Topic: Zelda Pronunciations

[MaryJane]

Recently a friend and I got into a disagreement about the way to say the different names in Zelda, like Hyrule, Hylia, Goron, Epona, and others to name a few I'm going to list the way I say them, and want to know how you guys say them, or know how they are supposed to be pronounced, add others I don't remember.

Epona - E (as in saying the vowel itself) po (like the poet edgar allen) and na (like nah)
Hyrule Hy(high) rule(how else do you say rule?)
Hylia Hy(as in his) li (as in the martial artist bruce) and a(like saying the word not the vowel itself)
Goron - Gor (as in the politician who couldn't beat bush to get elected) on (like the opposite of off)

those were the big four we argued about, the others were trivial, and i can't even remember them.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Epona - Eh (as in 'shine gEHt!') pona.

[Kairon]

I agree with you on those, except for this:

Quote
Originally posted by: MaryJane
Hylia Hy(as in his) li (as in the martial artist bruce) and a(like saying the word not the vowel itself)

hill-ee-ah?!?!?! HILL-EE-AH?!?!?! *huff* *puff*

I say 'High-lee-ah, as if the name of the lake was a derivative of Hyrule. Same for the Hylian people. (Hill-ee-an?!?! ARGH! KAIRON SMASH!)

But then again, I can't be too much of a pronounciation Nazi on this. I insist on pronouncing Chocobo Co-co-'bow when I'm told it's supposed to be 'chaw-co-bow... bah.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
Epona - Eh (as in 'shine gEHt!') pona.

I think both pronounciations of Epona are acceptable actually...

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Ian Sane]

I say
hill-ee-ah
ee-poan-ah
goar-on
high-rool

High-lee-ah makes sense but I honestly find it awkward to pronounce that.  Don't know why.  I think I just get used to however I pronouce a word for a the first time, even if it's wrong.  It's like how I have a good idea how to pronounce "Shigeru Miyamoto" but I often say "shig-er-oo migh-ah-moh-toh" because "sheeg-air-oo mee-ah-moh-toh" sounds weird to me.  Hell sometimes I initially read a word wrong and pronounce it as such for years before one day I realize that lowercase 'l' was an uppercase 'I' the whole time and I've been saying a totally made-up word the whole time.

I'm sure I pronounce "Link" and "Zelda" correctly.

[Smoke39]

Link is a high-lee-an and rides a horse named eh-po-na.

I feel like I'm in preschool.

[Ian Sane]

Regarding the Epona pronunciation - in Twilight Princess you can name your horse whatever the hell you feel like.  Therefore I can say I didn't name my horse the default name.  I named him a different name that is spelled exactly the same but pronounced differently.

[Requiem]

Why would it be Hill-ee-ah, when it's High-rule?

So you see, they all correspond to each other:

High-rule, High-lee-a, High-lee-an  

[Louieturkey]

Hylia is like Pylia in the TV show "Angel" where Fred was for five years before Angel saved her.  So High-LEE-uh works for me.  

I go for EE-poh-nah for the horse's name.

To each their own though since there is nobody in the game actually saying them.  It's just like in books where some people pronounce different words differently from others who read the same book.  I don't think it really matters.

[Ian Sane]

My logic for saying "ee-poh-nah" is that "Epona" looks like it was derived from "pony".  Thus I went with a similar pronunciation.

[Smoke39]

'Cause "pony" totally starts with a long e sound, right?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

HIGHLEEAN sounds AWFUL.

Hyrule - like Pyro.  We've all seen the cartoon, so that stays.

Hylian - like Transylvania.  CUZ WE HAVE A FREAKING "L" NOW, NOT AN "R".  HYRULIAN WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE, BUT THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE.

GET THIS, WORDS THAT START WITH "C" AND ARE FOLLOWED BY "a" OR "o" OR "u" HAVE THE HARD "k" CONSONANT SOUND.

"CAT"

BUT WORDS THAT START WITH "C" AND ARE FOLLOWED BY "i" OR "e" HAVE THE "s" SOUND.

"CENTER"

EAT THAT, SUPER MARY-OH BRUTHERS.

[Nick DiMola]

I would say that if Hyrule is High-rule, Hylian should be High-lee-an. Terrible sounding or not, it seems to make some sense to me.

[JonLeung]

Okay, I have trouble with a few more.

Nayru: is it Neigh-Rue or Ny-Rue?
Farore: is it Fah-Roar, Fah-Roar-Eh, or Ferrari?

Similarly, the provinces...

Lanayru: is it La-Neigh-Rue or La-Ny-Rue?
Faron: is it Fah-Ron or Fair-On?

And seeing as how both my Animal Crossing towns are named Kakariko, it'd be embarrassing if I pronounced that wrong.

Kakaraiko: is it Kack-A-Reek-O (the way that I pronounce it), Kah-Kah-Reek-O, Kah-Kar-Ick-O, Kack-Ahr-Ick-O, or what?

