another quibble

[Dal Rassak]

...and this is a really pedantic one!, blame it on the study of linguistics... but why do they go to the trouble of thinking up "different"-looking names for non-human characters when nobody tells the actors how to pronounce them?
I'm thinking f'r instance of names likes Aamin Marritza being pronounced "Aymin" and Gul Darhe'el like a part of your foot, when any idiot should know that double-A equals ah, and an apostrophe separating two vowels indicates they're said separately (so two e's as in "ending" with a stop in between)... And when I read a name like Skrain, I'd rhyme that with fine, not with rain... I mean they're not supposed to be English!

...told you I was being pedantic. But does it ever annoy anyone besides me?

 

[yousirname]

'Okona' bothered me a little, though that's like the tiniest complaint you could imagine about that episode and character. Just call him "O'Connor", y'know? 'Okona' looks like it should be pronounced aw-kone-ah. It's such a bad, skiffy trope to have characters called D'jawnn Psmyhythe and it's pronounced John Smith.

 

[Avon]

i'd say skrain like rain. whoever that was.

okona did bother me though

 

[Pavonis]

...and this is a really pedantic one!, blame it on the study of linguistics... but why do they go to the trouble of thinking up "different"-looking names for non-human characters when nobody tells the actors how to pronounce them?

I thought the scripts had pronunciation guides. Perhaps I'm mistaken. I do recall the Vidiians were originally called the Vaphorans in the script, but it was redubbed because none of the actors could say "Vaphoran" the same way.

I'm thinking f'r [sic] instance of names likes Aamin Marritza being pronounced "Aymin" and Gul Darhe'el like a part of your foot, when any idiot should know that double-A equals ah, and an apostrophe separating two vowels indicates they're said separately (so two e's as in "ending" with a stop in between)...

"Any idiot"? Please, are insults necessary? Not everyone speaks English as a first language. In fact, most of the world doesn't.

And when I read a name like Skrain, I'd rhyme that with fine, not with rain... I mean they're not supposed to be English!

Odd. I'd say the "-rain" endings being the same would indicate that they'd be pronounced the same. Y'know, being an idiot and all. If it was supposed to be "Skr-ine", they could've spelled it "Skrine". But that's just idiot me.

...told you I was being pedantic. But does it ever annoy anyone besides me?

I'm annoyed that some writers try too hard and fall flat in their attempt, but no, in general it doesn't annoy me. You imagine trying to transliterate a radically alien language into English.

 

[Avon]

"the clouds are grey, it will rine soon."

 

[dub]

"the clouds are grey, it will rine soon."

Its gray, not grey. Any idiot would no that.

 

[Avon]

can't tell if serious or not due to mispelled 'know'..... hmmmm

and only foreign types spell it 'gray'

 

[Metryq]

There are transliteration conventions here on Earth, but that's no guarantee that spellings or pronunciations will be "accurate." For example, I've seen Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev spelled "Korolev", "Korolov", Korolyov" and "Korolyev"—the last two at least capturing the "ly" sound of Russian. I've seen similar variations in Romaji, the spelling of Japanese words with English characters. Despite the attempt at nailing down a convention, there are always variations. Consider just the variations in pronunciation of the same word in English under different regional accents.

 

[dub]

can't tell if serious or not due to mispelled 'know'..... hmmmm

and only foreign types spell it 'gray'

The whole thing was a joke. My failed attempt at dry humor.

 

[scotpens]

"the clouds are grey, it will rine soon."

The rine in Spine sties minely on the pline!

 

[SchwEnt]

Wait wait wait... I want in, too... Quark.

Most everyone else on DS9 pronounces it "qu-ARK" as in Noah's ARK.

Odo pronounces it "qWARk", as in Dominion WAR, as if it's "qwOARk".

Does it matter? Is there a difference? Does anyone else notice? Anyone care??

 

[dub]

I blame the universal translator.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

'Okona' bothered me a little, though that's like the tiniest complaint you could imagine about that episode and character. Just call him "O'Connor", y'know? 'Okona' looks like it should be pronounced aw-kone-ah. It's such a bad, skiffy trope to have characters called D'jawnn Psmyhythe and it's pronounced John Smith.

There's a little touch of that in TOS "Miri," where Michael J. Pollard's character is Jahn instead of John.

 

[Vieux Normand]

Wait wait wait... I want in, too... Quark.

Most everyone else on DS9 pronounces it "qu-ARK" as in Noah's ARK.

Odo pronounces it "qWARk", as in Dominion WAR, as if it's "qwOARk".

Does it matter? Is there a difference? Does anyone else notice? Anyone care??

At least twice in ST series, a character has had a father with a far cooler name.

Kurn's adoptive father was the aristocratic-sounding "Lorg".

Jumping over to Keeping Up With The Cardassians (AKA DS9), Quark had the more-striking "Keldar" for a father.

I'd also argue that "Sarek" sounds a lot less like an electrical kitchen implement than "Spock", but the volume of resulting hate mail might overwhelm the site.

 

[scotpens]

There's a little touch of that in TOS "Miri," where Michael J. Pollard's character is Jahn instead of John.

When I first saw that episode, somehow I missed the episode title. I thought the name of Kim Darby's character was Mary, and she pronounced it funny.

 

[Captain McBain]

There's no reason to call people names. It's actually rather childish.

 

[Dal Rassak]

...I wasn't calling any of you lot an idiot! It was a general remark... my but people are quick to take offence.

 

[Dal Rassak]

I wasn't insulting anyone who doesn't speak English as a first language either!
But the writers and producers are certainly first-language speakers.
And it doesn't make sense to invent names with spelling that would suggest an "un-English", i.e. more unfamiliar-sounding pronunciation - which would sort of be the point in the case of "aliens" - and then have the actors say them as though they were American English. That all I was saying!

 

[Forbin]

There's no reason to call people names. It's actually rather childish.

Says you!!

 

[Forbin]

...I wasn't calling any of you lot an idiot! It was a general remark... my but people are quick to take offence.

And what do you mean by THAT!?!?