Pronunciation of Names of Things in Etrian Odyssey
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:57 pm
As with a lot of fantasy/sci-fi stuff I come across first in text-only form, there are quite a few names in Etrian Odyssey which I can spell, but am not sure how to "correctly" speak, assuming the people who originally came up with the names had to at least sound them out in their own heads first.
One particularly itchy spot for me happens to be the name of the first FOE seen on B2F: the (in)famous Ragelope. The e in the middle has always bothered me, and there are many other times when words are spliced like this, in the game. I'm guessing the name Ragelope comes from something like "raging antelope," so I first pronounced it \RAGE-uh-lope\ but some part of my brain keeps trying to drop the second syllable to make it just \RAGE-lope\ which doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but I still find myself doing it, for some reason. Theriaca is another one of those words, for example. For the longest time, I didn't even notice there was an a in there, and it was just \THER-i-ka\ (with th as in math or thimble, not like breathe or this, and with i as in ick.). And I still do just pronounce it like that now, even being aware of the a. And oh, do you pronounce "FOE" like the word "foe," or do you spell out the letters of that acronym? (I notice some people say "a FOE" and others "an FOE".)
Please do share names of items, skills, monsters, places or anything else in the (canon) Etrian Odyssey universe that you struggle to pronounce, that have your own favourite pronunciation for, or that you have ideas of the etymologies behind. Who knows, maybe names you thought had obvious pronunciations are interpreted very differently by your forum-mates!
* Note to mods: this topic applies to both EO I and II, but there's no general EO section, so please move this topic to whichever section is most appropriate. Thanks.
Edit: Somehow I forgot to finish one of my sentences the first time. Also edited some punctuation for consistency.
One particularly itchy spot for me happens to be the name of the first FOE seen on B2F: the (in)famous Ragelope. The e in the middle has always bothered me, and there are many other times when words are spliced like this, in the game. I'm guessing the name Ragelope comes from something like "raging antelope," so I first pronounced it \RAGE-uh-lope\ but some part of my brain keeps trying to drop the second syllable to make it just \RAGE-lope\ which doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but I still find myself doing it, for some reason. Theriaca is another one of those words, for example. For the longest time, I didn't even notice there was an a in there, and it was just \THER-i-ka\ (with th as in math or thimble, not like breathe or this, and with i as in ick.). And I still do just pronounce it like that now, even being aware of the a. And oh, do you pronounce "FOE" like the word "foe," or do you spell out the letters of that acronym? (I notice some people say "a FOE" and others "an FOE".)
Please do share names of items, skills, monsters, places or anything else in the (canon) Etrian Odyssey universe that you struggle to pronounce, that have your own favourite pronunciation for, or that you have ideas of the etymologies behind. Who knows, maybe names you thought had obvious pronunciations are interpreted very differently by your forum-mates!
* Note to mods: this topic applies to both EO I and II, but there's no general EO section, so please move this topic to whichever section is most appropriate. Thanks.
Edit: Somehow I forgot to finish one of my sentences the first time. Also edited some punctuation for consistency.