Guild Wars 2

The biggest complaint I have about the Norns is the pronunciation of “Jotun”. It should be “Yo-tun” not with a hard J like it is in the game.

If you are going to use stuff from the Norse culture, at least learn the correct way of pronouncing the word. The letter J is always has the Y sound. Jarl is Yarl, Johanson is Yohanson, etc.

But I figure if that is my biggest complaint then things are pretty good.

Wouldn’t really make sense considering their lack of accent in the first place.

Uberrod.1342:

If you are going to use stuff from the Norse culture, at least learn the correct way of pronouncing the word.

It’s not pronounced “Yo-tun” either; the “o” has an umlaut (ö).

You should stop being picky about stupid minor things, really.

I don’t think they truly want to go with a Nordic accent overall. Admitted it is there, but since they really aren’t Nords, but Norn is makes a difference.

also “golem” somehow became “gollum”

“go-lum” became “goll-um”

Maybe the Norn changed it to Jotun when they went with the ‘new’ language that everyone speaks… Ya know, how many words in other languages are mispronounced in English, like Caesar (pronounced Kaiser). Oh and if you really want to get picky, its Jötunn.

It’s Tyrian pronounciation… not norse. I think we can give them some creative license on this one.

Everything has an Americanized pronunciation. Except maybe the Gollum bit- dunno where that one came from.

Examples:
Centaur- Sen-taur (am), Ken-taur(eu, latin)
Jormag- Jor-mag (am), yor-mog (norse, I think? maybe swedish?)
Zhaitan- Zi-tan (am), ZShai-tan (Islam, kittenan, with some creative license for the Z)
Quay- Kway (am), Key (eu)

etc… sure creative license and all that, but really I think it was done on purpose to make things simpler and consistent. Some are harmless- Centaur is technically the correct pronunciation in American english, it just bothers our cousins accross the pond. Zhaitan and Jormag though bug me- they are very close to words taken from another language and have no standard English version, but they didn’t bring the original pronunciation with them. Grrr.

They’re not nordic. They’re a fantasy race. Just because they’re loosely based on something doesn’t mean they should replicate their every tiniest detail.

They’re not pronouncing it incorrectly, they’re pronouncing it differently. There is a distinction.

Or do you believe that you and a crap ton of random people playing the game knew the proper way to pronounce jotun, and not one person who wrote, spoke or listened to the dialogue knew?

It’s a fantasy game /based/ on life as we understand it. Arguing about grammar in a language /similar/ to a real life one, is silly.

Even these guys seem to pronounce it that way, and they’re Swedish. That’s kinda like Norse, isn’t it?

It’s Norn language not Norse.

I’m offended they are not in full old Norse for Norn.

The worst is Knut. The ‘K’ is hard, not silent!

Oh, well. Norn just talk funny.

I raged hard when I heard quay pronounced kway for the first time.

At least it’s not as bad as TOR – “legate” was pronounced “laygatay” and some other abominations. It’s like the voice directors didn’t know how to speak.

It is the Anglicized version of the word. So you literally say it Joton. The “Yoton” pronunciation comes with the “ö” character so would be spelt Jöton.

It is not a Norn word or a Tyrian or fantasy word but an English one.

As a rule of thumb if a J is followed by a ö character then say Yo, but if it is followed by an o character then pronounce it as you usually would.

Rhyse.8176:

Everything has an Americanized pronunciation. Except maybe the Gollum bit- dunno where that one came from.

Examples:
Centaur- Sen-taur (am), Ken-taur(eu, latin)
Jormag- Jor-mag (am), yor-mog (norse, I think? maybe swedish?)
Zhaitan- Zi-tan (am), ZShai-tan (Islam, kittenan, with some creative license for the Z)
Quay- Kway (am), Key (eu)

etc… sure creative license and all that, but really I think it was done on purpose to make things simpler and consistent. Some are harmless- Centaur is technically the correct pronunciation in American english, it just bothers our cousins accross the pond. Zhaitan and Jormag though bug me- they are very close to words taken from another language and have no standard English version, but they didn’t bring the original pronunciation with them. Grrr.

Actually in this game it seems like everyone pronounces centaur as sen-tar. Which is weird to me, I always hear sen-tor. It makes me wonder if they pronounce taurus as tar-us O.o

well i pronounce it Joe Ton but as I always do with pronunciations in this game i listen to the npcs. helps alot.

