Melty Blood]]'' series... Nrvnqsr I get, [[wikipedia:Number of the Beast|from "Nero Caesar"]]. But I mean, HOW do you pronounce c-h-a-o-s?
*** (It's "neh-roh kah-oh-su" in the katakana.)▼
* A bit confusing in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', when Shirou complains about how Rider is pronouncing his name because it reminds him of how Saber said it. But... it's spelled the same every time. The difference is apparently Sheer-oh (how Saber mispronounces it) and Sheer-oh-oo (correct version) or something.
** They're using a short vowel and [[AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle|getting the pitch pattern wrong]]. Roughly, they're saying SHI-roh, when the name is more like shi-ROW.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]''. No one seems to know how to pronounce anything, due to the lack of voice acting.
** One of the reason many peoples were quite angry about ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' still not featuring any voice-acting aside from Midna's [[Speaking Simlish|Simlish]]. How the hell are we supposed to pronounce names like "Ilia" or "Impaz"? The games before this one also had this problem: Aryll has at least three different pronunications. No matter how hated [[Exposition Fairy|Navi]] is, people can't agree if it's NAVV-ee or NAH-vee or NAVV-eye or even Navy.
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*** [http://www.imperial-library.info/content/redguard-forum-madness Here it is]. No one seems to stick to these, of course. "DEE-dra" should be the canonical pronunciation, and then there's stuff that's totally thrown out the window like "doon-MARE" for "Dunmer", "DWAY-mare" for "Dwemer", and "BOE-mare" for "Bosmer". These usually get pronounced "DUHN-muhr", "DWEE-muhr", and "BAHZ-muhr".
** May be a bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]], considering that the probability of a dozen races having the same pronunciation for such words is astronomical.
▲** (It's "neh-roh kah-oh-su" in the katakana.)
* As the ninja in ''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'' put it:
{{quote|''[[Ninja Gaiden]]''. I haven't heard that name in ages. Normally, they say "Ninja GAY-den."}}
* Ask anyone from the New York metro area how they pronounce Mario. Especially Mario Cuomo.
** New York? Ask most people in Britain how they pronounce Mario, it's almost always Marry-O. An Italian person will probably tell you its MAH-ree-Oh
** Despite Charles Martinet and other official voice actors almost always using [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RRO7tAJYnI "Mah-ree-oh"] nowadays, [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]]'s name has been pronounced "Mayr-ee-oh" in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMFdeYwPEQQ&feature=related certain old commercials]. In fact, the pronunciation debate seems to go back to the [[Atari]] days - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSte8m4Da6A The famous commercial] for ''[[Mario Bros.]]'' on the [[Atari 5200]] has Luigi use "Mahr-ee-oh" while the ad's narrator says "Mayr-ee-oh."
** "WAHR-ee-oh" or "WOAR-ee-oh"? Furthermore, Waluigi himself apparently can't determine the pronunciation of his name's first syllable; both "WAH" and "WAA" pop up in his voice clips.
* ''[[Suikoden Tierkreis]]'' doesn't appear to have a problem at first, but then some of the names appear in voiced dialogue. Discovering that Rizwan is pronounced with an L sound in place of the R and the W and that Sisuca is like the first two syllables of "shishkabob" makes one wonder about Sphiel, Nazhu, and others whose names have one probable pronunciation and several improbable ones.
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* In [[Dragon Age]], Zevran pronounces his name 'zev-RAHN'. No one else does. Same with Leliana ('LEL-i-anna'), pronounced 'lelli-AHNA' by most other characters.
* Qara in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]''. Most characters pronounce it "kwar-uh", but some say it as "kar-uh". The second, less popular pronunciation is technically the correct one if you go by English pronunciation rules.
* "Elw" in the ''[[Wild
* One of the NPCs in ''[[Thwaite]]'' is named Gnivad, and the manual doesn't give any hints on how to pronounce this.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' luckily [http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1295383&postcount=18 has a guide from the author], which is definitely handy for Sabine, Elan and Vaarsuvius.
