"Kin Shi Huang"

[Couch Tomato]

I'm kind of shocked that this made it into the final game, but sitting through China's opening, the narrator says "Kin Shi Huang" instead of the actual pronunciation ("Chin"). Even the weekly Civ spotlight videos pronounced it right.

 

[EulerMcE]

Firaxis evidently has great difficulty giving their actors pronunciation guides.

 

[Dray]

Also "Hojo Tokimoon"...

 

[moysturfurmer]

"Sithia"

 

[MyOtherName]

Americur.

 

[Returning Lurker]

I thought that one was a particularly egregious mispronunciation, given the fact that the country is named in his honor. And it's not called "Kina".

 

[narmox]

I thought that one was a particularly egregious mispronunciation, given the fact that the country is named in his honor. And it's not called "Kina".

Yeah except we write it China not Qina. Transliteration is a tough thing though, and it's what leads to all these mispronounciation*. Not defending this mispronounciation, just I know that it happens. I think this game, from what I've seen so far, has fewer errors of that sort than Civ5 though


* Not everyone playing this game or seeing other Chinese transliterated words knows that Q is a hard ch, X is some kind of sh, and so on. Same as Korean, eo is pronounced like the u in Samsung, but not many people know that when they first encountered these words.

Doesn't help that transliteration styles have changed for all asian languages, that's why we get the Samsung company and the Samseong station yet they are written the same way in Korean and pronounced the same way. The company was created before the new style of romanization however, so the name had to stick.. Leading to everyone being confused. Don't get me started on non-Japanese words being imported into Japanese LOL

 

[Returning Lurker]

Yeah except we write it China not Qina. Transliteration is a tough thing though, and it's what leads to all these mispronounciation*. Not defending this mispronounciation, just I know that it happens. I think this game, from what I've seen so far, has fewer errors of that sort than Civ5 though


* Not everyone playing this game or seeing other Chinese transliterated words knows that Q is a hard ch, X is some kind of sh, and so on. Same as Korean, eo is pronounced like the u in Samsung, but not many people know that when they first encountered these words.

Doesn't help that transliteration styles have changed for all asian languages, that's why we get the Samsung company and the Samseong station yet they are written the same way in Korean and pronounced the same way. The company was created before the new style of romanization however, so the name had to stick.. Leading to everyone being confused. Don't get me started on non-Japanese words being imported into Japanese LOL

That's fair enough, it's just that it was my assumption that the majority of people knew what/who China was named after (Depending on whether you say it was named after the dynasty or the person though that too is pretty semantic as the dynasty was also named after him so you reach the same end result just with an extra step added in) thus they would not be thrown for a loop when reading the name Qin.

 

[narmox]

That's fair enough, it's just that it was my assumption that the majority of people knew what/who China was named after (Depending on whether you say it was named after the dynasty or the person though that too is pretty semantic as the dynasty was also named after him so you reach the same end result just with an extra step added in) thus they would not be thrown for a loop when reading the name Qin.

I agree, it's a glaring error, I wasn't trying to excuse it, more explaining it and got in a rant about transliteration lol

 

[God of Kings]

Good thing no one bothers to pronounce "Shanxi" and "Shaanxi" in-game. Both are neighbouring provinces in China; they are pronounced differently in Mandarin, but inevitably are homophonic in English.

Likewise, native Mandarin (and native Japanese) speakers will have an extremely difficult time differentiating between "lizzle" and "rizzle."

 

[Joketa]

Even if the narrator is coached to pronounce Qin as Chin with the ch sound coming from the front of the mouth, and even if Shi is pronounced Shr, none of it is correct if the tones aren't right.

It's like all those hipsters telling you pho is pronounced fuh. It is if you get the tone right and it so isn't if you don't. In English, you may as well call it foe because unless you speak Vietnamese pretty well, you're still saying it wrong.

There is however a kind of broadcast speech in which news anchors and such people are taught to pronounce Chinese names with proper consonant and vowel sounds but with neutral tones. This is likely the best compromise when saying Chinese names in English, but it doesn't mean Chinese people will understand who the hell you're talking about.

 

[Returning Lurker]

Even if the narrator is coached to pronounce Qin as Chin with the ch sound coming from the front of the mouth, and even if Shi is pronounced Shr, none of it is correct if the tones aren't right.

It's like all those hipsters telling you pho is pronounced fuh. It is if you get the tone right and it so isn't if you don't. In English, you may as well call it foe because unless you speak Vietnamese pretty well, you're still saying it wrong.

There is however a kind of broadcast speech in which news anchors and such people are taught to pronounce Chinese names with proper consonant and vowel sounds but with neutral tones. This is likely the best compromise when saying Chinese names in English, but it doesn't mean Chinese people will understand who the hell you're talking about.

That's a legitimate point, but to me at least playing in the right ballpark is better than being in a completely different city if you follow me.

 

[Joketa]

That's a legitimate point, but to me at least playing in the right ballpark is better than being in a completely different city if you follow me.

Yes. It would've been better if they spoke the way top news anchors are coached to do.

It is troublesome business. Chinese broadcasters can call Brad Pitt, "Be La De Pee Te", or if they can pronounce his name in English if they have the ability. In Chinese his name has readable characters and thus becomes a Chinese word. There is a valid Chinese version of his name. It's not so clear in English. Qin Shi Huang is not really recognizable English (or French, German, Spanish, etc.). You need to learn Hanyu Pinyin just to pronounce it. You're not making a decision to say it in one language or another like you are with Brad Pitt in Chinese. In some ways, Chinese names will always sound like a failed attempt at Chinese.

 

[narmox]

That's a legitimate point, but to me at least playing in the right ballpark is better than being in a completely different city if you follow me.

Agreed, saying "Chin She Hooang" without the right tones would be a lot better than Kin lol.

 

[Katakanja]

Also "Hojo Tokimoon"...

I feel like this is generous, its sounds more like Ho-joe Tockey-Moone to me. Like Sean Bean's just met some old friend of his down t' pub

 

[anandus]

Likewise, native Mandarin (and native Japanese) speakers will have an extremely difficult time differentiating between "lizzle" and "rizzle."

Offtopic: I'm not a native English speaker (although I read English well). What does lizzle and rizzle mean? I'm not familiar with those words.

 

[salty mud]

Why is it the forum is in meltdown over a tiny, inconsequential mistake like this but when legitimate queries are brought up (e.g. the UI, the AI, balance issues) they're just swept under the carpet with the delusional "Firaxis will fix it" comment?

 

[narmox]

Why is it the forum is in meltdown over a tiny, inconsequential mistake like this but when legitimate queries are brought up (e.g. the UI, the AI, balance issues) they're just swept under the carpet with the delusional "Firaxis will fix it" comment?

Not seeing any meltdown. It's just a thing that does annoy when they get something wrong like that, like the other issues.

On the other hand, fixing UI/AI/balance is probably easier than getting Sean Bean again to re-record something.

I sure hope the expansions will get Sean Bean again, it was annoying in the Civ4 expansions when you'd get Nimoy for all base techs, and Sid? for all the new techs.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Americur.

That's typical British english pronounciation that really annoys me. They say "drawring" instead of drawing, "Miranur" instead of Mirana etc.

 

[Menzies]

That's typical British english pronounciation that really annoys me. They say "drawring" instead of drawing, "Miranur" instead of Mirana etc.

Regional accents sound weird in different regions, the horror.