I'm a new GM getting ready to start up a brand spank'n new SR4 game with my gaming group and I'm having some trouble with the phonetic pronuciations of some of the locations. These include SR specific places (i.e. the Tirs) and Seattle locations. How do you guys pronounce:

Tír Tairngire
Tír na nÓg
Salish-Shidhe
Snohomish
Puyallup

These are the only ones that I can come up with right now.

The one I know for sure:

Puyallup (Pyew-Wall-Up)

I know Shidhe is "shee"

Tír Tairngire = Teer Tairn-geer
Tír na nÓg = Teer Na nOHg
Salish-Shidhe = Sal-ish Shee
Snohomish = Snow-ho-mish
Puyallup = Pu-yall-up

I think those are about right. I know that Puyallup and Snohomish are.

Teachdare?

Thanks for the help. I didn't want to start the game off on the wrong foot by totally butchering the names. I need to at least act like I know what I'm talking about. Perception is everything

If you run in the French part of north America I'll be happy to help you with Slang

Tir Tairngire: TEER Tah-irn-GEER-eh, I think.

I always thought sidhe was pronounced "shay". Additionally I thought Puyallup was pronounced "Pyoo-al-up."

No, Sidhe is Gaelic, and its definately pronounced "Shee". Shidhe is the same word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_S%C3%AD

No. It's a soft "T."

I'm no good at phonetic spelling, but if you'd like to hear it pronounced, here's an ad for the Puyallup Fair. I think Crash has it pretty much down.




Kind of harsh, dude. Also, unclear. Can you provide a couple of 'sounds like' words? Is it Tear, like they cancelled your favorite tv show? Is it Tear, like those pants really *were* too tight? Help me out, I only speak two languages, English and Bad English.

I THINK it's something to the effect of:

Che-ahCH-da-reh

with the CH being like the back-of-the-throat sound in "loch" or "chutzpah"

Wikipedia is good at solving some problems (depending on if you can interpret the IPA pronunciation chart correctly).

Tír Tairngire - TEER tairn GEER-uh
Tír na nÓg - TEER na no(gh)
Salish-Shidhe - SA-lish Shee
Snohomish - sno-HO-mish
Puyallup - pyoo-AWL-up

Note that Gaelic has a few sounds that aren't in English, and you're likely to mangle them (and trying to write them out phonetically is in our alphabet is nigh-impossible). Think of the last syllable in Tír Tairngire as like one quarter of a normal syllable. Also, for English speakers, it's best to just pronounce Tír na nÓg as though the last syllable is the English word "no," you'll probably be much closer to right than trying to softly choke the g off of the end. Also, those Ts they start with aren't quite like the T we use in English, either, it's like a cross between a T and an F.

The closest English phonetics allows for Tír na nÓg would be teuhr - na - noigh, but make the "t" sound like the cross between a "t," "f" and a "d" and quietly rumble/gurgle the "gh" at the end in the back of your throat rather than saying "-guh".

Interesting! I think I'll need to go hunt down some audio files before our next trip to Portland - if I'm that far off on "t", the rest of the alphabet is probably due for a check as well. Thanks for the clarification.

Is it sad the only reason I knew how to pronounce Tír na nÓg was because of Tir Nanny Ogg?
Thimble of scumble to anyone who gets that.

Mmmm... octarine.

"Tear Turnshear", alternatively "Tear Tirenshire" // in a different pronounciation also "Tear Tayrngear-eh" (like the canadian "eh")
"Tear Na Noeg" ("a" in "Na" like in "age" "oe" in "Noeg" as in "Woe")
"Salish She" (Sidhe is gaelic and pronounced "She")
"Snow-Home-Ish"
"Pew-Allop" (as in "gallop")

As a rule of Thump: Elvish countries are based on the gaelic language, so withiut going into the detailed pronounciation of the language I would recommend this guide for a quick and dirty way to find an approximation.
The rest of the list above are native american in origin, so whenever presented with a name that poses a problem for you to pronounce, try to find out what semantic origin it might come from. Is it english? Is it native american? Is it chinese or japanese? You get the drift.

Rule number one is not to worry about how WE pronounce, but just to get on the same page with the rest of your gaming group, and be consistent about it. That said, I'll share my own...

Tír Tairngire = (peer with a t, for Tir), (cairn with a t for Tairn, jeer for gire). Teer Tairn Jeer.
Tír na nÓg = (same for Tir) (nah) (nog, like egg nog). Teer na nog.
Salish-Shidhe = (salad, but with an sh at the end) (she, like the Celtic faerie nobles). Salash Shee.
Snohomish = (snow) (hoe) (mish, like the start of Michigan). Snow Hoe Mish.
Puyallup = (poo) (y'all) (up). Poo-y'all-up.

Mine may or may not be wildly incorrect...but you asked how we pronounce 'em, not the right pronunciation. It's what works for me, at any rate, and so far folks have known what/where I was talking about.

Tír na nÓg = "Teer-Nah-nOHg" (a long O), because there's a restaurant in Manhattan IRL with the same name that is pronounced properly (as I pointed out). I treated a freind to a meal there on one of her birthdays. Surprisingly, the curly-fires were fantastic.

So (I know this is a flogging-a-dead-horse question), how does one pronounce "omae"?

"Oh-ma-eh" (since it is of japanese origin)

This reminds me of how my buddy Jim cannot pronounce Sperethiel. It comes our s-fer-reth-reel.

Reminds me of Firefly + Serenity. Reputedly the actors were given lists of chinese words (which were also in their scripts), and when they asked how to say them, the director told them to "figure it out." Since the future as represented in Firefly is a melting pot/mish-mash of cultures, and words get mangled between languages (ex: celtic), the director wanted that result (and it worked marvelously).

Moral of the story?

"O-mae."

Thanks, DF2 & Angelis.

You're welcome =)

All this pronunciation stuff just sounds like this to me.

How about this one:

Sinsearach.

I would (based on a ut feeling) pronounce it as: Shin-share-uch (where "ch" in this case is a throaty sound, like in "chutzpah")

It is gaelic in origin, though (meaning "senior"), so local pronounciation might vary (or one of the many millions or rules exceptions in the gaelic language that I am so blatantly unfamiliar with applies).

Hope that helped.