Lit The Official "How do I say that?" Thread

Good thing English isn't the only language with the rime "un".

 

Long post like that bout the pronunciation of one letter.
With an 'I was a teacher' thrown in.

*shakes head*

Explain to me... Why does Boss Nass call the gungans 'goongans'?

It's Star Wars... Earth logic doesn't always have to apply. So unless there is some authoritative word on it, everyone can pronounce Kun the way they like.

 

Plus, it's a name. Name's don't necessarily have to follow the standard pronunciation guidelines. They are what they are and that's that.

 

...because he has a terribly, fake Jamaican accent?

 

So, with the evidence proven thus far, I've been correct calling Zuckuss Zoo-kuss and not Zuck-us?

 

No, that's just because you're trynna avoid saying 'suck'.

 

Kun = Kuhn, because I hear koon and think of a furry little animal in my garbage can, not evil powerful Sith Lord.

 

As an ESL teacher, I'm surprised you're so unwilling to accept pronunciations of words that don't necessarily follow English rules. The correct pronunciation of Kun's names has always sounded perfectly fine, to me, but perhaps that's because I'm not only bilingual, but spend a lot of my time reading about various world cultures. I, for example, never had an issue pronouncing the name Xizor. "Shee-zor" was the only thing that made sense.

Well, he has a Gungan accent, but that's kinda the point: there are many different cultures and accents and manners of speaking represented in the galaxy.

 

Which could mean that Kuhn and Koon, and any other weird way we say things might work in the GFFA. Koon is a Coruscanti accent, Kuhn is Corellian.

 

Not necessarily, because people tend to want their names pronounced correctly. If a Hispanic person's last name is "Valle," then you'd pronounce the "ll" as an English "y," and if his name is "Gutierrez," then you wouldn't think of pronouncing the "u" as anything but an "oo" sound.

 

There we are: Coruscant.
Perfect example. No rules could dictate you leaving out the c in pronunciation; only vague reference or the Flanelled One can.

 

I have had many Hispanic friends say "either way" when someone does say their name wrong. Good example, I have a friend named Eloy, most people call him "ee-loy", when it is said "Ell-oy". But when someone calls him "Ee-loy" it doesn't phase him, he's just like, "either way is right." Like if I go to a different country and my name is pronounced "Mii-ke'" I'm not going to complain... it's different cultures.

 

I'm still not sure how to exactly pronounce ysalamiri.

 

I'm sorry, I forgot for a second we were trying to pronounce words in English. I didn't realise, you see, given the distinct similiarity between English and basic in all it's forms.



So really, it turns out that people didn't make a completely unsupportable leap of the rules of English in saying Koon for Kun - no, they were speaking Basic.

And watto, yeah, I spent a year in Taiwan teaching kids this same repetitous crap with vowel sounds. So maybe I have a fraction of an idea what I'm talking about...

"Goongan", you say?

Yeah, and how often do people, including Jar Jar, say G-UH-ngan?

Sorry guys, WE speak English. And therefore when WE pronounce words we are very much bound by the rules of it.

Look, you can say Koon if you want but unfortunately, in English (the language which, you know, the people who wrote the stories speak), it's Kun what rhymes with bun, fun, gun, run, nun et al.

Sure would have been foon to see Eeexorr Koon croosh all those boogs and send them rooning in Derk Nist, right!

Right?

E_S

 

I've had friends pronounce it Zye-zor...

 

I think I may have too, for a while, until I heard the Shee-zor pronunciation.

 

I think the Basic speakers say "Gungan." This does not invalidate Boss Nass' pronunciation of his own race's name.

As an English speaker, you're free to mispronounce any words you like. That does not mean that those words do not have an actual correct pronunciation. There's perfectly good examples of this in-universe, too: no one bothers to correct Dodonna's pronunciation of Leia's name, or Lando's pronunciation of Han's name, and considering that Han and Lando come from similar backgrounds, it could very well be that Lando's the only one pronouncing it correctly. Hell, given what we know of Shyriiwook, everyone's mispronouncing Chewbacca's name. Furthermore, if we're going to assume that Basic = Modern English, then we also have to assume that most names in the SW universe do not come from Basic, but from other languages, as we usually don't derive names by smashing together meaningless sylalbles.

So did I, but my point was that, if you're exposed to the fact that the "sh" sound in other languages is often represented by an "x," it's easier to arrive at the correct pronunciation of what would otherwise seem a very foreign word, indeed.

 

Ya, I meant pow for the end of Utapau. And yes, a lot of these were pronounced in the movies, but people still argue over them. I guess I don't like Kun as Koon because its too close to my last name

 

Is that the popular stance? I always assumed basic bears no similarity to English...its just an instant translation made for the benefit of the reader...well, and because basic doesnt really exist.

 

D'oh, double post!

 

I agree with your sentiments on the flanneled one, but:

"Scene", "Scenario", "Science" -- the "c" is left out of pronunciation. Of course, in those examples, the "sc" is followed by a soft-sound indicating vowel ("i" or "e"), and not a hard-sound indicator (such as "a" in Coruscant).

And Ender, you should well know that English is absolutely LOADED with contradictory pronunciations and conflicting linguistic rules. Even if in almost all other cases a particular pronunciation is correct, it is not true for all cases. It's the peril of having a language that is derivative of many different languange sources, and is also why English (especially "American") is often very difficult for non-English speakers to learn.

C'mon, it's a language in which, by phonetic-linguistic rules, you can spell "Fish" as "Ghoti". I don't think Kun=Koon is that much of a stretch.

 

As wrong as I probably am, I like saying "YIS-sall-uh-MARR-ee." Except when it's written after the word "an". Then I make it "IS-sall-uh-MARR-ee."

 

I tend to subconsciously agree with you while going through SW stuff, but a lot of readers prefer that Basic is, literally, English. Ender_Sai, the fellow I was responding to seems to be one of those "lot of readers," hence that quote.

The actual spelling is "ysalamir," which I tend to pronounce "ee-SALL-uh-meer."

 

I say ee-saluh-miri

 

So when you meet people with foreign last names, I assume you pronounce them as if they were English, regardless of how they're supposed to be said? "Sir, I know your name is really pronounced "Martinez", but I speak English, so the right way to pronounce it "Martynz". I hear you come from Cancuhn on the Yuhcatan Peninsula?"

Seems a bit arrogant to me to say that everyone's name must be pronounced by the rules of your language, but hey, it's your right.