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Pronounciation of alien names

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:33 pm
by Turbo
A lot of the alien races have odd spellings and we're trying to record news broadcasts, so if the devs can tell us the preferred way to say these names, it would be appreciated. Otherwise we'll make something up and live with it:

Aera -- we already have dozens of voice items that pronounce it "AIR-uh"
Dgn -- CLoneWolf said "DIG-un" in the LIHW recordings so I hope that's okay
Klk'k -- is that "CLICK-k" with 2 syllables?
Rlaan -- depending on the linguistic roots intended, this could be "er-LAWN" or "er-LORN" or the 'R could be silent as in "LAWN" or "LORN" or it could be some other thing
Shmrm -- I'm going to guess this one is "shmurm" and would rhyme with 'worm'?
Uln -- our newscaster is going somewhere between "uhln" and "OOln" so I hope that's okay

Separately from that, we still have not decided on a solution for alien names being read by news reporters. Do we play the actual alien name in its native language, or should the news caster provide a translated version of the name? It would not be possible for a human news anchor to speak Rlaan since there aren't enough mouths, so having the news caster try to say it in her own voice won't work in all cases.

Re: Pronounciation of alien names

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:15 pm
by CLoneWolf
IMHO, translated proper names have 2 advantages: no trouble pronouncing them, and more meaning conveyed in news or radio chats, like for Leafblighter; but surely we need canon directions on the race names; for the Dgn I followed the proposed suggestions, but they didn't come from the M.O.I.