I now pronounce you... (NOT a marriage thread)

[James de Monet]

Okay, so there have been a fair number of threads hashing out English pronunciations of in-game words before, but most of them revolve around phonetic spellings.  This is the internet age.  I say we use it.  Below is a list of Zalanthan words and proper names.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to visit the linked site, make a short recording of you pronouncing the word list below, save it, and post the link to this tread.

Some of these words have more widely accepted pronunciations, some are steeped in decades of bitter debate.  Some (like the Pah), actually have accepted pronunciations in the help files.  Torpedo that.  This thread isn't about what's popular, or what's 'correct', it's about what YOU think, so let's hear it!

Notes: The site doesn't require an account, or for you to download the result; you can just "save", then copy the link it generates.  Please make sure to leave a brief pause between each word so we can understand you.  It might help to copy the word list to another window so you can have them side by side.  If you have a speech disability or don't want people to hear your voice for any reason, you join the conversation by using syllable input on the text to speech site.  The one I found isn't great, but I think it will let you link to the files it generates, rather than forcing you to download them and host them elsewhere.  If you know of a better site that will locally host the results, please let us know!

Here is the link to the recording site (Vocaroo) or the text to speech site (text2speech).

And...go!


Set 1:

Zalanthas
Allanak
Nakkis
Tuluk
Tulukis
Luirs Outpost
T'zai Byn
Bynners
House Oash
Oashi
Abi'li Pah

[James de Monet]

JDM's Set 1

[Hauwke]

Hauwke saying things!

https://voca.ro/czakCihnGLl

I ended up saying Tuluk and Tuluki's around the wrong way, but whatever.

[Hauwke]

JDM's Set 1

I find it interesting that the only ones we say the same, or at least extremely similar based on accent, are T'zai Byn, Bynners and Abi'li Pah.

[Lizzie]

https://voca.ro/SESFFkzQDBs

[betweenford]

https://voca.ro/mI5ViF3DA27

[Shaydee]

https://voca.ro/hH354aPQKSC

I love hearing how different people pronounce words!

[Medena]

Fun idea James.

https://voca.ro/7H9k5Q0Sf6P

[Tranquil]

I can't believe some people pronounce Oash like that.

[ErdluWings]

Here's how a native Finnish speaker (schooled in Received Pronunciation but exposed to years of American media) would speak:

https://voca.ro/bFFsQek9cgZ

[James de Monet]

I love hearing the variations, some subtle, some not.  Interestingly, in a  RL vocal society, the pronunciations would be 'self-correcting' (at least regionally), as most people would normalize to the most common pronunciation.  But in game, the only way to really determine others' pronunciations is when people try to rhyme, or when they purposely introduce syllabic breaks (when angry, etc.)

Keep 'em coming!

[Hauwke]

Here's how a native Finnish speaker (schooled in Received Pronunciation but exposed to years of American media) would speak:

https://voca.ro/bFFsQek9cgZ

I personally feel like your pronunciation of Luir's has to be the most 'correct', even my own feels slightly wrong but it's too ingrained to change in any short period of time.