Pokémon Pronunciations

[Shiny Noctowl]

That's how I say it. I mean, he does control time, it seems "Dial" was intended to represent that as well as Diamond

I used to say it dye-all-guh, but once I got PBR I found out that the correct pronunciation is dee-all-guh so now I pronounce it like that. PBR would be a good source for all of the correct pronunciations (especially ones that have multiple possible pronunciations, such as Giratina [gear-uh-tina, not jeer-uh-tina] and Palkia [pal-key-uh, not pall-key-uh]).

 

[Te-em]

How do you pronounce Kirlia? Someone said its "kir-lia". But I always thought it was "ki-rlia", you know with the same "ki" as in king.

 

[Shiny Noctowl]

How do you pronounce Kirlia? Someone said its "kir-lia". But I always thought it was "ki-rlia", you know with the same "ki" as in king.

kur-lee-uh

 

[Kthleen]

kur-lee-uh

Wait, is that the way they pronounced it in the show? I honestly don't remember how they pronounced it, but the word they based it on, the name "Kirlian," is approximately pronounced "keer-lee-in" (as heard here).

 

[Te-em]

Wait, is that the way they pronounced it in the show? I honestly don't remember how they pronounced it, but the word they based it on, the name "Kirlian," is approximately pronounced "keer-lee-in" (as heard here).

Then I was right^^

However, it could be that the English name is different, but they are often hard to pronounce and I don't know their meanings.

 

[plutoplanetpower]

The key to identifying the pronunciation of Pokemon names lies in the way the (at least for the English version) names were selected. Several names are direct romanizations of the Japanese original name, which automatically gives you the correct original intended pronunciation despite how ambiguous the English spelling sounds.

Ex:


Arceus: Japanese pronunciation is アルセウス (a-ru-se-u-su), so it should sound like "ar-say-us" in English
Dialga: Japanese pronunciation is ディアルガ (di-a-ru-ga), so it should sound like "dee-al-ga" in English
Entei: Japanese pronunciation is エンテイ (e-n-te-i), so it should sound like "en-tay" in English
Suicune: Japanese pronunciation is スイクン (su-i-ku-n), so it should sound like "sui-koon" in English
Roserade: Japanese pronunciation is ロズレイド (ro-zu-re-i-do), so it should sound like "row-zer-aid" in English


Other names are based on puns of English words or combinations of other English words, so you have to understand what the joke was supposed to refer to and then pronounce it according to that word. Sometimes this does leave ambiguities because of the structure of English spelling.

The anime and the games are not always the final say in the matter either because they lack consistency and sometimes they even manage to mispronounce regular English words (like in stadium where they pronounced seismic toss as "seez-mic" instead of the correct "sighz-mic." Did they think it was some kind of reference to a seizure or something? @_@)

 

[MAGNEDETH]

in case anyone else stumbles onto this ancient thread, let it be known that until Nintendo makes up its mind on pronunciations, THEY WILL NOT BE LISTED ON BP. handbooks, games, anime; they all seems to have their own pronunciations. we dont want conflicting information.