Katawa Shoujo Forums

Hello everyone. I have a question for you guys that has been bothering me. I'm not all entirely sure how to say some characters names correctly. I searched the forums a bit but to avail found a pronunciation guide. If this has already been asked, I'm sorry.

This is how I think they are supposed to be said:
Hisao: (His-ow)
Emi: No problem with this one
Hanako: (Han-ack-o)
Lilly: No problem with this one
Rin: Seeing as how close to my name this is Im sure I am saying correctly.
Shizune: (She-zoo-nay)
Misha: (Me-sha)
Yuuko: (You-co)

Well did I fail miserably? Thanks for reading.

(Mod edit, months and months after the fact: look here.)

I think it's supposed to be pronounced syllable by syllable, so Hisao would be Heee saaa ohh. Aside from that I think you have it right.

They follow the japanese pronounciation, which is pretty phonetically static. Each consonant and following vowel pair are said in it's own syllable. Single vowels tacked onto the pairs would extend the sound or add it's own sound onto the end depending on the vowel, which really is just part of the evolution of the language over time to make it easier to speak rather than staccato-ing the Hi--Sa--Oh into three syllables.

Or just simply, the corrections would be:
Hanako: (Ha-na-koh)
Shizune: (Shi-Zu-Neh)
Yuuko: (Yuu--ko)

Then again we can say the game is originally english so you can pronounce them anyway you like (lol).

Ambi07 wrote:They follow the japanese pronounciation, which is pretty phonetically static. Each consonant and following vowel pair are said in it's own syllable. Single vowels tacked onto the pairs would extend the sound or add it's own sound onto the end depending on the vowel, which really is just part of the evolution of the language over time to make it easier to speak rather than staccato-ing the Hi--Sa--Oh into three syllables.

Or just simply, the corrections would be:
Hanako: (Ha-na-koh)
Shizune: (Shi-Zu-Neh)
Yuuko: (Yuu--ko)

Then again we can say the game is originally english so you can pronounce them anyway you like (lol).

Awesome! Thanks alot guys!

I always pronounced Shizune's name She-zune. Just me though...

Gontolmon wrote:Shizune: (She-zoo-nay)

I'm sorry, but that just reminded me of Sha-nay-nay. xD

One thing that always bothers me is the fact that people that consider themselves fans of Japanese-themed entertainment never bother to learn (or, at the very least, pick up on) the pronunciation of Japanese words. I could almost understand it if it were as hard as English, but the Japanese phonetic alphabet is fixed. You can't get it wrong.

Every time I go to a public gathering of Nerds (let's not beat around the bush) I'm surprised at how many mispronunciations there are.

5 seconds on Google reveals this:
http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/ ... haracters/

It has someone speaking all of the characters in the Japanese "alphabet" for you so that we will never have to visit this shameful chapter in your lives again.

public gathering of Nerds

That should not happen in the first place.

delta wrote:

public gathering of Nerds

That should not happen in the first place.

But it does on occasion. Mostly in the dead of night, with junk food and alcohol, and with no women present. (Hmmm, sounds rather gay when you describe it. Or it could be a Skull and Crossbones fraternity meeting.)

To get somewhat back on topic, I can empathise about mispronounced names. My last name is slavic and when my great-grandfather emigrated to America his name was "Americanized" by some helpful imigration official. Ever since then it has been spelled phoneticly acording to standard American pronounciation; but an amazing number of native speaking and educated people still manage to screw it up.

cpl_crud wrote:I could almost understand it if it were as hard as English, but the Japanese phonetic alphabet is fixed. You can't get it wrong.

hana (はな)

Neither the romanization nor the kana can tell you which word I just spelled, but if it was spoken aloud you'd presumably know the difference between "flower" and "nose." Orthography isn't a perfect guide to pronunciation in Japanese, either.

Both "nose" and "flower" are pronounced the same way.

Aura wrote:Both "nose" and "flower" are pronounced the same way.

no doubt this has lead to some puns...

Japanese a language custom made for punning. It's their national sport.

Aura wrote:Japanese a language custom made for punning. It's their national sport.

Now there is a sport I can get behind! As if I didn't already have enough reasons to want to learn more of their language and culture.

Aura wrote:Both "nose" and "flower" are pronounced the same way.

According to the thing i checked out from the library, they have different tones on the syllables. C'est la vie