* The demon K'Z'K from ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. All we know is that, if you don't want your soul devoured, do ''not'' pronounce it "Kizke."
** Absolutely no vowels of any sort. The obvious guess would be that you pronounce k, then z, then k, either with or without stops in between. Oh, and he will devour your soul anyway.
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* [[El Goonish Shive|Dan Shive]] has gotten enough of a message on how pronounce the Japanese names of some of his characters that he explains them in the FAQ. Fans were still mostly left in the air on how to pronounce "Sciuridae" until [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-02-22 this strip] provided the unlikely "Skwur-uh-dey".
** This is slightly bizarre as Sciuridae (See-ur-uh-die or See-ur-uh-dee) is the scientific family for true squirrels, and they could have easily just looked it up.
* ''[[Springiette]]'' has given many people the headache of not knowing how to say it right. Turns out there isn't really a [https://web.archive.org/web/20100924060943/http://www.springiette.net/strips/164 correct way].
* Several of the ''[[Homestuck]]'' trolls, though not all of them. Their names are based on names or words from mythology and non-Western cultures, meaning that there usually is a correct pronunciation but you can't count on the fans being aware of it. Feferi gets the worst of it. Terezi too, whose name can be pronounced in at least five different ways depending on what you do with the vowels.
== Web Original ==
* In the ''[[Peacock King Trilogy]]'', most names are not quite pronounced as one would expect.
** Examples: Ebrellin-i Xaillyndesse, lampshaded with Camdheighn and Elricht Dealag'seala, who are promptly renamed Camden and Elric Briarseal.
* Inverted by ''[[Neopets]]''... which actually ''does'' have a [http://www.neopets.com/pronounce.phtml pronunciation guide]!
* Dorkly Originals pokes fun at the lack of pronunciation guide in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' in [http://www.dorkly.com/video/35974/final-fantasy-vii this video].
* The ''[[Nostalgia Critic]] received a lot of [[Internet Backdraft|backlash]] from his fans when he did the vlogs for [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. He and his brother Rob continuously pronounced the characters names similarly to how they are pronounced in the [[The Last Airbender|movie]], which made the [[Fan Dumb]] very very [[Berserk Button|angry]].
== Western Animation ==▼
* This is the case with Ren of [[Ren and Stimpy]], whose last name is "Hoek". Stimpy and other characters will usually pronounce it as "Ho-eck", but it has been pronounced on the show as that, "Ho-ack" and "Hork".▼
* Alfe in ''[[The Problem Solverz]]''. The name is two syllables, pronounced "Al-fay", and all of the characters in the show pronounce it that way. However, in writing, especially to those unfamiliar with the show, the name looks like it should be pronounced like "Alfie" or just "Alf".▼
* In the Hungarian dubbing of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Ricochet is constantly referred to as "Ricochette", with "ch" as in "chicken" and an audible "t" at the end.▼
* The first Hungarian dubbing of ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' turned "Cybertron" into "Kájbertron", pronounced "Kigh-ber-trohn", for whatever reason. The correct Hungarian translation for "cyber-" is actually "kiber-", pronounced "Kih-ber". Whereas the second dub kept alternating the pronunciation of the word "Decepticon" between "Dee-sep-ti-kon" and "Deh-sep-ti-kon" (this also came up in the dub of ''[[Transformers Armada]]''). Most amusingly, a lot of times they made Starscream sound like "Szarsz-krém", loosely "Shit-cream" in English.▼
* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'''s dub, in the same language, has some difficulty keeping the names straight. Ratchet is "Wretch-eat", Soundwave became "Ssaahnd-wave", Bulkhead is "Baalk-hed", Bumblebee is "Bahm-boel-bee", and Cliffjumper is either "Klif(f)-jahm-pehr" or "Klif(f)-jum-purr".▼
** As evidenced by the awkward way Unicron's name is spoken -- "Youh-nick-ron", as opposed to the way it's been pronounced evreywhere else: "Oo-nick-ron"
* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Rainbow Dash]], yet again the Hungarian one, keeps pronouncing Thunderbolts as "Thann-der-baltz". The character itself can either be correctly "Dash" or "Dessh".▼
* According to the [[Goofy]] short ''The Art of Skiing'', the correct pronunciation of "skiing" is "sheeing."▼
▲== Other Media ==
▲* Anytime the word "Shaman" appears. Someone is going to argue whether the first syllables has a long or soft "A". The terrible part? Both are technically correct.
