Pronunciations with Fernehalwes from GamerEscape

Aetheryte Radio 48.5: Talking with Fernehalwes
"At last week’s E3, we were able to sit down with Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the localization guy that many forum goers will know as Fernehalwes. We discuss how to say some of the words that can be found in Eorzea."

Thank you to Gamer Escape for doing this. I think it's a really great idea so hopefully you guys can continue this as an ongoing series! Fernehalwes gave us some pointers on pronunciations on the forums in the past, but it's really nice to clearly hear it from him firsthand.

Danny Kang! Hey, it is me! One of your fans! Um, right, onto the topic at hand -- YES, YES, I am so very grateful for this video!!! Now I can confidently stride through Eorzea pronouncing all the words as I go. I kept stumbling over saying the name "Eorzea" whenever I was explaining the game to my friends, because it wasn't said often enough to jump in my memory banks. Now they have the word flying all over the place, so I can actually say it and not feel unsure about if I was right or not. Fwee~~~

Very cool interview. I hope he'll be more connected with the community in the future. I can only imagine how busy he is being Yoshi-P's interpreter and having to oversee the English side of the localization.

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Originally Posted by Hestern_Nestern

Danny Kang! Hey, it is me! One of your fans!

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Oh, thanks that's awesome to hear! Are you a fan from my fb page? I can't tell who you are from the xiv forum name~ haha.

Anyhoo, not to derail my own thread.. Besides pronunciations themselves, I also liked how Fern explained the background mentality in shaping them, like how the Sahagin language sounds like they're underwater with little to no vowels, which shaped the pronunciation of Shposhae.

Awesome. Listening now. I got tons of jil!

I've always pronounced Bahamut as Ba-ha-mutt, and Ifrit as If-rit. I always thought that's how it was pronounced lol

And I heard Dr. Mog pronounce Louisoix how Ferne said it, but I was close to it by saying Loui-soy.

Awesome! Great interview with the Ferne!

Just listened and was surprised how many I got wrong...

can we make pirates talk like pirate but text as regular?
I hate to read pirate conversation so much...

I'm a Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-ga-din!

It was nice to get some vindication when 'roo-ga-din' came up after the LS gave Moose and I minor grief for that pronunciation.

Also, I find smug self satisfaction knowing how leves are pronounced. It drives me crazy when people say 'lev-ees'.

This was so great! Thanks for letting us in on that stuff, Ferne! You are a gentleman and a scholar and I can't wait to see those lore bombs get dropped to mess all our theories up.

And I'm so glad he cleared up the leve thing...I knew I heard the "taking leave" thing he mentioned somewhere before! As for the others now I can't help imagining the Sahagin beat boxing or something with the "no vowels, just pshhh sounds" thing...I was kinda surprised at how many I actually pronounced right! But Merlwyb's name was weird...I heard somewhere the pronounciation was like "murlweeb" or something but "mehrlvyb" does make more sense. It's really neat how they collaborated with the different language teams for the in-game language stuff, too!

Ahh, Roo-ga-din....I've been saying Row-ga-din. Everything else, I've been pretty good with.

Eorzea = A-or-zee-ah, but I got into the habit of saying Ee-ore-zee-ah.

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Originally Posted by Lucke

Ahh, Roo-ga-din....I've been saying Row-ga-din. Everything else, I've been pretty good with.

Eorzea = A-or-zee-ah, but I got into the habit of saying Ee-ore-zee-ah.

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We all have. Anyone who says they pronounced it right from the get go is a damn liar!


And I'm going to stick to saying Orzea without the E, or A sound period lol

It's inspiring to listen someone with such an enthusiastic nature. I hope, that some day i'll score a job i can really become absorbed in and work with like-minded, confident and passionate people, towards common interests and goals.

I hope once he gets a little more time, Ferne does a "Word of the Week" podcast, which is literally him just saying one Eorzean word.

Hmm... now I'm curious how Fernes would pronounce my name at a glance.

Did not know it was ROO-ga-din.

More like KangaROOgadyn, mirite?

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Originally Posted by Bayohne

Awesome! Great interview with the Ferne!

Just listened and was surprised how many I got wrong...

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It's kinda funny, I came out after this and you guys kept saying "Ifrit" differently during your commentary and I thought "oh man if Fernehalwes could hear this..."

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Originally Posted by Mjollnir

I hope once he gets a little more time, Ferne does a "Word of the Week" podcast, which is literally him just saying one Eorzean word.

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I'm not sure about a recurring thing, but we're trying to get some more done with Fernehalwes regarding pronunciation!


Additionally, we'll have a full blown Q and A about how Fernehalwes actually got involved in localization and how they do what they do. (it may or may not involve a video game where you rob old ladies)

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Originally Posted by Fusionx

Additionally, we'll have a full blown Q and A about how Fernehalwes actually got involved in localization and how they do what they do. (it may or may not involve a video game where you rob old ladies)

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Pokémon obviously. You can fight old people to take their money.

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Originally Posted by Fusionx

I'm not sure about a recurring thing, but we're trying to get some more done with Fernehalwes regarding pronunciation!

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I still think a recurring thing would be cool; I'm not talking about through your GE site, just something Ferne or S-E could do themselves.

Nice to know I got everything right except roegadyn, although I think most people got that one wrong.

Only thing he got incorrect (but he don't speak French so that's coo) was Louisoix's last name, which is said "Le-ve-yur" not "Le-ve-lur"

This was a really fun interview xD Ferne is such a fun guy to hear talk. Hope we can get more of this kind of stuff in the future!

One thing I did notice is the pronunciation of "Cait Sith" being said almost as it looks, which isn't accurate either. Its real world reference is to Cat Sidhe (Scottish Gaelic; or Cat Si in Irish), and anyone who knows a thing about Gaelic is that letters don't seem to pronounce themselves quite as you'd expect.

Whilst it looks like it might be said as "Kate Sith" (like some kind of crazy female Sith Lord), it's something more like "Ket Shee". The Japanese text for the character (at least in FF7) is ケット・シー which is "Ketto Shii", which is much more accurate than the Westernised interpretation of it.

I have to admit, though, that when I first played FF7 them many years ago, I, too, said it as "Kate Sith" because I didn't know much better.

Glad to know that people will stop referring to Gil as "Jill". I've never even heard it called that until recently, and (without being country-ist) it's only been American's that I've heard say it. English is a funny language, though, with no rules on whether a soft or hard sound is required. You just have to know.

looks like i was saying most stuff correctly

i was surprised to know that i was right on all except (roe)roogadyn :p it's very cool to get these pronunciations straight from him because it puts the bad ones to rest. it was very funny this weekend hearing people on mumble try to say sastasha. -_-

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Originally Posted by Eruantien

Nice to know I got everything right except roegadyn, although I think most people got that one wrong.

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Yeah, the words really aren't that bad. I think Fern did a great job! People are just too lazy to look closely at a word and practice it for a coupe of seconds. Now my next problem is convincing my friends of the importance of pronunciation.

I've been stuck on:
Dzemael (I was pronouncing the D; "Dze-ma-el". Didn't think it'd be "Ze-mail")
Roegadyn (I know how to say it, but Row-ga-din is my habit :()

To properly appreciate that "oe" sound from German, I advise having a listen to the following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ab2UNFk-3c