YA "how do you pronounce..." thread

[Dauber]

This time -- Galaga.

 

Now....I know of one, maybe two, people who insist the proper pronunciation is "[email protected] LAH [email protected]" [the "@" representing the schwa, which isn't typable]

 

I've always pronounced it "GAL @ [email protected]", basically the "gala" pronounced exactly as pronounced in "galaxy." And that's the way I remember it being pronounced on Starcade.

 

What do you think is the correct pronunciation, and what's your source?

 

And in case there already has been a thread, I uhhhh...checked. I searched for "pronunciation" and "pronounce." Throw in the word "Galaga," and you get too much to search.

[jaybird3rd]

This time -- Galaga.

 

Now....I know of one, maybe two, people who insist the proper pronunciation is "[email protected] LAH [email protected]" [the "@" representing the schwa, which isn't typable]

 

I've always pronounced it "GAL @ [email protected]", basically the "gala" pronounced exactly as pronounced in "galaxy." And that's the way I remember it being pronounced on Starcade.

 

What do you think is the correct pronunciation, and what's your source?

 

And in case there already has been a thread, I uhhhh...checked. I searched for "pronunciation" and "pronounce." Throw in the word "Galaga," and you get too much to search.

I've always pronounced Galaga the same way you do.

 

Two questions I have along similar lines: does anyone know how "Gaiden" from "Ninja Gaiden" is pronounced (is it "guy den" or "gay den"), or how "Karateka" is pronounced (are the first six letters pronounced the same as "karate")?

[JB]

I think gaiden is pronounced "guy den".

Edited July 31, 2006 by JB

[Lord Thag]

Karateka is pronounced 'ka-RAH-te-kuh', I believe. I'm in agreement with Galaga and Gaiden as well

[Atari-Jess]

Gal-a-ga

Guy-den

[Gregory DG]

Galaga - GAL-A-GA. (Didn't know there was an alternate pronunciation.)

 

Gaiden - GUY-DEN.

 

I pronounce Qix, "Qwix." I know it's probably wrong, but what the heck.

[Christophero Sly]

Gal-ugh-uh

Guy-den

Karate-kuh

Kicks

 

How about Gradius? I pronounce it Grade-"e"-us -- rhymes with "radius".

Edited July 31, 2006 by Christophero Sly

[Lord Helmet]

Gal-ugh-uh

 

How about Gradius? I pronounce it Grade-"e"-us -- rhymes with "radius".

 

Yep on both counts.

 

Why would anyone pronounce Galaga any other way?

[+remowilliams]

Why would anyone pronounce Galaga any other way?

Good question, but there's people who pronounce .GIF as 'jiff'

[n8littlefield]

Why would anyone pronounce Galaga any other way?

Good question, but there's people who pronounce .GIF as 'jiff'

But...that's how it's pronouced, like the peanut butter...

[+Random Terrain]

I learned back when the game was fairly new that QIX is pronounced 'KICKS,' not 'QUIX' from a guy in high school. Before then I was saying Quix like an idiot.

[Mayhem]

How about Gradius? I pronounce it Grade-"e"-us -- rhymes with "radius".

 

Technically it should be grad-ee-us as rhyming with gladius (which is the Engrish spawn of the game name), the old Roman sword.

[guitarmas]

My pronunciations:

 

Galaga -> Gal-le-guh

 

Karateka -> Car-rott-eh-kuh

 

Gaiden -> Gay-den

[Dauber]

Interesting that nobody has said WHY they pronounce "Galaga" the way they do; I DID ask for sources.

[sega saturn x]

I alwas called Gradius gladius wiht the L and R swap, not because I knew of the engrish just because that's the only way I had ever heard it pronounced. On another not why do so many people pronounce sagat saget?

[Lord Thag]

Interesting that nobody has said WHY they pronounce "Galaga" the way they do; I DID ask for sources. icon_smile.gif

 

*consults library of rare, arcane books of lore*

 

Hmm, probably because 'galaga' is derived from 'galaxian' which is of course from the word 'galaxy', so we pronounce it 'gala-guh', deriving the pronunciation from the english word for a staggeringly large group of stellar bodies held together by gravity.