▲* Also, the Clay Warrior of legend who has been adapted into both Pokémon and many forms of fantasy (most notably D&D). "Golum" (the typical US pronunciation), or "Go-lem" (the British)?
▲* How do you pronounce the name that translates as the Lord of the Flies? BEEL-zuh-bub, be-EL-zeh-bub, or BELL-zee-bub?
▲** be-EL-zeh-bub is probably the best, as the word derives from the word Ba'al, meaning Lord in several Semitic languages. It's pronounced with two syllables, with a glottal stop in the middle. And it's how Queen pronounced it in "Bohemian Rhapsody," and they are the highest earthly authority.
* In one of [[Jeff Dunham]]'s routines, his puppet Peanut had asked where they were performing, so Jeff wrote it down for him. Peanut then proceeded to read "SAH-Na-TA-A-NA" and make fun of how dumb he thought the name was, then insulted Jeff's handwriting when he was informed that it was actually "Santana."
{{quote|'''Peanut''': Okay, I know I didn't freakin' finish school, but that freakin' says 'SAH-Na-TA-A-NA'! '''HELL'''.}}
** Peanut does the same with the pronunciation of Jeff's name. It's pronounced "Jeff Dunnum", but there was a whole bit of Peanut exaggeratedly pronouncing it as it's spelled. "Jefuh-fuh, DunHAM (pronouncing it as the food, [[Large Ham|h]][[Incredibly Lame Pun|am]].)
*** Peanut does this [[Running Gag|a lot]], including with José Jalapeño and mispronouncing the things José says to him.
== Real Life ==
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* From the early days of the internet through to the present: GIFs, the old standard for indexed color stills and animated graphics. Do you say it with a hard "G" as in "graphics", or a soft one, as in "jiffy". As this one was used in text as an acronym far more than it was spoken, its usage was codified long before its pronunciation.
** Hard G - JIFF/JIF is another image format based on JPEG, and "jif" is also short for "jiffy", which is an [[wikipedia:Jiffy (time)|amount of time]]. Not to mention that G stands for "graphic" so the acronym should also have a hard G.
*** However, the people who invented GIF used a soft G sound despite that.
** It's weird to hear "PNG" pronounced as anything other than "pee-en-gee", but the [http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/#history official pronunciation is "ping"].
** The prefix "giga-" is always pronounced with a hard G today, but, at one point, (when consumer technology was not yet sufficiently advanced for it to be in the lexicon of the average person) it could alternatively be pronounced with a soft "g". ''[[Back to The Future]]'' famously uses this pronunciation when referring to "1.21 jigawatts".
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** Theodore Geisel himself used to say "Seuss rhymes with voice."
*** A collaborator of Seuss's [[wikipedia:Dr. Seuss#Pen names and pronunciations|wrote of him:]]
{{quote|''You're wrong as the deuce
''And you shouldn't rejoice
''If you're calling him Seuss
''He pronounces it Soice }}
* How does one pronounce "[[wikipedia:Sovremenny class destroyer|Sovremenny]]"? This is the ''[[Reporting Names|Reporting Name]]''.
** Approximately, "Suv-reh-MEN-niy". The final y actually stands for two sounds, the first being a hard "i" which does not exist in most dialects of English, and the second like the y in "may". Since the hard i is also transliterated as "y", such words are most commonly transliterated with just one y, instead of "iy".