I know that it’s supposed to be “Yo-tun”, but I often forget it myself and pronounce it Jotun. >.>

Honestly, trying to compare fictional fantasy cultures to real life cultures is like comparing apples to ora-. . . socks. Sure, they may have had real life influences, but at the end of the day, it’s still a fictional culture, and can be made to be whatever it wants by the creator.

wel its not based on nors culture maybe a litle but when i did the story line whit my mesmer i found a group of norn whit frysian names so i think they made a mix of some nordic cultures and made it into one so thats they say things difrent because u cant make a accent of all that difrent cultures .

I kind of get where the OP is coming from, but I don’t really have a problem with it mostly because there’s no indication in the game that Norse (or anything resembling it) is their native tongue, it’s just standard English. Thus, it’s more of an easter egg than anything else and should conform to standard Anglicized pronunciations.

A good analogy exists with the word ambience. Sure, ambience has a French origin, and is a recent enough addition to English pop culture that many people still pronounce it “ahm-bee-ahnce”. But, if you check the dictionary, you’ll see it’s been fully integrated into English and the appropriate pronunciation is simply “am-be-uhns”

Icarus Pherae.4680:

Actually in this game it seems like everyone pronounces centaur as sen-tar. Which is weird to me, I always hear sen-tor. It makes me wonder if they pronounce taurus as tar-us O.o

About some of these vowel sounds (centaur, golem, etc.): a lot of American dialects have less vowel sounds than British English, or even other American dialects. In some cases, we are literally unable to hear the difference, because the human brain is programmed to stop distinguishing differences that don’t matter. (That’s why people raised speaking Mandarin have issues with L and R.)

So yeah. The actors most likely say “sen-tar” and drive home in a Ford “Tar-us” because they hear no difference from “sen-tor” and “tor-us.”

Uberrod.1342:

But I figure if that is my biggest complaint then things are pretty good.

This made my eye twitch too. And my wife has to hear about it everytime they say Joe-tun. I hiss and whisper “YOE-tun” and make snarly faces at the screen.

But they’re still my favorite race, so…

Hah. Should see me and the hubby when we hear some of this. We do the same thing of correcting the pronunciations ( he’s Norwegian, I’m from the Southern US…so have that Southern Drawl going on ).

Tbh, the Anglicisation of Norse words (not to be confused with Swedish, Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic, that while being descendants of Norse, are vastly different) used in games always makes me angry. It’s the little things, the details, that make me hiss like Odaen. But, what can you do? The culture and language is considered “cool” by the West and so gets this treatment.

Truthfully though, I find the British accents of the Sylvari far more grating than anything said in Hoelbrak. Shove your violets up your-

Varyag.3751:

Uberrod.1342:

If you are going to use stuff from the Norse culture, at least learn the correct way of pronouncing the word.

It’s not pronounced “Yo-tun” either; the “o” has an umlaut (ö).

You should stop being picky about stupid minor things, really.

/thread

Mairenaianelle.3849:

Hah. Should see me and the hubby when we hear some of this. We do the same thing of correcting the pronunciations ( he’s Norwegian, I’m from the Southern US…so have that Southern Drawl going on ).

We’re from Oklahoma, so I totally know those feels. But like the OP said, if this is the only complaint, then…

Actually, coming from WoW, I have a lot more complaints. But that’s another thread…

Hellkaiser.6025:

also “golem” somehow became “gollum”

“go-lum” became “goll-um”

every time I hear this I hear “My Preciousssssss…”

stop it game Asura look enough like him already

I don’t personally care whether it is “Jormag” or “Yormag”, I just wish the NPCs would make up their minds and settle for one of the two.

Then again, taking a North European name like “Kalle” (Kal-le) and pronouncing it “Kale” is somewhat… poor. Breaks my immersion every time.

Both things don’t really say to me “this is how Norn pronounce things”, but rather “this is how many kittens our voice director gave”.

And like Yor-Mag

or Goon Nar not Gun ar

It’s not just Norn names: is Caudecus’s daughter’s name (Demi) pronounced Demmy or d’Mee? In the same conversation there are NPCs using different pronunciations.

All names and non-English words could do with a pronunciation guide that the voice actors can draw on. Mind you, so could some English words, unless “dossil” is a valid US pronunciation of “docile”.

/nitpick

What Cato said ^
+1.