 

Here ends the lesson

Edited August 1, 2006 by Lord Thag

[NE146]

Interesting that nobody has said WHY they pronounce "Galaga" the way they do; I DID ask for sources. icon_smile.gif

 

*consults library of rare, arcane books of lore*

 

Hmm, probably because 'galaga' is derived from 'galaxian' which is of course from the word 'galaxy', so we pronounce it 'gala-guh', deriving the pronunciation from the english word for a staggeringly large group of stellar bodies held together by gravity.

 

Here ends the lesson

 

 

Ding ding ding. Winner.

 

Galaga, being the sequel to Galaxian... is probably pronounced very similarly most of us concluded.

[liveinabin]

Galaga will be pronounced the way you've all agreed on. It's Japanese and they don't muck around with all of those english vowel sounds. Japanese is pretty much phonetic, so it'll be Ga La Ga.

[Paranoid]

Don't get the JIFF guys started...

 

I used to know a guy who would rant about that... something to do with the name of the guy who wrote it...

 

Or is that Linux? He was a linux nut too, and insisted on the "proper" pronounciation of both, and would go nuts if you said it the other way.

 

Popularity of pronounciation wins in the long run... I don't care WHAT the name of the guy who designed the GIF format was...

[Flojomojo]

Galaga will be pronounced the way you've all agreed on. It's Japanese and they don't muck around with all of those english vowel sounds. Japanese is pretty much phonetic, so it'll be Ga La Ga.

I thought that in Japanese, they don't put the strong accents on syllables like we do in English. Hence Ga La Ga, with each syllable given equal stress, is probably more Japanese than GALaga. Karateka would be pronounced in a similarly flat way - ka ra te ka. It wasn't programmed by a Japanese person, but I guess that doesn't matter.

 

Taito is TIE TOE right? That always gave me trouble as a wee one.

 

"Defender II" is pronounced "STAR GATE."

[ZylonBane]

Ga La Ga

Just typing the word out with spaces between the letters conveys practically nothing about how you pronounce the word. The important part is which syllables you stress. Do you say ga-LA-ga, ga-la-GA, or GA-la-ga?

 

Anyway, the pronunciation of Galaga seems fairly unambiguous. This thread needs a harder word. Like say...

 

Pleiads

 

 

(and yes, GIF is officially pronouced "jif". choosy programmers choose GIF!)

[A.J. Franzman]

Galaga will be pronounced the way you've all agreed on. It's Japanese and they don't muck around with all of those english vowel sounds. Japanese is pretty much phonetic, so it'll be Ga La Ga.

I thought that in Japanese, they don't put the strong accents on syllables like we do in English. Hence Ga La Ga, with each syllable given equal stress, is probably more Japanese than GALaga. Karateka would be pronounced in a similarly flat way - ka ra te ka. It wasn't programmed by a Japanese person, but I guess that doesn't matter.

 

Taito is TIE TOE right? That always gave me trouble as a wee one.

 

"Defender II" is pronounced "STAR GATE."

True about Japanese not emphasizing any particular syllable, and correct about Taito (Japanese -> English orthography has no silent letters and few or no letters with variable pronunciations, so the first vowel sound of Taito {and Gaiden} is literally "ah" + "ee" = "eye").

 

Agreed about Stargate too.

Edited August 2, 2006 by A.J. Franzman

[Malc74]

[Taito is TIE TOE right? That always gave me trouble as a wee one.

 

 

I always pronounced it "Tay-toh" until I bought one of their PC Bust-a-Move games a few years back which yelled out "Tie-toh" whenever it booted up. I still have difficulty getting my head around it, though.

[A.J. Franzman]

The "ay" sound is represented by ei, as in Seiko. For any wannabe Trekkies who haven't figured it out yet, the last name of actor George Takei (who played Mr. Sulu) is pronounced as "tah kay", not "talk eye".

[The_Laird]

XYBOTS

 

Is it Zybots, X Y Bots or eckseebots?

 

 

I always say the second