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* Many Hebrew names can lead to this, so many editions of the [[The Bible|King James Bible]] spell the names out phonetically, with the syllables separated by hyphens. This is often referenced by parodies written [[In the Style Of]] the KJV, such as ''[[Private Eye]]''`s take on contemporary news from the Middle East:
{{quote|"And lo, Shar-on journeyeth into the land of Us, to the House that is White, there to meet with the King of Us, which is called [[George W. Bush|Dub-ya]]."}}
* Bosnian neatly avoids this by having everything spelled as it is pronounced ie.
** As for foreigners pronouncing Bosnian words and names, a couple basic rules: The sound English speaking folks recognize as "J" is written as "Dž" or if softer "Đ" in Bosnian, "Ž" is the "J" in French (as in Jacques,) the Bosnian "J" is pronounced as "Y", Š = Sch, Č = Ch, Ć = Ch (soft), "C" is always pronounced as "C" - never as "K", "Lj" and "Nj" are separate letters and pronounced as very soft "Ly" and "Ny" (they are a common feature of Bosnian baby speak.) The vowels are never pronounced as you think and you're probably accenting them too much- [https://web.archive.org/web/20130803174924/http://usmilitary.about.com/library/miljokes/blvowels.htm also there are preciously few around for English/American ears]. One more thing, "*cough*" and "*spit*" are not letters of the Bosnian alphabet- no matter what many foreigners seem to think.
* American inventor John Garand, and the M1 Garand rifle he invented, have a wide range of pronunciations even in firearms circles. In early 2017 the December 1943 issue of American Rifleman was found to have [https://www.forgottenweapons.com/garand-pronunciation/#comment-2867640 a letter] of the man himself confirming its pronunciation.
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* This is the case with Ren of [[Ren and Stimpy]], whose last name is "Hoek". Stimpy and other characters will usually pronounce it as "Ho-eck", but it has been pronounced on the show as that, "Ho-ack" and "Hork".
▲* Alfe in ''[[The Problem Solverz]]''. The name is two syllables, pronounced "Al-fay", and all of the characters in the show pronounce it that way. However, in writing, especially to those unfamiliar with the show, the name looks like it should be pronounced like "Alfie" or just "Alf".
▲* In the Hungarian dubbing of ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'', Ricochet is constantly referred to as "Ricochette", with "ch" as in "chicken" and an audible "t" at the end.
▲* The first Hungarian dubbing of ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' turned "Cybertron" into "Kájbertron", pronounced "Kigh-ber-trohn", for whatever reason. The correct Hungarian translation for "cyber-" is actually "kiber-", pronounced "Kih-ber". Whereas the second dub kept alternating the pronunciation of the word "Decepticon" between "Dee-sep-ti-kon" and "Deh-sep-ti-kon" (this also came up in the dub of ''[[Transformers Armada]]''). Most amusingly, a lot of times they made Starscream sound like "Szarsz-krém", loosely "Shit-cream" in English.
▲* ''[[Transformers Prime]]'''s dub, in the same language, has some difficulty keeping the names straight. Ratchet is "Wretch-eat", Soundwave became "Ssaahnd-wave", Bulkhead is "Baalk-hed", Bumblebee is "Bahm-boel-bee", and Cliffjumper is either "Klif(f)-jahm-pehr" or "Klif(f)-jum-purr".
▲** As evidenced by the awkward way Unicron's name is spoken -- "Youh-nick-ron", as opposed to the way it's been pronounced evreywhere else: "Oo-nick-ron" -- maybe there ''is'' a guide that tries to provide phonetic pronunciations, but is bad at it. Note that other dubs almost always [[Dub Name Change|translated the names]], so the actors would be used to saying those, not their English originals.
▲* [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Rainbow Dash]], yet again the Hungarian one, keeps pronouncing Thunderbolts as "Thann-der-baltz". The character itself can either be correctly "Dash" or "Dessh".
▲* According to the [[Goofy]] short ''The Art of Skiing'', the correct pronunciation of "skiing" is "sheeing."
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[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Language Tropes]]
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