SgtBrowncoat

A classic topic of conversation, argument, and frequent irritation for gamers is pronunciation of various words used frequently in games, but not as much outside of the game store. I was Trolling around www.merriam-webster.com yesterday and found some good source information.

Of course non of this helps with completely made up words (Does Catachan ryme with Jackie Chan, or tin can?) But even some of the "made up" ones have their origins in real words, so one can use that as a basis for actually pronouncing it properly. "Baal" for example.

Anyway, here is a short list I made from merriam-webster.com and Dictionary.com to help some folks, start an interesting exercise, or start some arguments! (either way i am good!)

Melee (All games, RPGs) [mey-ley, mel-ey] - airway, all-day, archway, array, ashtray
*Note - "meaty" does not appear in the rhyme list...

Coryphee (Malifaux) [kawr-uh-fey] - Rhymes with: Alleyway, all the way, anyway.

Baal (Blood Angels) [bey-uhl, beyl] - Rhymes with: bail, bale, brail, braille, dale, flail
*Note - Rhymes with Fail When I play them : )

Dystopian (Dystopian wars) [dis-toh-pee-uh] - The important part here is that the "Y" sounds like an "I" as in "Mist, Twist, or Gist,"

Sybarite (Dark Eldar) [sib-uh-rahyt] - Again, the "Y" sounds like an "I" here.

Mana (Magic: the Gathering, among others) [mah-nah] - donna, Ghana, Yana

Corps, also Korps in German (Malifaux, 40K Death Korps of Krieg) [kawr, kohr]
Rhymes with: bore, chore, cor, core, crore, door. Never with Corpse

Ariadna (Infinity) This one is made up, but we can look at "ariadne" [ar-ee-ad-nee]

Castellan (Most medieval and fantasy games, though Many of the mispronunciations come from Grey knights Castellan Crow, where it is treated as a name, rather than a job. This is despite his name being presented as Garran Crow Pg 42, Grey Knights codex.[kas-tl-n, ka-stel-uhn]

Magi, Magus (Most games) [mey-jahy, mey-guhs] Magos is the original greek version, and is used by Warhammer 40k.

What are some other common mispronunciations that you know of? Which ones bug the crap out of you?

Thanks for reading!