[k_bukie]

Here's how I say it:

Hylian -> Hill-ee-an
Kakariko -> Ka - kuh - reek' - oh
Gerudo -> Jer - oo' - doh
Hyrule -> High' - rule
Epona -> Ee - pown' - a
Goron -> Gore' - uhn
Nayru -> Nay' - roo
Farore -> Fah - row' - ray

[MaryJane]

This is getting complicated.

I agree with Ian on most of his pronunciation points, except that I'm learning japanese so i always force myself to say japanese names the correct way especially names since the general consist of a lot syllables.

i'm sticking with my pronuciations except i'm changing to Fah - row' - ray  that seems to make more sense

[Shecky]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
HIGHLEEAN sounds AWFUL.

Hyrule - like Pyro.  We've all seen the cartoon, so that stays.

Hylian - like Transylvania.  CUZ WE HAVE A FREAKING "L" NOW, NOT AN "R".  HYRULIAN WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE, BUT THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE.

Hyrulian is real.

Hyrule ("high"-"rule") - City
Hyrulian ("high"-"rule"-long E-an) - An inhabitant of the city of Hyrule
Hylian ("hill"-long E-an) - A **RACE** of humanoids, as opposed to zoras or gorons, etc.

[KnowsNothing]

This is how I first pronounced everything, and it pretty much stuck.  Looking back I think I should change a few of these (I aint too consistent), but whatever.  I don't care if I say stuff wrong, HERE I GO

Hylian: HIGH-lee-an
Hylia: HIGH-lee-uh
Hyrule: HIGH-rule
Epona: eh-PON-uh
Goron: GOAR-on
Nayru: NAY-ru
Farore: fa-ROAR-ray (yes, BOTH Rs wtf)
Lanayru: lan-AY-roo (as in land-hay-roo)
Faron: FAH-ron
Kakaraiko: Kak-uh-REEK-oh
Ganondorf: Gan-NON-quack

On the subject, where do you goons put the emphasis in "Deku."  Is it "DEK-oo" or "dek-OO"?  

[Hostile Creation]

Well, Epona is the only one of those with a pre-existing meaning (as in, outside of Zelda), so you can probably look that one up.
For info
I can't find any specific pronunciation key, though.

I pronounce them the way Ian and Pro seem to.  We don't call French people Francians.  I don't what it would be, linguistically, but hill-ee-uhn doesn't sound like arse.
Actually, my pronunciation is closer to heel-ee-uhn, long e sound.

(See now IGN was right voice acting would resolve all this)

[IceCold]

DEK-oo

[Caliban]

Quote
Originally posted by: Hostile Creation
(See now IGN was right voice acting would resolve all this)

Or make it worse. Just one little change in a Zelda game and there are many of us stupidly arguing about nonsense.

[Artimus]

Hylian is just like Hyrule. And it doesn't sound stupid.

We don't call French people Francians, no, but we pronounce the 'fr' in French and France the same way. And they call themselves francois in their own language and they pronounce it exactly like France. So that example does nothing ton help the very wrong case of "hill-ee-an."

[JonLeung]

I prefer Hill-e-an.  Just because it's the root of Hyrule doesn't mean it has to have the same vowel sound.

There's a dinosaur that used to live around here, Edmonton, called Edmontosaurus, and it's Ed-MON-TO-saur-us, not Ed-MUN-TUH-saurus as in Ed-MUN-TUHN.  Similarly, we live in the province of Alberta, Al-bert-AH, but we're Albertans, Al-bert-UHNS, not Al-bert-AHNS.

Like mentioned earlier, it could be "hill" like in Transylvania.  Tran-sill-vain-e-a.  It's not Tran-sighl-vain-e-a.

Personal preference, I guess.  I don't think "Highlia" sounds dumb, I'm just not used to it.

[Shecky]

Quote
Originally posted by: Artimus
Hylian is just like Hyrule. And it doesn't sound stupid.

We don't call French people Francians, no, but we pronounce the 'fr' in French and France the same way. And they call themselves francois in their own language and they pronounce it exactly like France. So that example does nothing ton help the very wrong case of "hill-ee-an."

Since when do the same letters force pronunciation to be the same?

Hi, my name is Shecky, I am a _human_ who lives in the great state of Hullberry.  I'm proud to be a Hullberrian.

Anyways, I was just pointing out that Hylian and Hyrulian both exist in the fictional world of LoZ.  Bickering on the correct pronunciation is kind of crazy.  Just imagine that there are multiple dialects in the LoZ universe and some of its inhabitants say hill-E-an and some say high-lee-an.  Problem solved.

--

Hi, my name is Link, I am a hylian who recently saved Hyrulians from a great evil and all I got was a statue erected in the middle of Hyrule castle.

[Kairon]

I willingly mispronounce Chocobo when I've been told the proper pronouciation is otherwise, so I tend to be tolerant of different ways of pronouncing things.

Besides, I originally pronounced Harry Potter's Hermione as Her-mee-own, and thought that Her-my-oh-knee was weird... but *eh* I got used to it, and now my original pronounciation sounds weird instead.

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com